Patents by Inventor Ignacio Llamas
Ignacio Llamas 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).
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Publication number: 20210349763Abstract: One embodiment of the present invention sets forth a technique for performing nested kernel execution within a parallel processing subsystem. The technique involves enabling a parent thread to launch a nested child grid on the parallel processing subsystem, and enabling the parent thread to perform a thread synchronization barrier on the child grid for proper execution semantics between the parent thread and the child grid. This technique advantageously enables the parallel processing subsystem to perform a richer set of programming constructs, such as conditionally executed and nested operations and externally defined library functions without the additional complexity of CPU involvement.Type: ApplicationFiled: February 5, 2021Publication date: November 11, 2021Inventors: Stephen Jones, Philip Alexander Cuadra, Daniel Elliot Wexler, Ignacio Llamas, Lacky V. Shah, Jerome F. Duluk, JR., Christopher Lamb
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Publication number: 20210343072Abstract: In various examples, shader bindings may be recorded in a shader binding table that includes shader records. Geometry of a 3D scene may be instantiated using object instances, and each may be associated with a respective set of the shader records using a location identifier of the set of shader records in memory. The set of shader records may represent shader bindings for an object instance under various predefined conditions. One or more of these predefined conditions may be implicit in the way the shader records are arranged in memory (e.g., indexed by ray type, by sub-geometry, etc.). For example, a section selector value (e.g., a section index) may be computed to locate and select a shader record based at least in part on a result of a ray tracing query (e.g., what sub-geometry was hit, what ray type was traced, etc.).Type: ApplicationFiled: July 15, 2021Publication date: November 4, 2021Inventors: Martin Stich, Ignacio Llamas, Steven Parker
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Patent number: 11164360Abstract: A hardware-based traversal coprocessor provides acceleration of tree traversal operations searching for intersections between primitives represented in a tree data structure and a ray. The primitives may include opaque and alpha triangles used in generating a virtual scene. The hardware-based traversal coprocessor is configured to determine primitives intersected by the ray, and return intersection information to a streaming multiprocessor for further processing. The hardware-based traversal coprocessor is configured to provide a deterministic result of intersected triangles regardless of the order that the memory subsystem returns triangle range blocks for processing, while opportunistically eliminating alpha intersections that lie further along the length of the ray than closer opaque intersections.Type: GrantFiled: July 2, 2020Date of Patent: November 2, 2021Assignee: NVIDIA CorporationInventors: Samuli Laine, Tero Karras, Greg Muthler, William Parsons Newhall, Ronald Charles Babich, Ignacio Llamas, John Burgess
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Patent number: 11157414Abstract: In a ray tracer, a cache for streaming workloads groups ray requests for coherent successive bounding volume hierarchy traversal operations by sending common data down an attached data path to all ray requests in the group at the same time or about the same time. Grouping the requests provides good performance with a smaller number of cache lines.Type: GrantFiled: August 10, 2018Date of Patent: October 26, 2021Assignee: NVIDIA CorporationInventors: Greg Muthler, Timo Aila, Tero Karras, Samuli Laine, William Parsons Newhall, Jr., Ronald Charles Babich, Jr., John Burgess, Ignacio Llamas
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Patent number: 11138009Abstract: Systems and methods for an efficient and robust multiprocessor-coprocessor interface that may be used between a streaming multiprocessor and an acceleration coprocessor in a GPU are provided. According to an example implementation, in order to perform an acceleration of a particular operation using the coprocessor, the multiprocessor: issues a series of write instructions to write input data for the operation into coprocessor-accessible storage locations, issues an operation instruction to cause the coprocessor to execute the particular operation; and then issues a series of read instructions to read result data of the operation from coprocessor-accessible storage locations to multiprocessor-accessible storage locations.Type: GrantFiled: August 10, 2018Date of Patent: October 5, 2021Assignee: NVIDIA CORPORATIONInventors: Ronald Charles Babich, Jr., John Burgess, Jack Choquette, Tero Karras, Samuli Laine, Ignacio Llamas, Gregory Muthler, William Parsons Newhall, Jr.
