Claims
- 1. A method for automatically configuring a plurality of graphics pipelines in a computer graphical display system, comprising:
receiving updated definitional information on a selected region of interest of a display device of said computer graphical display system in response to a change in definition of said selected region of interest; and automatically configuring said plurality of graphics pipelines relative to said selected region of interest based at least in part on said updated definitional information.
- 2. The method of claim 1, further comprising receiving definitional information on said selected region of interest from a user prior to said receiving updated definitional information step.
- 3. The method of claim 1, further comprising receiving graphics pipeline configuration information relative to said selected region of interest for automatically configuring said plurality of graphics pipelines relative to said selected region of interest.
- 4. The method of claim 3, further comprising storing said graphics pipeline configuration information.
- 5. The method of claim 1, further comprising retrieving graphics pipeline configuration information relative to said selected region of interest for automatically configuring said plurality of graphics pipelines in response to receiving said updated definitional information.
- 6. The method of claim 1, wherein said receiving updated definitional information step comprises receiving updated definitional information selected from the group consisting of a location of said selected region of interest and dimensions of said selected region of interest.
- 7. The method of claim 3, wherein said receiving graphics pipeline configuration information comprises receiving graphics pipeline configuration information comprising at least one parameter for a plurality of pipe rectangles of said computer graphical display system, each of said plurality of pipe rectangles being associated with at least one of said plurality of graphics pipelines.
- 8. The method of claim 7, further comprising updating a compositor of said computer graphical display system in real-time based at least in part on said at least one parameter.
- 9. The method of claim 7, wherein said at least one parameter is selected from the group consisting of an orientation parameter and a distribution parameter.
- 10. The method of claim 7, wherein said automatically configuring step comprises generating coordinate values for each of said plurality of pipe rectangles based at least in part on said at least one parameter and at least in part on a screen size of said display device.
- 11. The method of claim 3, wherein said automatically configuring step comprises generating coordinate values for a plurality of pipe rectangles of said computer graphical display system, each of said plurality of pipe rectangles being associated with at least one of said plurality of graphics pipelines, said coordinate values being generated based at least in part on said graphics pipeline configuration information.
- 12. The method of claim 11, further comprising updating a state of said plurality of graphics pipelines based at least in part on said generated coordinate values.
- 13. The method of claim 11, further comprising updating a compositor of said computer graphical display system with said generated coordinate values.
- 14. A method for automatically configuring a plurality of graphics pipelines in a computer graphical display system, comprising:
receiving graphics pipeline configuration information relative to a selected region of interest of a display device of said computer graphical display system for configuring said plurality of graphics pipelines relative to said selected region of interest; receiving updated definitional information on said selected region of interest in response to a change in definition of said selected region of interest; and automatically configuring said plurality of graphics pipelines relative to said selected region of interest based at least in part on said graphics pipeline configuration information in response to said change in definition of said selected region of interest.
- 15. The method of claim 14, further comprising receiving definitional information on said selected region of interest.
- 16. The method of claim 14, further comprising:
storing said graphics pipeline configuration information; and retrieving, in response to said change in definition of said selected region of interest, said graphics pipeline configuration information.
- 17. The method of claim 14, wherein said automatically configuring step comprises generating coordinate values for a plurality of pipe rectangles of said computer graphical display system, each of said plurality of pipe rectangles being associated with at least one of said plurality of graphics pipelines, said coordinate values being generated based at least in part on said graphics pipeline configuration information.
- 18. The method of claim 17, further comprising updating a state of said plurality of graphics pipelines based at least in part on said generated coordinate values.
- 19. The method of claim 17, further comprising updating a compositor of said computer graphical display system with said generated coordinate values.
- 20. The method of claim 14, further comprising displaying a plurality of pipe rectangles on said display device, each of said plurality of pipe rectangles being associated with at least one of said plurality of graphics pipelines.
- 21. A system for automatically configuring a plurality of graphics pipelines in a computer graphical display system, comprising:
means for receiving updated definitional information on a selected region of interest of a display device of said computer graphical display system in response to a change in definition of said selected region of interest; and means for automatically configuring said plurality of graphics pipelines relative to said selected region of interest based at least in part on said updated definitional information.
- 22. A system for automatically configuring a plurality of graphics pipelines in a computer graphical display system, comprising:
means for providing updated information on a selected region of interest of a display device of said computer graphical display system, said means for providing operable to provide said updated information in response to detecting a change in said selected region of interest; and means for receiving said updated information, said means for receiving further operable to automatically configure said plurality of graphics pipelines relative to said selected region of interest based at least in part on said updated information.
- 23. The system of claim 22, wherein said updated information comprises information selected from the group consisting of a location of said selected region of interest and dimensions of said selected region of interest.
- 24. A method for dynamic load-balancing of a plurality of graphics pipelines in a computer graphical display system, comprising:
analyzing the time taken by each of said plurality of graphics pipelines to render their respective portions of a graphics image; and automatically adjusting said respective portions of said graphics image of said plurality of graphics pipelines based at least in part on said analysis of the time taken by each of said plurality of graphics pipelines to render said respective portions of said graphics image.
- 25. The method of claim 24, wherein said automatically adjusting step comprises selecting a new orientation for a plurality of pipe rectangles of said computer graphical display system, each of said plurality of pipe rectangles being associated with at least one of said plurality of graphics pipelines.
- 26. The method of claim 25, wherein said selecting said new orientation is based at least in part on a current orientation of said plurality of pipe rectangles.
