GPU operation

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9779466-B2
Application number	US-201514706553-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	May 7, 2015
Priority date	May 7, 2015
Publication date	Oct 3, 2017
Grant date	Oct 3, 2017

Abstract

One or more techniques and/or systems are provided for operating a graphics processing unit (GPU). A sensor of a computing device may collect sensor input data (e.g., camera input, touch input, video input, etc.), which may be provided to the GPU. An input process within the GPU may be invoked to process the sensor input data to generate a result that may be retained within GPU accessible memory (e.g., a touch sensor process may generate a gesture result based upon touch input from a touch panel of the computing device). An output process within the GPU may be invoked to utilize the result within the GPU accessible memory, for display rendering. In this way, latency between user input and display rendering may be mitigated by streamlining processing on the GPU by mitigating transmission of data between the GPU and a CPU of the computing device for display rendering.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method for operating a graphics processing unit (GPU), comprising:
generating, using the GPU, a result retained within GPU-accessible memory based at least in part on receiving sensor input data from a sensor, the generating occurring without providing the sensor input data from the GPU to a central processing unit (CPU);
rendering, using the GPU, a display based at least in part on accessing the result from the GPU-accessible memory; and
providing, using the GPU, a canonical memory location within the GPU-accessible memory storing the result to an application or an operating system component executing on the CPU after rendering the display.

2. The method of claim 1 ,
wherein the GPU does not access the CPU during the generating the result.

3. The method of claim 1 ,
wherein the sensor input data comprises touch sensor input data; and
wherein the sensor is a touch sensor.

4. The method of claim 1 , further comprising generating, using the GPU, the result with a touch-sensor processing GPU code component.

5. The method of claim 1 , further comprising rendering, using the GPU, the display with a graphics rendering GPU code component.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the result is not provided by the CPU to the GPU.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein the sensor input data corresponds to at least one of touch input, camera input, infrared input, audio input, video input, stylus input, or depth input.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein the result corresponds to a gesture derived from the input sensor data.

9. The method of claim 8 , further comprising:
invoking an output process to render a user interface on the display based upon the gesture.

10. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
storing the result within the canonical memory location of the GPU-accessible memory.

11. The method of claim 10 , further comprising:
providing the canonical memory location asynchronously to rendering the display.

12. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
providing an input process with read/write access to the sensor input data; and
providing an output process with at least read access to at least one of the sensor input data or the result.

13. The method of claim 1 , comprising:
scheduling, by an operating system scheduler, the generating the result or rendering the display for execution using the GPU.

14. A system for operating a graphics processing unit (GPU), comprising:
a GPU scheduler configured to:
generate a result retained within GPU-accessible memory based at least in part on receiving sensor input data from a sensor, the generating occurring without providing the sensor input data from the GPU to a central processing unit (CPU);
render a display based at least in part on accessing the result from the GPU-accessible memory; and
provide a canonical memory location within the GPU-accessible memory storing the result to an application or an operating system component executing on the CPU after rendering the display.

15. The system of claim 14 , wherein the scheduler is further configured to:
use the result before providing the result to the CPU.

16. The system of claim 14 , further comprising:
a data access interface configured to:
provide the canonical memory location to the CPU asynchronous to rendering the display.

Assignees

• Microsoft Technology Licensing Llc

Inventors

• Boyd Charles
• Gosalia Anuj Bharat

Classifications

• G06F3/14

  Digital output to display device {; Cooperation and interconnection of the display device with other functional units} · CPC title

• G06F3/041

  Digitisers, e.g. for touch screens or touch pads, characterised by the transducing means · CPC title

• G06T1/20 Primary

  Processor architectures; Processor configuration, e.g. pipelining · CPC title

• G06F3/005

  Input arrangements through a video camera · CPC title

• G06F9/4443

  Physics · mapped topic