Patents by Inventor C. Chou

C. Chou 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).

  • Publication number: 20240362027
    Abstract: Techniques are disclosed relating to load value prediction. In some embodiments, a processor includes load address prediction circuitry and load value prediction circuitry. Training circuitry may train loads in a given entry, and may include a first entry configured to store first predicted load address information and a confidence indication of confidence that the first predicted load address information is correct and a second entry configured to store first predicted load value information and a confidence indication of confidence that the first predicted load value information is correct (note a given entry may be configured to load or value prediction at different times). Control circuitry may, in response to an entry in the training circuitry reaching a threshold level of confidence, allocate a corresponding entry in either the load value prediction circuitry or the load address prediction circuitry.
    Type: Application
    Filed: July 5, 2024
    Publication date: October 31, 2024
    Inventors: Yuan C. Chou, Debasish Chandra, Mridul Agarwal, Haoyan Jia
  • Patent number: 12131437
    Abstract: In one implementation, a method includes receiving a warped image representing simulated reality (SR) content (e.g., to be displayed in a display space), the warped image having a plurality of pixels at respective locations uniformly spaced in a grid pattern in a warped space, wherein the plurality of pixels are respectively associated with a plurality of respective pixel values and a plurality of respective scaling factors indicating a plurality of respective resolutions at a plurality of respective locations of the SR content (e.g., in the display space). The method includes processing the warped image in the warped space based on the plurality of respective scaling factors to generate a processed warped image and transmitting the processed warped image.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 16, 2023
    Date of Patent: October 29, 2024
    Assignee: APPLE INC.
    Inventors: Tobias Eble, Ye Cong, Cody J. White, Arthur Yasheng Zhang, Randall Rauwendaal, Moinul Khan, Jim C. Chou, Hao Pan, Nicolas Bonnier
  • Publication number: 20240354109
    Abstract: Disclosed techniques relate to re-use of speculative results from an incorrect execution path. In some embodiments, when a control transfer instruction is mispredicted, a load instruction may have been executed on the wrong path. In disclosed embodiments, result storage circuitry records information that indicates destination registers of speculatively-executed load instructions including a first load instruction. Control flow tracker circuitry may store information indicating a reconvergence point for the control transfer instruction.
    Type: Application
    Filed: April 21, 2023
    Publication date: October 24, 2024
    Inventors: Yuan C. Chou, Deepankar Duggal, Debasish Chandra, Niket K. Choudhary, Richard F. Russo
  • Publication number: 20240354111
    Abstract: Disclosed techniques relate to re-use of speculative results from an incorrect execution path. In some embodiments, when a first control transfer instruction is mispredicted, a second control transfer instruction may have been executed on the wrong path because of the misprediction. Result storage circuitry may record information indicating a determined direction for the second control transfer instruction. Control flow tracker circuitry may store, for the first control transfer instruction, information indicating a reconvergence point. Re-use control circuitry may track registers written by instructions prior to the reconvergence point, determine, based on the tracked registers, that the second control transfer instruction does not depend on data from any instruction between the first control transfer instruction and the reconvergence point, and use the recorded determined direction for the second control transfer instruction, notwithstanding the misprediction of the first control transfer instruction.
    Type: Application
    Filed: April 21, 2023
    Publication date: October 24, 2024
    Inventors: Yuan C. Chou, Deepankar Duggal, Debasish Chandra, Niket K. Choudhary, Richard F. Russo
  • Publication number: 20240329990
    Abstract: A system, e.g., a system on a chip (SOC), may include one or more processors. A processor may execute an instruction synchronization barrier (ISB) instruction to enforce an ordering constraint on instructions. To execute the ISB instruction, the processor may determine whether contexts of the processor required for execution of instructions older than the ISB instruction are consumed for the older instructions. Responsive to determining that the contexts are consumed for the older instructions, the processor may initiate fetching of an instruction younger than the ISB instruction, without waiting for the older instructions to retire.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 11, 2024
    Publication date: October 3, 2024
    Applicant: Apple Inc.