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Patent number: 11069129Abstract: In various examples, shader bindings may be recorded in a shader binding table that includes shader records. Geometry of a 3D scene may be instantiated using object instances, and each may be associated with a respective set of the shader records using a location identifier of the set of shader records in memory. The set of shader records may represent shader bindings for an object instance under various predefined conditions. One or more of these predefined conditions may be implicit in the way the shader records are arranged in memory (e.g., indexed by ray type, by sub-geometry, etc.). For example, a section selector value (e.g., a section index) may be computed to locate and select a shader record based at least in part on a result of a ray tracing query (e.g., what sub-geometry was hit, what ray type was traced, etc.).Type: GrantFiled: April 5, 2019Date of Patent: July 20, 2021Assignee: NVIDIA CorporationInventors: Martin Stich, Ignacio Llamas, Steven Parker
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Patent number: 10915364Abstract: Apparatuses, systems, and techniques for performing nested kernel execution within a parallel processing subsystem. In at least one embodiment, a parent thread launches a nested child grid on the parallel processing subsystem, and enables the parent thread to perform a thread synchronization barrier on the child grid for proper execution semantics between the parent thread and the child grid.Type: GrantFiled: December 2, 2016Date of Patent: February 9, 2021Assignee: NVIDIA CorporationInventors: Stephen Jones, Philip Alexander Cuadra, Daniel Elliot Wexler, Ignacio Llamas, Lacky V. Shah, Jerome F. Duluk, Christopher Lamb
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METHOD FOR CONTINUED BOUNDING VOLUME HIERARCHY TRAVERSAL ON INTERSECTION WITHOUT SHADER INTERVENTION
Publication number: 20210005010Abstract: A hardware-based traversal coprocessor provides acceleration of tree traversal operations searching for intersections between primitives represented in a tree data structure and a ray. The primitives may include opaque and alpha triangles used in generating a virtual scene. The hardware-based traversal coprocessor is configured to determine primitives intersected by the ray, and return intersection information to a streaming multiprocessor for further processing. The hardware-based traversal coprocessor is configured to omit reporting of one or more primitives the ray is determined to intersect. The omitted primitives include primitives which are provably capable of being omitted without a functional impact on visualizing the virtual scene.Type: ApplicationFiled: September 23, 2020Publication date: January 7, 2021Inventors: Greg Muthler, Tero Karras, Samuli Laine, William Parsons Newhall, JR., Ronald Charles Babich, JR., John Burgess, Ignacio Llamas -
Patent number: 10867429Abstract: Methods and systems are described in some examples for changing the traversal of an acceleration data structure in a highly dynamic query-specific manner, with each query specifying test parameters, a test opcode and a mapping of test results to actions. In an example ray tracing implementation, traversal of a bounding volume hierarchy by a ray is performed with the default behavior of the traversal being changed in accordance with results of a test performed using the test opcode and test parameters specified in the ray data structure and another test parameter specified in a node of the bounding volume hierarchy. In an example implementation a traversal coprocessor is configured to perform the traversal of the bounding volume hierarchy.Type: GrantFiled: August 10, 2018Date of Patent: December 15, 2020Assignee: NVIDIA CorporationInventors: Samuli Laine, Timo Aila, Tero Karras, Gregory Muthler, William Parsons Newhall, Jr., Ronald Charles Babich, Jr., Craig Kolb, Ignacio Llamas, John Burgess
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Publication number: 20200357159Abstract: A hardware-based traversal coprocessor provides acceleration of tree traversal operations searching for intersections between primitives represented in a tree data structure and a ray. The primitives may include opaque and alpha triangles used in generating a virtual scene. The hardware-based traversal coprocessor is configured to determine primitives intersected by the ray, and return intersection information to a streaming multiprocessor for further processing. The hardware-based traversal coprocessor is configured to provide a deterministic result of intersected triangles regardless of the order that the memory subsystem returns triangle range blocks for processing, while opportunistically eliminating alpha intersections that lie further along the length of the ray than closer opaque intersections.Type: ApplicationFiled: July 2, 2020Publication date: November 12, 2020Inventors: Samuli Laine, Tero Karras, Greg Muthler, William Parsons Newhall, Ronald Charles Babich, Ignacio Llamas, John Burgess
