Abstract: Apparatus and method for grouping rays based on quantized ray directions. For example, one embodiment of an apparatus comprises: An apparatus comprising: a ray generator to generate a plurality of rays; ray direction evaluation circuitry/logic to generate approximate ray direction data for each of the plurality of rays; ray sorting circuitry/logic to sort the rays into a plurality of ray queues based, at least in part, on the approximate ray direction data.

Abstract: An apparatus and method for merging primitives and coordinating between vertex and ray transformations on a shared transformation unit. For example, one embodiment of a graphics processor comprises: a queue comprising a plurality of entries; ordering circuitry/logic to order triangles front to back within the queue; pairing circuitry/logic to identify triangles in the queue sharing an edge and to merge the triangles sharing an edge to produce merged triangle pairs; and shared transformation circuitry to alternate between performing vertex transformations on vertices of the merged triangle pairs and to performing ray transformations on ray direction/origin data.

Abstract: Embodiments provide mechanisms to facilitate compute operations for deep neural networks. One embodiment comprises a graphics processing unit comprising one or more multiprocessors, at least one of the one or more multiprocessors including a register file to store a plurality of different types of operands and a plurality of processing cores. The plurality of processing cores includes a first set of processing cores of a first type and a second set of processing cores of a second type. The first set of processing cores are associated with a first memory channel and the second set of processing cores are associated with a second memory channel.

Abstract: Apparatus and method for box-box testing. For example, one embodiment of a processor comprises: a bounding volume hierarchy (BVH) generator to construct a BVH comprising a plurality of hierarchically arranged BVH nodes; traversal circuitry to traverse query boxes through the BVH, the traversal circuitry to read a BVH node from a top of a BVH node stack and to read a query box from a local storage or memory, the traversal circuitry further comprising: box-box testing circuitry and/or logic to compare maximum and minimum X, Y, and Z coordinates of the BVH node and the query box and to generate an overlap indication if overlap is detected for each of the X, Y, and Z dimensions; distance determination circuitry and/or logic to generate a distance value representing an extent of overlap between the BVH node and the query box; and sorting circuitry and/or logic to sort the BVH node within a set of one or more additional BVH nodes based on the distance value.

Abstract: Apparatus and method for stack throttling.

Abstract: Apparatus and method for preventing re-traversal of a prior path on a restart. For example, one embodiment of an apparatus comprises: a ray generator to generate a plurality of rays in a graphics scene; a bounding volume hierarchy (BVH) generator to construct a BVH comprising a plurality of hierarchically arranged nodes, wherein the BVH comprises a specified number of child nodes at a current BVH level beneath a parent node in the hierarchy; circuitry to traverse one or more of the rays through the BVH to form a current traversal path and intersect the one or more rays with primitives contained within the nodes, wherein the circuitry is to process entries from the top of a first data structure comprising entries each associated with a child node at the current BVH level, the entries being ordered from top to bottom based on a sorted distance of each respective child node.

Abstract: Apparatus and method for a hierarchical beam tracer.

Abstract: Apparatus and method for routing data from ray tracing cache banks For example, one embodiment of an apparatus comprises: ray traversal hardware logic to perform traversal operations to traverse rays through a bounding volume hierarchy (BVH) comprising a plurality of BVH nodes, the ray traversal hardware logic comprising a plurality of traversal storage banks to store traversal data associated with the BVH nodes and/or the rays as the ray traversal hardware logic performs the traversal operations; and a cache comprising a plurality of cache banks to store the traversal data prior to being moved into the traversal storage banks for processing by the ray traversal hardware logic; and an inter-bank interconnect comprising: a point-to-point switch matrix to couple any of the cache banks to any of the traversal storage banks; an arbiter/allocator to control the point-to-point switch matrix to establish a particular group of interconnections between the cache banks and the traversal storage banks in a given clock c

Abstract: In some embodiments, a given frame or picture may have different shading rates. In one embodiment in some areas of the frame or picture the shading rate may be less than once per pixel and in other places it may be once per pixel. Examples where the shading rate may be reduced include areas where there is motion and camera defocus, areas of peripheral blur, and in general, any case where the visibility is reduced anyway. The shading rate may be changed in a region, such as a shading quad, by changing the size of the region.

Abstract: Apparatus and method for speculative execution of hit and intersection shaders on programmable ray tracing architectures. For example, one embodiment of an apparatus comprises: single-instruction multiple-data (SIMD) or single-instruction multiple-thread (SIMT) execution units (EUs) to execute shaders; and ray tracing circuitry to execute a ray traversal thread, the ray tracing engine comprising: traversal/intersection circuitry, responsive to the traversal thread, to traverse a ray through an acceleration data structure comprising a plurality of hierarchically arranged nodes and to intersect the ray with a primitive contained within at least one of the nodes; and shader deferral circuitry to defer and aggregate multiple shader invocations resulting from the traversal thread until a particular triggering event is detected, wherein the multiple shaders are to be dispatched on the EUs in a single shader batch upon detection of the triggering event.

