Patents by Inventor Charles Neill BOYD

Charles Neill BOYD has filed for patents to protect the following inventions. This listing includes patent applications that are pending as well as patents that have already been granted by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).

  • Patent number: 10546412
    Abstract: Methods and devices for rendering graphics in a computer system include a graphical processing unit (GPU) with a flexible, dynamic, application-directed mechanism for varying the rate at which fragment shading is performed for rendering an image to a display. In particular, the described aspects allow different shading rates to be used for different regions of a primitive based on a new, interpolated shading rate parameter. In other words, the described aspects enable the GPU to change shading rates on-the-fly between different fragments of each primitive. Additionally, or independently, the GPU utilizes each respective shading rate parameter to determine how many sample positions to consider to be covered by the computed shaded output, e.g., the fragment color, thereby allowing the color sample to be shared across two or more pixels.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 30, 2018
    Date of Patent: January 28, 2020
    Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing, LLC
    Inventors: Mark S. Grossman, Jason Matthew Gould, Alexander Nankervis, Charles Neill Boyd
  • Publication number: 20200004533
    Abstract: Devices and methods for limiting register usage through the use of fixed function processing is provided. The method may include receiving instructions executable by a processor. The method may also include that a set of the instructions is executable according to a restricted register mode when the set of the instructions relate to one or more single function operations, wherein the restricted register mode includes only a single access or no access to a register. The method may further include executing, by an expression evaluator, operations of the set of the instructions related to the one or more single function operations, wherein the executing is performed in the restricted register mode and in parallel with the processor performing additional operations of the instructions.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 29, 2018
    Publication date: January 2, 2020
    Inventor: Charles Neill Boyd
  • Publication number: 20190172247
    Abstract: Methods and devices for rendering graphics in a computer system include a graphical processing unit (GPU) with a flexible, dynamic, application-directed mechanism for varying the rate at which fragment shading is performed for rendering an image to a display. In particular, the described aspects allow different shading rates to be used for different regions of a primitive based on a new, interpolated shading rate parameter. In other words, the described aspects enable the GPU to change shading rates on-the-fly between different fragments of each primitive. Additionally, or independently, the GPU utilizes each respective shading rate parameter to determine how many sample positions to consider to be covered by the computed shaded output, e.g., the fragment color, thereby allowing the color sample to be shared across two or more pixels.
    Type: Application
    Filed: October 30, 2018
    Publication date: June 6, 2019
    Inventors: Mark S. GROSSMAN, Jason Matthew GOULD, Alexander NANKERVIS, Charles Neill BOYD
  • Patent number: 10152819
    Abstract: Methods and devices for rendering graphics in a computer system include a graphical processing unit (GPU) with a flexible, dynamic, application-directed mechanism for varying the rate at which fragment shading is performed for rendering an image to a display. In particular, the described aspects allow different shading rates to be used for different regions of a primitive based on a new, interpolated shading rate parameter. In other words, the described aspects enable the GPU to change shading rates on-the-fly between different fragments of each primitive. Additionally, or independently, the GPU utilizes each respective shading rate parameter to determine how many sample positions to consider to be covered by the computed shaded output, e.g., the fragment color, thereby allowing the color sample to be shared across two or more pixels.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 15, 2016
    Date of Patent: December 11, 2018
    Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing, LLC
    Inventors: Mark S. Grossman, Jason Matthew Gould, Alexander Nankervis, Charles Neill Boyd
  • Publication number: 20180047203
    Abstract: Methods and devices for rendering graphics in a computer system include a graphical processing unit (GPU) with a flexible, dynamic, application-directed mechanism for varying the rate at which fragment shading is performed for rendering an image to a display. In particular, the described aspects allow different shading rates to be used for different regions of a primitive based on a new, interpolated shading rate parameter. In other words, the described aspects enable the GPU to change shading rates on-the-fly between different fragments of each primitive. Additionally, or independently, the GPU utilizes each respective shading rate parameter to determine how many sample positions to consider to be covered by the computed shaded output, e.g., the fragment color, thereby allowing the color sample to be shared across two or more pixels.
    Type: Application
    Filed: August 15, 2016
    Publication date: February 15, 2018
    Inventors: Mark S. GROSSMAN, Jason Matthew GOULD, Alexander NANKERVIS, Charles Neill BOYD