Abstract: An asymmetric multi-core heterogenous parallel processing system includes a first group of graphic processor units (GPUs) and a second group of GPUs. The first and second groups of GPU cores share an instruction set architecture (ISA) such that the first group of GPU cores is capable of executing a portion of the instructions of the ISA, and the second group of GPU cores is capable of executing the entire instruction set of the ISA. An application is capable of utilizing both groups of GPU cores, and is further capable of determining what objects should be rendered on which group of GPU cores.

Abstract: The device and method described in this application relate generally to graphics processing systems utilizing the tile based rendering technique and more specifically relate to the processing of the framebuffer data in graphics processing applications. The present invention discloses techniques to reduce the bandwidth needed to access the color data stored in the framebuffer. A method for adaptive lossy delta based compression of color data is disclosed. The error rate, that is the amount of color data lost during the lossy compression process, is controlled by various parameters of the rendered tiles produced by the graphics processing system. The compression process is driven by a dedicated unit which enables informed compression decisions with controllable error rate so as the output color data can be reliably decompressed to produce the original color data with minimal or no errors.

Abstract: The present invention concerns a clickable knob which can be placed on a touch sensor for providing a physical clickable knob on the touch sensor. The detection of the user input of the clickable knob, i.e. the click state and the rotation state, is detected based on a detection of corresponding click and rotation detection points of the clickable knob by touch pixels of the touch sensor.

Abstract: The invention concerns a system comprising a touch sensor and a touch interactor, wherein the touch sensor comprises a touch sensitive surface configured to detect the position of a touch of an object on the touch sensitive surface, wherein the touch interactor comprises a support surface for placing the touch interactor on the touch sensitive surface and an activation member for generating a user input command for the touch sensor by its movement relative to the touch sensitive surface, wherein the touch interactor comprises an active detection point for transmitting an active signal, wherein the touch sensor is configured to determine a coverage, position, orientation and/or identity of the touch interactor on the basis of the active signal, when the touch interactor is placed on the touch sensitive surface.

Abstract: Z-buffer compression may be useful for reducing memory usage bandwidth and for performance optimizations. A trackable method of doing the same may be additionally advantageous, as a lossy z-buffer compression scheme may noticeably alter a displayed object. A z-buffer compression unit receives an uncompressed tile, including a matrix of fragments, each representing a pixel and including a z-value. A minimum and maximum z-values of the tile are determined, and a comparison between each z-value of the tile to the minimum/maximum z-value generates a difference value. Basic tile information is then stored, and a compressed tile is stored in the z-buffer memory if the difference value is below a first threshold, such that each fragment is represented by a difference value and an indicator bit, to indicate if the difference is from the minimum z-value or the maximum z-value. The basic tile information includes the minimum z-value, and the maximum z-value.

Abstract: A multi-core asymmetric graphics processing unit (GPU) includes a first group and second group of GPU cores. The first group of GPU cores has a first microarchitecture and a first power consumption profile. The first group of GPU cores is configured to execute a subset of instructions of an instruction set architecture (ISA). The second group of GPU cores have a second microarchitecture and a second power consumption profile higher than the first power consumption profile, and are configured to execute the entire ISA. The first group and second group of GPU cores may be further differentiated by a number of pipeline stages, number of registers, branching execution, vectorization units, or combinations thereof. A subset of GPU cores in either group may have a different operation frequency. In some embodiments, an executable instruction may include an indicator to ascertain if execution is performed by the first or second group of GPU cores.

Abstract: System comprising a touch sensor, a trackball and a trackball detector, wherein the trackball comprises a support structure and a ball and is arranged on the touch sensor such that the ball is rotatably supported over the touch sensor surface, wherein a surface of the ball comprises a pattern of detection portions, wherein the touch sensor is configured to detect a position of a touch of an object on a touch sensor surface of the touch sensor, wherein the trackball detector is configured to detect the rotational movement and/or the rotational orientation of the ball on the basis of a movement and/or a position of at least one of the detection portions detected on the touch sensor surface.

Abstract: Active position indicator comprising a movable tip element (10) configured to be displaced from an initial position in a displacement direction by a tip displacement depending on the force acting on a tip (3) arranged on a distal end of the tip element (10); a force sensor for detecting a force acting on the tip (3) comprising an elastic element acting on the tip element (10) against the tip displacement; wherein the elastic element is a leaf spring (15).

Abstract: A system (1) detects an object (100) approaching and touching a capacitive touch device (10). The system includes the capacitive touch device (10), a processor, an optical system connected to the processor and arranged to collect information on the object (100). The processor is arranged so as to classify the object (100) as a triggering object or as a non-triggering object based on this information. If the object is classified as a non-triggering object, the processor disables the execution of touch functions of the capacitive touch device (10) at the latest when at least a part of the object (100) touches the capacitive touch device (10). If the object is classified as a triggering object, at the latest when at least a part of the object touches the capacitive touch device (10), the processor executes a predetermined function on the capacitive touch device (10).

Abstract: Active position indicator comprising a movable tip element (10) configured to be displaced from an initial position in a displacement direction by a tip displacement depending on the force acting on a tip (3) arranged on a distal end of the tip element (10); a position signal circuit connected with said movable tip element (10) and configured to generate an indicator position signal to be applied on the tip (3); and a force sensor for detecting a force acting on the tip comprising a capacitive element with a capacitance value depending on the tip displacement for generating an electric feedback signal indicating the tip displacement; wherein the capacitive element comprises a capacitor distance depending on the tip displacement and a capacitor surface depending on the tip displacement.