    Inventors: Deepankar Duggal, Kulin N Kothari, Mridul Agarwal, Chang Xu, Yanran Yang, Richard F Russo, Yuan C Chou, Douglas C Holman
  • Patent number: 12106444
    Abstract: An electronic device may include an electronic display to display an image based on processed image data. The electronic device may also include image processing circuitry to determine a hierarchical grid having multiple grid points divided into grid partitions. A first set of grid points associated with a first set of grid partitions may include a first set of mappings to corresponding coordinates of input image data in a source frame. The image processing circuitry may also interpolate between the first set of grid points to determine a second set of grid points of having a second set of mappings to corresponding coordinates of the input image data based on the first set of mappings. The image processing circuitry may also generate the processed image data by applying the first set of mappings and the second set of mappings to the input image data.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 23, 2021
    Date of Patent: October 1, 2024
    Assignee: Apple Inc.
    Inventors: Jim C. Chou, Jian Zhou
  • Patent number: 12086919
    Abstract: A mixed reality system that includes a device and a base station that communicate via a wireless connection The device may include sensors that collect information about the user's environment and about the user. The information collected by the sensors may be transmitted to the base station via the wireless connection. The base station renders frames or slices based at least in part on the sensor information received from the device, encodes the frames or slices, and transmits the compressed frames or slices to the device for decoding and display. The base station may provide more computing power than conventional stand-alone systems, and the wireless connection does not tether the device to the base station as in conventional tethered systems. The system may implement methods and apparatus to maintain a target frame rate through the wireless link and to minimize latency in frame rendering, transmittal, and display.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 29, 2023
    Date of Patent: September 10, 2024
    Assignee: Apple Inc.
    Inventors: Arthur Y Zhang, Ray L. Chang, Timothy R. Oriol, Ling Su, Gurjeet S. Saund, Guy Cote, Jim C. Chou, Hao Pan, Tobias Eble, Avi Bar-Zeev, Sheng Zhang, Justin A. Hensley, Geoffrey Stahl
  • Patent number: 12081769
    Abstract: A video encoding system in which pixel data is decomposed into frequency bands prior to encoding. The frequency bands for a slice of a frame may be buffered so that complexity statistics may be calculated across the frequency bands prior to encoding. The statistics may then be used by a rate control component in determining quantization parameters for the frequency bands for modulating the rate in the encoder for the current slice. The quantization parameters for the frequency bands may be calculated jointly to optimize the quality of the displayed frames after decoder reconstruction and wavelet synthesis on a receiving device. Information about one or more previously processed frames may be used in combination with the statistics for a current slice in determining the quantization parameters for the current slice.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 16, 2022
    Date of Patent: September 3, 2024
    Assignee: Apple Inc.
    Inventors: Hao Pan, Jim C. Chou, Felix C. Fernandes
  • Publication number: 20240289922
    Abstract: Methods and systems include neural network-based image processing and blending circuitry to blend an output of the neural network to compensate for potential artifacts from the neural network-based image processing. The neural network(s) apply image processing to image data using one or more neural networks as processed data. Enhance circuitry enhances the image data in a scaling circuitry to generate enhanced data. Blending circuitry receives the processed image data and the enhanced data along with an image plane of the processed data. The blending circuitry also determines whether the image processing using the one or more neural networks has applied a change to the image data greater than a threshold amount. The blending circuitry then, based at least in part in response to the change being greater than the threshold amount and/or edge information of the image data, blends the processed data with the enhanced data.
    Type: Application
    Filed: February 1, 2024
    Publication date: August 29, 2024
    Inventors: Jim C. Chou, Yun Gong
  • Patent number: 12067674
    Abstract: A device may include an electronic display to display an image frame based on blended image data and image processing circuitry to generate the blended image data by combining first image data and second image data via a blend operation. The blend operation may include receiving graphics alpha data indicative of a transparency factor to be applied to the first image data to generate a first layer of the blend operation. The blend operation may also include overlaying the first layer onto a second layer that is based on the second image data. Overlaying the first layer onto the second layer may include adding first pixels values of the first image data that include negative pixel values and are augmented by the transparency factor to second pixel values of the second image data to generate blended pixel values of the blended image data.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 21, 2022
    Date of Patent: August 20, 2024
    Assignee: Apple Inc.