- 27. The method of claim 24, wherein said automatically adjusting step comprises selecting, in response to more than one of said plurality of graphics pipelines being underutilized, a new orientation for a plurality of pipe rectangles of said computer graphical display system, each of said plurality of pipe rectangles being associated with at least one of said plurality of graphics pipelines.
- 28. The method of claim 24, wherein said automatically adjusting step comprises selecting, in response to more than one of said plurality of graphics pipelines being overutilized, a new orientation for a plurality of pipe rectangles of said computer graphical display system, each of said plurality of pipe rectangles being associated with at least one of said plurality of graphics pipelines.
- 29. The method of claim 24, wherein said automatically adjusting step comprises selecting, in response to at least one of said plurality of graphics pipelines being underutilized and at least one of said plurality of graphics pipelines being overutilized, a new orientation for a plurality of pipe rectangles of said computer graphical display system, each of said plurality of pipe rectangles being associated with at least one of said plurality of graphics pipelines.
- 30. The method of claim 24, wherein said automatically adjusting step comprises selecting a new distribution for a plurality of pipe rectangles of said computer graphical display system, each of said plurality of pipe rectangles being associated with at least one of said plurality of graphics pipelines.
- 31. The method of claim 30, wherein said selecting a new distribution step comprises selecting said new distribution for said plurality of pipe rectangles to reduce a workload of a first graphics pipeline of said plurality of graphics pipelines, in response to only said first graphics pipeline being overutilized.
- 32. The method of claim 31, wherein said selecting a new distribution step further comprises selecting said new distribution for said plurality of pipe rectangles to evenly increase a workload of each of the remaining graphics pipelines.
- 33. The method of claim 30, wherein said selecting a new distribution step comprises selecting said new distribution for said plurality of pipe rectangles to increase a workload of a first graphics pipeline of said plurality of graphics pipelines, in response to only said first graphics pipeline being underutilized.
- 34. The method of claim 33, wherein said selecting a new distribution step further comprises selecting said new distribution for said plurality of pipe rectangles to evenly reduce a workload of each of the remaining graphics pipelines.
- 35. The method of claim 24, wherein said automatically adjusting step comprises reducing a workload of a first graphics pipeline of said plurality of graphics pipelines in response to only said first graphics pipeline being underutilized.
- 36. The method of claim 24, wherein said automatically adjusting step comprises increasing a workload of a first graphics pipeline of said plurality of graphics pipelines in response to only said first graphics pipeline being underutilized.
- 37. A method for dynamic load-balancing of a plurality of graphics pipelines in a computer graphical display system, comprising:
periodically issuing a swap buffer request to each of said plurality of graphics pipelines simultaneously; analyzing the time taken by each of said plurality of graphics pipelines to complete said swap buffer request; and automatically adjusting a configuration of said plurality of graphics pipelines based at least in part on said analysis of the time taken by each of said plurality of graphics pipelines to complete said swap buffer request.
- 38. The method of claim 37, wherein said analyzing step comprises calculating a benchmark swap time.
- 39. The method of claim 38, wherein said analyzing step further comprises setting an indicator flag to a balanced state, in response to the time taken by each of said plurality of graphics pipelines to complete said swap buffer request being not greater than said benchmark swap time plus a predetermined tolerance.
- 40. The method of claim 38, wherein said analyzing step further comprises setting an indicator flag to an underutilized state, in response to the time taken by only one of said graphics pipeline to complete said swap buffer request being less than said benchmark swap time plus a first predetermined tolerance and the time taken by each of the remaining ones of said plurality of graphics pipelines to complete said swap buffer request being not greater than said benchmark swap time plus a second predetermined tolerance.
- 41. The method of claim 38, wherein said analyzing step further comprises setting an indicator flag to an overutilized state, in response to the time taken by only one of said graphics pipeline to complete said swap buffer request being greater than said benchmark swap time plus a first predetermined tolerance and the time taken by each of the remaining ones of said plurality of graphics pipelines to complete said swap buffer request being not less than said benchmark swap time plus a second predetermined tolerance.
- 42. A system for dynamic load-balancing of a plurality of graphics pipelines in a computer graphical display system, comprising:
means for analyzing the time taken by each of said plurality of graphics pipelines to render their respective portions of a graphics image; and means for automatically adjusting said respective portions of said graphics image of said plurality of graphics pipelines based at least in part on said analysis of the time taken by each of said plurality of graphics pipelines to render said respective portions of said graphics image.
- 43. The system of claim 42, further comprising means for setting an indicator flag to one of three states based at least in part on said analysis of said time taken by each of said plurality of graphics pipelines to render their respective portions of said graphics image.
CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS
[0001] This patent application is related to co-pending and commonly assigned U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/715,746, entitled “SINGLE LOGICAL SCREEN SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR RENDERING GRAPHICAL DATA,” filed on Nov. 17, 2000; U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/715,892, entitled “SYSTEMS FOR COMPOSITING GRAPHICAL DATA,” filed on Nov. 17, 2000; U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/715,335, entitled “SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR EFFICIENTLY RENDERING GRAPHICAL DATA,” filed on Nov. 17, 2000; U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/715,253, entitled “SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR EFFICIENTLY RENDERING A JITTER ENHANCED GRAPHICAL IMAGE,” filed on Nov. 17, 2000; U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/715,882, entitled “SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR RENDERING GRAPHICAL DATA,” filed on Nov. 17, 2000; and concurrently filed U.S. patent application Ser. No. ______, entitled “SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR CONFIGURING GRAPHICS PIPELINES IN A COMPUTER GRAPHICAL DISPLAY SYSTEM.”