Abstract: The invention concerns a capacitive touch system comprising: an active stylus (800) configured so as to continuously emit a signal a capacitive touch device (200) configured to be in a reset phase (1000), followed by a finger touch sensing phase (2000), the finger touches being sensed exclusively during the finger touch sensing phase (2000). The capacitive touch device (200) is configured to sense the signal from the active stylus (800) during the reset phase (1000). The capacitive touch device (200) comprises at least one charge sensor (208, 213) comprising a charge sensor amplifier (305) comprising an input (CSi) and an output (csaout), and a switch (Sw1) between this input (CSi) and this output (csaout). The charge sensor amplifier (305) is arranged for conveying the signal of the active stylus (800) through a non-zero resistance value (Ron) of the switch (Sw1) during the reset phase (1000).

Abstract: The device and method described in this application relate generally to graphics processing systems utilizing the tile based rendering technique and more specifically relate to the processing of the framebuffer data in graphics processing applications. The present invention discloses techniques to reduce the bandwidth needed to access the color data stored in the framebuffer. A method for adaptive lossy delta based compression of color data is disclosed. The error rate, that is the amount of color data lost during the lossy compression process, is controlled by various parameters of the rendered tiles produced by the graphics processing system. The compression process is driven by a dedicated unit which enables informed compression decisions with controllable error rate so as the output color data can be reliably decompressed to produce the original color data with minimal or no errors.

Abstract: An exemplary embodiment relates generally to methods and apparatus of operating a computing device to perform approximate memoizations. Computer code analysis methods, special hardware units, and run-time apparatus that allow limited errors to occur are disclosed. A computer code generation process, part of compiler or interpreter of a computing system, targeting to insert special instructions in the software code of a computer program is also disclosed, wherein the special instructions may embed information to manage the approximation of value memoizations. The presented technology may reduce the electric power consumption of a computing system by reusing the results or part of the results of previous arithmetic or memory operations. Run-time hardware apparatus to manage the elimination of the operations and control the error introduced by approximate value memoizations are also disclosed.

Abstract: A set of methods, techniques and hardware is described for compressing image data for memory bandwidth and memory storage reduction in graphics processing systems. The disclosed technology can be used for compressing image data sent to the frame buffer and/or image data residing in the frame buffer. The compression process can be based on an adaptive number of base color points and an adaptive number of quantized color points. An adaptive technique for compressing alpha values based on pre-calculated maps or using an estimated alpha value based on thresholds is also disclosed. An implementation of the disclosed methods has, for example, a low hardware overhead, low buffering requirements, and low and predefined compression latency. Also, the disclosed methods allow, for example, random accesses to compressed image data.

Abstract: Active position indicator comprising a movable tip element (10) configured to be displaced from an initial position in a displacement direction by a tip displacement depending on the force acting on a tip (3) arranged on a distal end of the tip element (10); a force sensor for detecting a force acting on the tip (3) comprising an elastic element acting on the tip element (10) against the tip displacement; wherein the elastic element is a leaf spring (15).

Abstract: Electronic interface and method for reading a capacitive sensor that includes one input capacitor (30) or several input capacitors, in which the capacitive sensor is excited with a two-level voltage (Vlow, Vhigh) and read by a charge-sense amplifier whose output is sampled in four successive instants. An evaluation unit (333) is arranged to compute two difference values (V12, V34) between two pairs of samples corresponding to different voltage levels and to combine said difference values into an output value (V_out_raw) proportional to the charge transferred to the input of the charge-sense amplifier and an error value (error_bit) sensitive to a time derivative of a noise current din/dt.

Abstract: An exemplary aspect relates generally to graphics processing systems and more specifically relates to executing vertex and fragment shading operations to a pixel blender device. The technology is at least applicable to graphics processing systems in which vertex and fragment shading operations are executed by dedicated fragment and vertex units or by unified shading units. The graphics processing unit driver is responsible to determine if a shading operation can be assigned to a multi-threaded, multi-format pixel blender. Based on the determination, the fragment shading operations or the vertex shading operations or both are assigned to the pixel blender for execution; the execution of the fragment and/or vertex shading operations by the shader unit(s) is skipped. The determination is based on a code analysis. Forwarding shading operations from the fragment and vertex shaders, i.e.

Abstract: A method for detecting an arbitrary number of touches from an input image of a multi-touch device comprising the following steps: processing said input image and obtaining a processed image; segmentation by thresholding of said processed image (8000) and obtaining a segmented image; identifying regions of the segmented image; finding local maxima, each local maximum being of size one pixel on a sub-region inside each region; determining at least one touch position based on said local maxima.

Abstract: A circuit for capacitive touch applications has a charge integrator, a low pass-filter, and a correlated double sampler having an input capacitor. The circuit also includes a sampler and holder, and an analog to digital converter. The low pass-filter has a cut-off frequency lower than the Nyquist frequency of the sampler and holder, and the low pass filter includes input capacitor and a serial resistor.

Abstract: Electronic interface and method for reading a capacitive sensor that includes one input capacitor (30) or several input capacitors, in which the capacitive sensor is excited with a two-level voltage (Vlow, Vhigh) and read by a charge-sense amplifier whose output is sampled in four successive instants. An evaluation unit (333) is arranged to compute two difference values (V12, V34) between two pairs of samples corresponding to different voltage levels and to combine said difference values into an output value (V_out_raw) proportional to the charge transferred to the input of the charge-sense amplifier and an error value (error_bit) sensitive to a time derivative of a noise current din/dt.