    Inventors: Yun Gong, Jim C Chou, Guy Cote
  • Patent number: 12067398
    Abstract: Techniques are disclosed relating to load value prediction. In some embodiments, a processor includes learning table circuitry that is shared for both address and value prediction. Loads may be trained for value prediction when they are eligible for both value and address prediction. Entries in the learning table may be promoted to an address prediction table or a load value prediction table for prediction, e.g., when they reach a threshold confidence level in the training table. In some embodiments, the learning table stores a hash of a predicted load value and control circuitry uses a probing load to retrieve the actual predicted load value for the value prediction table.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 29, 2022
    Date of Patent: August 20, 2024
    Assignee: Apple Inc.
    Inventors: Yuan C. Chou, Debasish Chandra, Mridul Agarwal, Haoyan Jia
  • Publication number: 20240257710
    Abstract: A device may include a display that display an image frame that is divided into adjustable regions having respective resolutions based on compensated image data. The device may also include image processing circuitry to generate the compensated image data by applying gains that compensate for burn-in related aging of pixels of the display. The gains are based on an aggregation of history updates indicative of estimated amounts of aging associated with pixel utilization. The circuitry may generate a history update by obtaining boundary data indicative of the boundaries between the adjustable regions, determining an estimated amount of aging, and dynamically resampling the estimated amount of aging by resampling a portion of the estimated amount of aging corresponding to an adjustable region by a factor and resampling of a different portion of the estimated amount of aging corresponding to another adjustable region by a different factor based on the boundary data.
    Type: Application
    Filed: April 8, 2024
    Publication date: August 1, 2024
    Inventors: Jim C Chou, Shereef Shehata, Yung-Chin Chen
  • Publication number: 20240257321
    Abstract: An electronic device may include an electronic display to display an image based on processed image data. The electronic device may also include image processing circuitry to generate the processed image data. The image processing circuitry may receive input image data corresponding to an image in a first perspective and warp the input image data from the first perspective to a second perspective, generating warped image data. Additionally, the image processing circuitry may determine one or more occluded regions in the second perspective and determine fill-data corresponding to the occluded regions. The processed image data may be generated by combining the warped image data and the fill-data.
    Type: Application
    Filed: April 10, 2024
    Publication date: August 1, 2024
    Inventors: Jim C. Chou, Jian Zhou
  • Patent number: 12052440
    Abstract: A video encoding system in which pixel data is decomposed into frequency bands prior to encoding. The frequency bands are organized into blocks that are provided to a block-based encoder. The encoded frequency data is packetized and transmitted to a receiving device. On the receiving device, the encoded data is decoded to recover the frequency bands. Wavelet synthesis is then performed on the frequency bands to reconstruct the pixel data for display. The system may encode parts of frames (tiles or slices) using one or more encoders and transmit the encoded parts as they are ready. A pre-filter component may perform a lens warp on the pixel data prior to the wavelet transform.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 17, 2023
    Date of Patent: July 30, 2024
    Assignee: Apple Inc.
    Inventors: Jim C. Chou, Sorin C. Cismas
  • Patent number: 12045615
    Abstract: A system, e.g., a system on a chip (SOC), may include one or more processors. A processor may execute an instruction synchronization barrier (ISB) instruction to enforce an ordering constraint on instructions. To execute the ISB instruction, the processor may determine whether contexts of the processor required for execution of instructions older than the ISB instruction are consumed for the older instructions. Responsive to determining that the contexts are consumed for the older instructions, the processor may initiate fetching of an instruction younger than the ISB instruction, without waiting for the older instructions to retire.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 16, 2022
    Date of Patent: July 23, 2024
    Assignee: Apple Inc.