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Publication number: 20200349755Abstract: Disclosed approaches may leverage the actual spatial and reflective properties of a virtual environment—such as the size, shape, and orientation of a bidirectional reflectance distribution function (BRDF) lobe of a light path and its position relative to a reflection surface, a virtual screen, and a virtual camera—to produce, for a pixel, an anisotropic kernel filter having dimensions and weights that accurately reflect the spatial characteristics of the virtual environment as well as the reflective properties of the surface. In order to accomplish this, geometry may be computed that corresponds to a projection of a reflection of the BRDF lobe below the surface along a view vector to the pixel. Using this approach, the dimensions of the anisotropic filter kernel may correspond to the BRDF lobe to accurately reflect the spatial characteristics of the virtual environment as well as the reflective properties of the surface.Type: ApplicationFiled: July 22, 2020Publication date: November 5, 2020Inventors: Shiqiu Liu, Christopher Ryan Wyman, Jon Hasselgren, Jacob Munkberg, Ignacio Llamas
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Method for continued bounding volume hierarchy traversal on intersection without shader intervention
Patent number: 10825232Abstract: A hardware-based traversal coprocessor provides acceleration of tree traversal operations searching for intersections between primitives represented in a tree data structure and a ray. The primitives may include opaque and alpha triangles used in generating a virtual scene. The hardware-based traversal coprocessor is configured to determine primitives intersected by the ray, and return intersection information to a streaming multiprocessor for further processing. The hardware-based traversal coprocessor is configured to omit reporting of one or more primitives the ray is determined to intersect. The omitted primitives include primitives which are provably capable of being omitted without a functional impact on visualizing the virtual scene.Type: GrantFiled: January 22, 2020Date of Patent: November 3, 2020Assignee: NVIDIA CorporationInventors: Greg Muthler, Tero Karras, Samuli Laine, William Parsons Newhall, Jr., Ronald Charles Babich, Jr., John Burgess, Ignacio Llamas -
Publication number: 20200302676Abstract: Methods and systems are described in some examples for changing the traversal of an acceleration data structure in a highly dynamic query-specific manner, with each query specifying test parameters, a test opcode and a mapping of test results to actions. In an example ray tracing implementation, traversal of a bounding volume hierarchy by a ray is performed with the default behavior of the traversal being changed in accordance with results of a test performed using the test opcode and test parameters specified in the ray data structure and another test parameter specified in a node of the bounding volume hierarchy. In an example implementation a traversal coprocessor is configured to perform the traversal of the bounding volume hierarchy.Type: ApplicationFiled: June 4, 2020Publication date: September 24, 2020Inventors: Samuli LAINE, Timo AILA, Tero KARRAS, Gregory MUTHLER, William P. NEWHALL, JR., Ronald C. BABICH, JR., Craig KOLB, Ignacio LLAMAS, John BURGESS
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Patent number: 10776985Abstract: Disclosed approaches may leverage the actual spatial and reflective properties of a virtual environment—such as the size, shape, and orientation of a bidirectional reflectance distribution function (BRDF) lobe of a light path and its position relative to a reflection surface, a virtual screen, and a virtual camera—to produce, for a pixel, an anisotropic kernel filter having dimensions and weights that accurately reflect the spatial characteristics of the virtual environment as well as the reflective properties of the surface. In order to accomplish this, geometry may be computed that corresponds to a projection of a reflection of the BRDF lobe below the surface along a view vector to the pixel. Using this approach, the dimensions of the anisotropic filter kernel may correspond to the BRDF lobe to accurately reflect the spatial characteristics of the virtual environment as well as the reflective properties of the surface.Type: GrantFiled: March 15, 2019Date of Patent: September 15, 2020Assignee: NVIDIA CorporationInventors: Shiqiu Liu, Christopher Ryan Wyman, Jon Hasselgren, Jacob Munkberg, Ignacio Llamas
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Patent number: 10740952Abstract: A hardware-based traversal coprocessor provides acceleration of tree traversal operations searching for intersections between primitives represented in a tree data structure and a ray. The primitives may include opaque and alpha triangles used in generating a virtual scene. The hardware-based traversal coprocessor is configured to determine primitives intersected by the ray, and return intersection information to a streaming multiprocessor for further processing. The hardware-based traversal coprocessor is configured to provide a deterministic result of intersected triangles regardless of the order that the memory subsystem returns triangle range blocks for processing, while opportunistically eliminating alpha intersections that lie further along the length of the ray than closer opaque intersections.Type: GrantFiled: August 10, 2018Date of Patent: August 11, 2020Assignee: NVIDIA CorporationInventors: Samuli Laine, Tero Karras, Greg Muthler, William Parsons Newhall, Jr., Ronald Charles Babich, Ignacio Llamas, John Burgess
