Abstract: Techniques are described herein for efficient movement of data from a source memory to a destination memory. In an embodiment, in response to a particular memory location being pushed into a first register within a first register space, the first set of electronic circuits accesses a descriptor stored at the particular memory location. The descriptor indicates a width of a column of tabular data, a number of rows of tabular data, and one or more tabular data manipulation operations to perform on the column of tabular data. The descriptor also indicates a source memory location for accessing the tabular data and a destination memory location for storing data manipulation result from performing the one or more data manipulation operations on the tabular data.

Abstract: Techniques provide for hardware accelerated data movement between main memory and an on-chip data movement system that comprises multiple core processors that operate on the tabular data. The tabular data is moved to or from the scratch pad memories of the core processors. While the data is in-flight, the data may be manipulated by data manipulation operations. The data movement system includes multiple data movement engines, each dedicated to moving and transforming tabular data from main memory data to a subset of the core processors. Each data movement engine is coupled to an internal memory that stores data (e.g. a bit vector) that dictates how data manipulation operations are performed on tabular data moved from a main memory to the memories of a core processor, or to and from other memories. The internal memory of each data movement engine is private to the data movement engine.

Abstract: Techniques provide for hardware accelerated data movement between main memory and an on-chip data movement system that comprises multiple core processors that operate on the tabular data. The tabular data is moved to or from the scratch pad memories of the core processors. While the data is in-flight, the data may be manipulated by data manipulation operations. The data movement system includes multiple data movement engines, each dedicated to moving and transforming tabular data from main memory data to a subset of the core processors. Each data movement engine is coupled to an internal memory that stores data (e.g. a bit vector) that dictates how data manipulation operations are performed on tabular data moved from a main memory to the memories of a core processor, or to and from other memories. The internal memory of each data movement engine is private to the data movement engine.

Abstract: Circuitry may be configured to identify a particular element position of a bit vector stored in a register, where a value of the element occupying the particular element position matches a first predetermined value, and determine an address value dependent upon the particular element position of the bit vector and a base address. The circuitry may be further configured to load data from a memory dependent upon the address value.

Abstract: Techniques are provided for exchanging dedicated hardware signals to manage a first-in first-out (FIFO). In an embodiment, a first processor initiates content transfer into the FIFO. The first processor activates a first hardware signal that is reserved for indicating that content resides within the FIFO. A second processor activates a second hardware signal that is reserved for indicating that content is accepted. The second hardware signal causes the first hardware signal to be deactivated. This exchange of hardware signals demarcates a FIFO transaction, which is mediated by interface circuitry of the FIFO.

Abstract: Techniques are provided for improving the performance of a constellation of coprocessors by hardware support for asynchronous events. In an embodiment, a coprocessor receives an event descriptor that identifies an event and a logic. The coprocessor processes the event descriptor to configure the coprocessor to detect whether the event has been received. Eventually a device, such as a CPU or another coprocessor, sends the event. The coprocessor detects that it has received the event. In response to detecting the event, the coprocessor performs the logic.

Abstract: Techniques are described herein for efficient movement of data from a source memory to a destination memory. In an embodiment, in response to a particular memory location being pushed into a first register within a first register space, the first set of electronic circuits accesses a descriptor stored at the particular memory location. The descriptor indicates a width of a column of tabular data, a number of rows of tabular data, and one or more tabular data manipulation operations to perform on the column of tabular data. The descriptor also indicates a source memory location for accessing the tabular data and a destination memory location for storing data manipulation result from performing the one or more data manipulation operations on the tabular data.

Abstract: Techniques are described herein for efficient movement of data from a source memory to a destination memory. In an embodiment, in response to a particular memory location being pushed into a first register within a first register space, the first set of electronic circuits accesses a descriptor stored at the particular memory location. The descriptor indicates a width of a column of tabular data, a number of rows of tabular data, and one or more tabular data manipulation operations to perform on the column of tabular data. The descriptor also indicates a source memory location for accessing the tabular data and a destination memory location for storing data manipulation result from performing the one or more data manipulation operations on the tabular data.

Abstract: Techniques are described herein for using configurable logic constructs in a loop buffer. In an embodiment, a configurable hardware block is programmed based on one or more target functions within a loop. The configurable hardware block is associated with a plurality of registers, including a loopcount register and a first output register. For each iteration of the loop, a counter value in the loopcount register is updated and a target value in the first output register is updated using the programmed configurable hardware block. For each iteration of the loop, a set of one or more instructions may be fetched from the instruction buffer and executed based on the updated target value in the first output value.

Abstract: Translation of boot code read request commands from an on-board processor of a system on a chip (SoC) from a bus protocol (e.g., advanced high-performance bus (AHB) protocol) into a sequence of commands understandable by a serial interface of the SoC to read boot code from an off-board (e.g., flash or other non-volatile) memory device. The serial interface of the memory device may include a relatively low pin count (e.g., 5 pins) and boot code of the memory device may be modified after tape-out of the SoC free of necessitating a subsequent tape-out of the SoC.

