Font Filtering Engine Texture Blit Alignment

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Solution Overview

Problem

Conventional systems for performing font filtering and texture blit operations require separate engines, leading to inefficiencies and increased die area in graphics systems.

Innovation Solution

Reusing font filtering engines to read and align texture data in blocks, performing bilinear filtering using a 'nearest' mode to achieve bit-aligned regions, thereby reducing the need for a specific engine and conserving die area.

Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles

VSEngineering Contradiction Analysis

1Reliability

If separate engines are used for font filtering and texture blit operations, then each operation can be performed with dedicated hardware, but the die area increases

Engineering Contradiction:

Improveoperation reliabilityVSAvoiddie area

Core Design Contradiction:

ReliabilityVSArea of stationary object

Solution Approach 1:

The font filtering engine is designed to perform multiple functions: traditional font filtering operations and texture blit operations. By making the engine universal, the system eliminates the need for a separate dedicated texture blit engine, thereby reducing die area while maintaining reliable execution of both operation types through a single hardware unit

Inventive Principle:

Principle #6Universality (Multi-functionality)

2Area of stationary object

If font filtering engines are reused for texture blit operations, then die area is conserved, but the engine must handle both font filtering and texture copying functions

Engineering Contradiction:

Improvedie areaVSAvoidengine complexity

Core Design Contradiction:

Area of stationary objectVSDevice complexity

Solution Approach 1:

The engine is designed with universal capabilities to handle both font filtering and texture blit operations through a single hardware unit, reducing die area while managing complexity through unified architecture

Inventive Principle:

Principle #6Universality (Multi-functionality)

Solution Approach 2:

The engine handles different operation types (font filtering and texture blit) by changing operational parameters and configuration settings rather than requiring structurally different hardware paths, allowing one engine to adapt to multiple functions

Inventive Principle:

Principle #35Parameter changes

3Ease of manufacture

If texture data is read in coarsely aligned blocks, then memory access is simplified, but additional alignment processing is required

Engineering Contradiction:

Improvememory access simplicityVSAvoidalignment processing complexity

Core Design Contradiction:

Ease of manufactureVSDevice complexity

Solution Approach 1:

Texture data is pre-aligned to coarse boundaries before being fed into the font filtering engine. This preliminary alignment simplifies the memory access pattern and allows the engine to perform only fine-grained adjustments, dividing the alignment workload into manageable stages

Inventive Principle:

Principle #10Preliminary action

4Manufacturing precision

If bilinear filtering is used in nearest mode, then bit-aligned texture regions are produced, but filtering precision is reduced

Engineering Contradiction:

Improvebit alignment precisionVSAvoidfiltering precision

Core Design Contradiction:

Manufacturing precisionVSMeasurement precision

Solution Approach 1:

The filtering operation uses bilinear filtering with the nearest mode parameter setting, which changes the filtering behavior to prioritize bit-aligned region production over smooth interpolation, achieving precise bit-aligned texture copying when needed

Inventive Principle:

Principle #35Parameter changes

Data Source

PatentUS7737988B1Using font filtering engines for texture blitting

Publication Date: 2010.06.15 NVIDIA CORP

AI summary

Systems and methods used for font filtering may also be used to perform texture blits. Texture data is read in blocks that are coarsely aligned. Font engines may be used to align the texture data as specified by a copy (blit) instruction to provide a finely aligned region of the texture data within a font filter footprint. The finely aligned region is then bilinearly filtered using a “nearest” mode to provide the bit aligned region of the texture map specified by the copy instruction.