Abstract: A graphic processing unit includes a primitive assembler configured to produce position information of a first primitive and position information of a second primitive; and a visibility tester configured to perform a visibility test based on position information of the second primitive and triangle correlation information of the first primitive, and, prior to operating a rasterizer, remove the second primitive based on a result of the visibility test.

Abstract: A method for domain shading may include analyzing graphics state data, and generating all first primitives through a single-pass domain shading or generating only second primitives which are visible among the first primitives through a two-pass domain shading based on a result of the analysis.

Abstract: A method of operating a graphics processing unit includes determining, based on input data, whether to perform a tiling operation before or after a tessellation operation and performing the tiling operation according to the determination result. Performing the tiling operation after the tessellation operation if the input data is not a patch, and if a geometry of the patch is at the out-side of a convex hull defined by control points of the patch. Performing the tiling operation after the tessellation operation if a geometry of a tessellated primitive corresponding to the patch changes according to a shading operation.

Abstract: A method of generating tessellation data include analyzing patch data of each of a plurality of patches; generating shared data that is shared by the patches, non-shared data that are not shared by the patches, and attribute data on an attribute of control points of each of the patches from the patch data according to a result of the analyzing; and compressing the non-shared data and the attribute data.

Abstract: A tessellation method includes determining whether a previous tag the same as a current tag of a current patch is stored in a cache, and transmitting a previous tessellation pattern corresponding to the previous tag stored in the cache to a domain shader when a cache hit occurs. The method may further include, when a cache miss occurs, generating a current tessellation pattern corresponding to the current patch using a tessellator and transmitting the generated current tessellation pattern to the domain shader, and storing the generated current tessellation pattern in the cache.

Abstract: A tessellation method includes assigning a tessellation factor to each of a plurality of points in a patch and generating, in the vicinity of a first point of the plurality of points, at least one new point based on a first tessellation factor assigned to the first point. The at least one first new point corresponds to the first point.

Abstract: A graphics processing unit (GPU) is provided. The GPU includes a tiling unit and a rasterizer. The tiling unit is configured to determines primitives touching a corresponding tile in tiles in an image frame, to determine at least one representative primitive of the primitives using a depth value of each of the primitives, and to generate visible primitives of the primitives for the corresponding tile using a depth value of the at least one representative primitive. The rasterizer is configured to rasterize the at least one representative and the visible primitives.

Abstract: A graphic processor includes a rasterizer configured to process vertex data to generate fragment data based on a maximum depth value, a minimum depth value, and a mask bit of each pixel included in one tile, each mask bit indicating whether each pixel is drawn or not, the vertex data including three dimensional information of the pixels, a pixel shader configured to process the fragment data to generate color data, and a raster operation unit configured to convert the color data to pixel data to be displayed.

Abstract: Provided are a 3D graphics rendering engine for processing fragments and a 3D graphics rendering engine method. The 3D graphics rendering engine positions a depth filter having a specific z value in a depth filtering circuit and compares a depth value of each of a plurality of fragments forming a first object being rasterized in a 3D space with a depth value of the depth filter. Then, the 3D graphics rendering engine stores data, which is mapped to the depth filter and corresponds to each of the fragments of the first object, in a storage device, based on the result of the comparison concerning the first object and rasterizes each of a plurality of fragments forming a second object.

Abstract: Provided are a 3D graphics rendering engine for processing fragments and a 3D graphics rendering engine method. The 3D graphics rendering engine positions a depth filter having a specific z value in a depth filtering circuit and compares a depth value of each of a plurality of fragments forming a first object being rasterized in a 3D space with a depth value of the depth filter. Then, the 3D graphics rendering engine stores data, which is mapped to the depth filter and corresponds to each of the fragments of the first object, in a storage device, based on the result of the comparison concerning the first object and rasterizes each of a plurality of fragments forming a second object.