Abstract: Techniques are described herein for using configurable logic constructs in a loop buffer. In an embodiment, a configurable hardware block is programmed based on one or more target functions within a loop. The configurable hardware block is associated with a plurality of registers, including a loopcount register and a first output register. For each iteration of the loop, a counter value in the loopcount register is updated and a target value in the first output register is updated using the programmed configurable hardware block. For each iteration of the loop, a set of one or more instructions may be fetched from the instruction buffer and executed based on the updated target value in the first output value.

Abstract: In one form, a video processing device (150) includes a memory (110, 130) and a plurality of staged macroblock processing engines (112, 114, 116). The memory (110, 130) is operable to store partially decoded video data decoded from a stream of encoded video data. The plurality of staged macroblock processing engines (112, 114, 116) is coupled to the memory (110, 130) and is responsive to a request to process the partially decoded video data to generate a plurality of macroblocks of decoded video data. In another form, a first a first macroblock of decoded video data having a first location (426) within a first row (408) of a video frame (400) is generated, and a second macroblock of decoded video data having a second location (424) within a second row (410) of the video frame (400) is generated during the generating of the first macroblock.

Abstract: A video processing apparatus and methodology are implemented as a combination of a processor and a video decoding hardware block to decode video data by performing piecewise processing of overlap smoothing and in-loop deblocking in a macroblock-based fashion. With this approach, a smaller on-board memory may be used for the in-loop filtering operations of the video decoding hardware block. By pipelining the piecewise processing operations, latency in the filtering operations is hidden and the filtering output is smoothed, thereby avoiding the need for bursts of fetching and storing of blocks.

Abstract: A video processing device (150) includes a bitstream accelerator module (106) and a video processing engine (108). The bitstream accelerator module (106) has an input for receiving a stream of encoded video data, and an output adapted to be coupled to a memory (112) for storing partially decoded video data. The bitstream accelerator module (106) partially decodes the stream of encoded video data according to a selected one of a plurality of video formats to provide the partially decoded video data. The video processing engine (108) has input adapted to be coupled to the memory (112) for reading the partially decoded video data, and an output for providing decoded video data.

Abstract: A video processing apparatus and methodology use a combination of a processor and a video decoding hardware block to decode video data by using a reference block cache memory to perform motion compensation decode operations in the video decoding hardware block. To improve the cache hit rate, each memory access for required reference block(s) is used to fetch one or more additional reference blocks which can be used to improve the cache hit rate with future motion compensation operations. Speculative fetch control logic selects the additional reference blocks by using a frequency history table to accumulate compared motion vector information for a current motion compensation block with motion vector information from previously processed motion compensation blocks.

Abstract: A video processing apparatus and methodology are implemented as a combination of a processor and a video decoding hardware block to decode video data by providing the video decoding block with an in-loop filter and a scratch pad memory, so that the in-loop filter may efficiently perform piecewise processing of overlap smoothing and in-loop deblocking in a macroblock-based fashion which is a much more efficient algorithm than the frame-based method.

Abstract: A video processing device (150) includes a bitstream accelerator module (106) and a video processing engine (108). The bitstream accelerator module (106) has an input for receiving a stream of encoded video data, and an output adapted to be coupled to a memory (112) for storing partially decoded video data. The bitstream accelerator module (106) partially decodes the stream of encoded video data according to a selected one of a plurality of video formats to provide the partially decoded video data. The video processing engine (108) has input adapted to be coupled to the memory (112) for reading the partially decoded video data, and an output for providing decoded video data.

Abstract: In one form, a video processing device (150) includes a memory (110, 130) and a plurality of staged macroblock processing engines (112, 114, 116). The memory (110, 130) is operable to store partially decoded video data decoded from a stream of encoded video data. The plurality of staged macroblock processing engines (112, 114, 116) is coupled to the memory (110, 130) and is responsive to a request to process the partially decoded video data to generate a plurality of macroblocks of decoded video data. In another form, a first a first macroblock of decoded video data having a first location (426) within a first row (408) of a video frame (400) is generated, and a second macroblock of decoded video data having a second location (424) within a second row (410) of the video frame (400) is generated during the generating of the first macroblock.

Abstract: A video processing apparatus and methodology are implemented as a combination of a processor and a video decoding hardware block to decode video data by providing the video decoding block with an in-loop filter and a scratch pad memory, so that the in-loop filter may efficiently perform piecewise processing of overlap smoothing and in-loop deblocking in a macroblock-based fashion which is a much more efficient algorithm than the frame-based method.

Abstract: A video processing apparatus and methodology are implemented as a combination of a processor and a video decoding hardware block to decode video data by performing piecewise processing of overlap smoothing and in-loop deblocking in a macroblock-based fashion. With this approach, a smaller on-board memory may be used for the in-loop filtering operations of the video decoding hardware block. By pipelining the piecewise processing operations, latency in the filtering operations is hidden and the filtering output is smoothed, thereby avoiding the need for bursts of fetching and storing of blocks.