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METHOD FOR CONTINUED BOUNDING VOLUME HIERARCHY TRAVERSAL ON INTERSECTION WITHOUT SHADER INTERVENTION
Publication number: 20200160588Abstract: A hardware-based traversal coprocessor provides acceleration of tree traversal operations searching for intersections between primitives represented in a tree data structure and a ray. The primitives may include opaque and alpha triangles used in generating a virtual scene. The hardware-based traversal coprocessor is configured to determine primitives intersected by the ray, and return intersection information to a streaming multiprocessor for further processing. The hardware-based traversal coprocessor is configured to omit reporting of one or more primitives the ray is determined to intersect. The omitted primitives include primitives which are provably capable of being omitted without a functional impact on visualizing the virtual scene.Type: ApplicationFiled: January 22, 2020Publication date: May 21, 2020Inventors: Greg MUTHLER, Tero KARRAS, Samuli LAINE, William Parsons NEWHALL, JR., Ronald Charles BABICH, JR., John BURGESS, Ignacio LLAMAS -
Publication number: 20200151016Abstract: One embodiment of the present invention sets forth a technique for performing nested kernel execution within a parallel processing subsystem. The technique involves enabling a parent thread to launch a nested child grid on the parallel processing subsystem, and enabling the parent thread to perform a thread synchronization barrier on the child grid for proper execution semantics between the parent thread and the child grid. This technique advantageously enables the parallel processing subsystem to perform a richer set of programming constructs, such as conditionally executed and nested operations and externally defined library functions without the additional complexity of CPU involvement.Type: ApplicationFiled: January 17, 2020Publication date: May 14, 2020Inventors: Stephen Jones, Philip Alexander Cuadra, Daniel Elliot Wexler, Ignacio Llamas, Lacky V. Shah, Jerome F. Duluk, Jr., Christopher Lamb
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Method for continued bounding volume hierarchy traversal on intersection without shader intervention
Patent number: 10580196Abstract: A hardware-based traversal coprocessor provides acceleration of tree traversal operations searching for intersections between primitives represented in a tree data structure and a ray. The primitives may include opaque and alpha triangles used in generating a virtual scene. The hardware-based traversal coprocessor is configured to determine primitives intersected by the ray, and return intersection information to a streaming multiprocessor for further processing. The hardware-based traversal coprocessor is configured to omit reporting of one or more primitives the ray is determined to intersect. The omitted primitives include primitives which are provably capable of being omitted without a functional impact on visualizing the virtual scene.Type: GrantFiled: August 10, 2018Date of Patent: March 3, 2020Assignee: NVIDIA CorporationInventors: Greg Muthler, Tero Karras, Samuli Laine, William Parsons Newhall, Jr., Ronald Charles Babich, Jr., John Burgess, Ignacio Llamas -
METHOD FOR CONTINUED BOUNDING VOLUME HIERARCHY TRAVERSAL ON INTERSECTION WITHOUT SHADER INTERVENTION
Publication number: 20200051312Abstract: A hardware-based traversal coprocessor provides acceleration of tree traversal operations searching for intersections between primitives represented in a tree data structure and a ray. The primitives may include opaque and alpha triangles used in generating a virtual scene. The hardware-based traversal coprocessor is configured to determine primitives intersected by the ray, and return intersection information to a streaming multiprocessor for further processing. The hardware-based traversal coprocessor is configured to omit reporting of one or more primitives the ray is determined to intersect. The omitted primitives include primitives which are provably capable of being omitted without a functional impact on visualizing the virtual scene.Type: ApplicationFiled: August 10, 2018Publication date: February 13, 2020Inventors: Greg Muthler, Tero Karras, Samuli Laine, William Parsons Newhall, JR., Ronald Charles Babich, JR., John Burgess, Ignacio Llamas -
Publication number: 20200050550Abstract: In a ray tracer, a cache for streaming workloads groups ray requests for coherent successive bounding volume hierarchy traversal operations by sending common data down an attached data path to all ray requests in the group at the same time or about the same time. Grouping the requests provides good performance with a smaller number of cache lines.Type: ApplicationFiled: August 10, 2018Publication date: February 13, 2020Inventors: Greg MUTHLER, Timo AILA, Tero KARRAS, Samuli LAINE, William Parsons NEWHALL, Ronald Charles BABICH, John BURGESS, Ignacio LLAMAS