Texture Processing Unit With Variable Mipmap Precision
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Solution Overview
Problem
The existing texture processing units face challenges in efficiently performing texture filtering while maintaining high-quality 3D graphics, as the number of mipmaps increases, leading to higher calculation amounts and power consumption without a corresponding reduction in area usage.
Innovation Solution
A texture processing method and unit that vary the precision of calculations performed on different mipmaps based on their influence on texture filtering, using a controller to select calculators with different precisions for each mipmap, thereby optimizing the calculation process and reducing overall power consumption and area usage.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Measurement precision
If multiple mipmaps are used for texture filtering, then the surface representation precision is improved, but the calculation amount and power consumption increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies local quality by using different calculation precisions for different mipmaps based on their specific influence on the final texture. The controller selectively assigns high-precision or low-precision calculators to different mipmap levels according to their individual contributions, rather than uniformly applying high precision to all mipmaps. This resolves the contradiction by maintaining surface representation precision where needed while reducing power consumption by using lower precision where sufficient.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent changes the precision parameter of calculations dynamically based on the mipmap's influence weight. The controller adjusts the calculation precision parameter for each mipmap according to the LOD weight, selecting between high-precision and low-precision calculators. This parameter adaptation allows the system to maintain overall texture quality while reducing total power consumption by matching precision levels to actual needs.
2Measurement precision
If multiple mipmaps are used for texture filtering, then the surface representation precision is improved, but the calculation amount increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies local quality by differentiating calculation resources across different mipmaps based on their individual contributions to the final texture quality. The controller assigns calculation precision selectively - high-precision calculators to mipmaps with greater influence and low-precision calculators to those with lesser influence. This resolves the contradiction by maintaining overall surface representation precision while reducing the total calculation burden through localized precision allocation.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent implements partial action by applying high-precision calculation only to the extent necessary for each mipmap's contribution level. Rather than uniformly applying maximum precision to all mipmaps, the controller applies precision proportionally to each mipmap's influence weight, performing sufficient calculation for quality maintenance while avoiding excessive computation on mipmaps with lower impact on the final result.
3Measurement precision
If multiple mipmaps are used for texture filtering, then the surface representation precision is improved, but the area usage increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies local quality by spatially distributing different precision calculators within the texture processing unit based on the specific needs of different mipmaps. The controller allocates high-precision calculation resources to handle only those mipmaps requiring them, while using compact low-precision calculators for others. This resolves the contradiction by maintaining surface representation precision through selective high-precision processing while reducing the total area occupied by the texture processing unit through differentiated resource allocation.
Data Source
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AI summary
A texture processing unit includes a controller configured to determine a first calculator that performs a calculation on a first mipmap and a second calculator that performs a calculation on a second mipmap, based on a level of detail (LOD) weight indicating influences of the first mipmap and the second mipmap on texture filtering, the influences being based on an LOD value of graphics; and a texture filter configured to perform the texture filtering by using the first calculator and the second calculator, wherein a calculation precision of the first calculator is different from a calculation precision of the second calculator.