    Inventors: Deepankar Duggal, Kulin N Kothari, Mridul Agarwal, Chang Xu, Yanran Yang, Richard F Russo, Yuan C Chou, Douglas C Holman
  • Publication number: 20240233094
    Abstract: An electronic device may include scaling circuitry to scale input pixel data to a greater resolution. The directional scaling circuitry may include first interpolation circuitry to receive best mode data, including one or more angles corresponding to content of the image and interpolate first pixel values at first pixel positions diagonally offset from input pixel positions of the input pixel data based on the best mode data and input pixel values corresponding to the input pixel positions. The directional scaling circuitry may also include second interpolation circuitry to receive the best mode data and the input pixel values and interpolate second pixel values at second pixel positions horizontally or vertically offset from the input pixel positions based at least in part on the best mode data and the input pixel values.
    Type: Application
    Filed: January 18, 2024
    Publication date: July 11, 2024
    Inventors: Jim C. Chou, Yun Gong
  • Patent number: 12026858
    Abstract: An electronic device may include an electronic display to display an image based on compensated image data in a panel space. The electronic device may also include image processing circuitry to generate the compensated image data. Further, generating the compensated image data may include determining a first inverse mapping of a pixel grid from the panel space to a rendering space and determining a forward mapping of the pixel grid from the rendering space to the panel space based on the first inverse mapping. The forward mapping may include corrections for multiple different warp operations stacked in a single warp operation. Additionally, the image processing circuitry may apply the forward mapping to input image data to generate the compensated image data.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 23, 2021
    Date of Patent: July 2, 2024
    Assignee: Apple Inc.
    Inventors: Jim C. Chou, Jian Zhou
  • Patent number: 11989854
    Abstract: An electronic device may include an electronic display to display an image based on processed image data. The electronic device may also include image processing circuitry to generate the processed image data. The image processing circuitry may receive input image data corresponding to an image in a first perspective and warp the input image data from the first perspective to a second perspective, generating warped image data. Additionally, the image processing circuitry may determine one or more occluded regions in the second perspective and determine fill-data corresponding to the occluded regions. The processed image data may be generated by combining the warped image data and the fill-data.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 23, 2021
    Date of Patent: May 21, 2024
    Assignee: Apple Inc.
    Inventors: Jim C. Chou, Jian Zhou
  • Patent number: 11955054
    Abstract: A device may include a display that display an image frame that is divided into adjustable regions having respective resolutions based on compensated image data. The device may also include image processing circuitry to generate the compensated image data by applying gains that compensate for burn-in related aging of pixels of the display. The gains are based on an aggregation of history updates indicative of estimated amounts of aging associated with pixel utilization. The circuitry may generate a history update by obtaining boundary data indicative of the boundaries between the adjustable regions, determining an estimated amount of aging, and dynamically resampling the estimated amount of aging by resampling a portion of the estimated amount of aging corresponding to an adjustable region by a factor and resampling of a different portion of the estimated amount of aging corresponding to another adjustable region by a different factor based on the boundary data.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 20, 2022
    Date of Patent: April 9, 2024
    Assignee: Apple Inc.
    Inventors: Jim C Chou, Shereef Shehata, Yung-Chin Chen
  • Patent number: 11941785
    Abstract: An electronic device may include scaling circuitry to scale input pixel data to a greater resolution. The directional scaling circuitry may include first interpolation circuitry to receive best mode data, including one or more angles corresponding to content of the image and interpolate first pixel values at first pixel positions diagonally offset from input pixel positions of the input pixel data based on the best mode data and input pixel values corresponding to the input pixel positions. The directional scaling circuitry may also include second interpolation circuitry to receive the best mode data and the input pixel values and interpolate second pixel values at second pixel positions horizontally or vertically offset from the input pixel positions based at least in part on the best mode data and the input pixel values.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 26, 2021
    Date of Patent: March 26, 2024
    Assignee: Apple Inc.
    Inventors: Jim C Chou, Yun Gong