Abstract: Systems, apparatuses and methods may provide for technology that determines a frame rate of video content, sets a blend amount parameter based on the frame rate, and temporally anti-aliases the video content based on the blend amount parameter. Additionally, the technology may detect a coarse pixel (CP) shading condition with respect to one or more frames in the video content and select, in response to the CP shading condition, a per frame jitter pattern that jitters across pixels, wherein the video content is temporally anti-aliased based on the per frame jitter pattern. The CP shading condition may also cause the technology to apply a gradient to a plurality of color planes on a per color plane basis and discard pixel level samples associated with a CP if all mip data corresponding to the CP is transparent or shadowed out.

Abstract: Systems, apparatuses and methods may provide for technology that determines a stencil value and uses the stencil value to control, via a stencil buffer, a coarse pixel size of a graphics pipeline. Additionally, the stencil value may include a first range of bits defining a first dimension of the coarse pixel size and a second range of bits defining a second dimension of the coarse pixel size. In one example, the coarse pixel size is controlled for a plurality of pixels on a per pixel basis.

Abstract: Apparatus and method for efficient BVH construction. For example, one embodiment of an apparatus comprises: a memory to store graphics data for a scene including a plurality of primitives in a scene at a first precision; a geometry quantizer to read vertices of the primitives at the first precision and to adaptively quantize the vertices of the primitives to a second precision associated with a first local coordinate grid of a first BVH node positioned within a global coordinate grid, the second precision lower than the first precision; a BVH builder to determine coordinates of child nodes of the first BVH node by performing non-spatial-split binning or spatial-split binning for the first BVH node using primitives associated with the first BVH node, the BVH builder to determine final coordinates for the child nodes based, at least in part, on an evaluation of surface areas of different bounding boxes generated for each of the child node.

Abstract: Apparatus and method for stack access throttling for synchronous ray tracing. For example, one embodiment of an apparatus comprises: ray tracing acceleration hardware to manage active ray tracing stack allocations to ensure that a size of the active ray tracing stack allocations remains within a threshold; and an execution unit to execute a thread to explicitly request a new ray tracing stack allocation from the ray tracing acceleration hardware, the ray tracing acceleration hardware to permit the new ray tracing stack allocation if the size of the active ray tracing stack allocations will remain within the threshold after permitting the new ray tracing stack allocation.

Abstract: Apparatus and method for grouping rays based on quantized ray directions. For example, one embodiment of an apparatus comprises: An apparatus comprising: a ray generator to generate a plurality of rays; ray direction evaluation circuitry/logic to generate approximate ray direction data for each of the plurality of rays; ray sorting circuitry/logic to sort the rays into a plurality of ray queues based, at least in part, on the approximate ray direction data.

Abstract: Examples are described here that can be used to enable a main routine to request subroutines or other related code to be executed with other instantiations of the same subroutine or other related code for parallel execution. A sorting unit can be used to accumulate requests to execute instantiations of the subroutine. The sorting unit can request execution of a number of multiple instantiations of the subroutine corresponding to a number of lanes in a SIMD unit. A call stack can be used to share information to be accessed by a main routine after execution of the subroutine completes.

Abstract: Apparatus and method for speculative execution of hit and intersection shaders on programmable ray tracing architectures. For example, one embodiment of an apparatus comprises: single-instruction multiple-data (SIMD) or single-instruction multiple-thread (SIMT) execution units (EUs) to execute shaders; and ray tracing circuitry to execute a ray traversal thread, the ray tracing engine comprising: traversal/intersection circuitry, responsive to the traversal thread, to traverse a ray through an acceleration data structure comprising a plurality of hierarchically arranged nodes and to intersect the ray with a primitive contained within at least one of the nodes; and shader deferral circuitry to defer and aggregate multiple shader invocations resulting from the traversal thread until a particular triggering event is detected, wherein the multiple shaders are to be dispatched on the EUs in a single shader batch upon detection of the triggering event.

Abstract: Bank aware thread scheduling and early dependency clearing techniques are described herein. In one example, bank aware thread scheduling involves arbitrating and scheduling threads based on the cache bank that is to be accessed by the instructions to avoiding bank conflicts. Early dependency clearing involves clearing dependencies for cache loads in a scoreboard before the data is loaded. In early dependency clearing for loads, delays in operation can be reduced by clearing dependencies before data is required from the cache.

Abstract: Embodiments provide mechanisms to facilitate compute operations for deep neural networks. One embodiment comprises a graphics processing unit comprising one or more multiprocessors, at least one of the one or more multiprocessors including a register file to store a plurality of different types of operands and a plurality of processing cores. The plurality of processing cores includes a first set of processing cores of a first type and a second set of processing cores of a second type. The first set of processing cores are associated with a first memory channel and the second set of processing cores are associated with a second memory channel.

Abstract: Embodiments are generally directed to compression for compression for sparse data structures utilizing mode search approximation. An embodiment of an apparatus includes one or more processors including a graphics processor to process data; and a memory for storage of data, including compressed data. The one or more processors are to provide for compression of a data structure, including identification of a mode in the data structure, the data structure including a plurality of values and the mode being a most repeated value in a data structure, wherein identification of the mode includes application of a mode approximation operation, and encoding of an output vector to include the identified mode, a significance map to indicate locations at which the mode is present in the data structure, and remaining uncompressed data from the data structure.