Off-Screen Buffer Segmentation for Video Memory Reduction
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Solution Overview
Problem
Traditional display techniques developed for devices with significant memory resources are not well-suited for devices with fewer resources, leading to inefficient use of memory and increased video memory costs.
Innovation Solution
The implementation of buffer display techniques that utilize an off-screen buffer of smaller size than the on-screen buffer, allowing updates to be rasterized and copied to the on-screen buffer, thereby conserving resources and reducing memory usage.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If traditional display techniques are used for devices with significant memory resources, then display quality and performance are maintained, but video memory costs and resource consumption increase for devices with fewer resources
Solution Approach 1:
The display buffer is segmented into two distinct parts: an off-screen buffer for rendering and an onscreen buffer for display. The off-screen buffer can be smaller in size since it only needs to contain the updated portion, while the onscreen buffer maintains the full display resolution. This segmentation allows the system to reduce overall memory consumption while maintaining display quality.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent extracts the rendering function from the display buffer by introducing a separate off-screen buffer. Instead of rendering directly to the full-size onscreen buffer, the application rasterizes to a smaller off-screen buffer and then copies only the necessary portions to the onscreen buffer. This extraction reduces the memory footprint of the rendering buffer.
2Quantity of substance
If the off-screen buffer size is reduced to conserve memory, then video memory costs decrease, but the complexity of buffer management and data copying increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces an intermediary mechanism (the display manager or compositor) that handles the copying operation between the off-screen buffer and onscreen buffer. This intermediary abstracts the complexity of buffer management from the application, providing a simplified interface where applications only need to specify what to render and where to copy it, while the system handles the actual memory operations.
Solution Approach 2:
The off-screen buffer is prepared in advance with the rendered content before the copy operation. By pre-rasterizing to the smaller buffer and then performing a single copy operation to the onscreen buffer, the system avoids the need for complex in-place updates and reduces the overhead of buffer management during the display update cycle.
3Quantity of substance
If the off-screen buffer is smaller than the onscreen buffer, then resource consumption is reduced, but the speed of update operations may be affected
Solution Approach 1:
By extracting the rendering operation from the full-size buffer and performing it in a smaller off-screen buffer, the patent reduces the amount of data that needs to be copied during updates. This extraction of the rendering phase allows for faster update operations since only the modified portions need to be transferred to the onscreen buffer rather than redrawing the entire display.
Solution Approach 2:
Instead of updating the entire onscreen buffer every time, the system performs partial updates by copying only the necessary portions from the off-screen buffer to the onscreen buffer. This partial action approach reduces the data transfer volume and maintains update speed while using less memory for the off-screen buffer.
Data Source
AI summary
Buffer display techniques are described. In one or more implementations, at least part of an off-screen buffer is rasterized by an application to generate an item for display by the computing device. One or more communications are formed that describe the part of the off-screen buffer which contains the item that is to be copied to update an onscreen buffer.