Patents by Inventor Mark Fowler

Mark Fowler 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).

  • Patent number: 11521342
    Abstract: A processor receives a request to access one or more levels of a partially resident texture (PRT) resource. The levels represent a texture at different levels of detail (LOD) and the request includes normalized coordinates indicating a location in the texture. The processor accesses a texture descriptor that includes dimensions of a first level of the levels and one or more offsets between a reference level and one or more second levels that are associated with one or more residency maps that indicate texels that are resident in the PRT resource. The processor translates the normalized coordinates to texel coordinates in the one or more residency maps based on the offset and accesses, in response to the request, the one or more residency maps based on the texel coordinates to determine whether texture data indicated by the normalized coordinates is resident in the PRT resource.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 14, 2021
    Date of Patent: December 6, 2022
    Assignee: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc.
    Inventors: Maxim V. Kazakov, Mark Fowler
  • Publication number: 20220357510
    Abstract: A cable shaving tool including a blade holder having a guide channel extending along the blade holder length. The guide channel includes a cable channel, and a control surface at opposing ends. A removable blade is secured to a blade support surface and the blade edge extends within the guide channel. The blade support and handle are disposed along a central axis. The shaving depth is determined by the differential between: (1) the distance from the cable channel to the bottom surface of the blade holder; and (2) the distance from the control surface to the bottom surface of the blade holder. The handle is secured to the blade holder and extends along the central axis, allowing an operator's hand to be positioned directly over the blade during a cut, apply a downward pressure on the cable to set the blade and then move the tool in a direction parallel to the cable length.
    Type: Application
    Filed: May 3, 2022
    Publication date: November 10, 2022
    Inventors: Will Eisele, Mark Fowler, Orelvis Migenes, Brian Bourgoin
  • Patent number: 11467870
    Abstract: Systems, apparatuses, and methods for abstracting tasks in virtual memory identifier (VMID) containers are disclosed. A processor coupled to a memory executes a plurality of concurrent tasks including a first task. Responsive to detecting one or more instructions of the first task which correspond to a first operation, the processor retrieves a first identifier (ID) which is used to uniquely identify the first task, wherein the first ID is transparent to the first task. Then, the processor maps the first ID to a second ID and/or a third ID. The processor completes the first operation by using the second ID and/or the third ID to identify the first task to at least a first data structure. In one implementation, the first operation is a memory access operation and the first data structure is a set of page tables. Also, in one implementation, the second ID identifies a first application of the first task and the third ID identifies a first operating system (OS) of the first task.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 24, 2020
    Date of Patent: October 11, 2022
    Assignees: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc., ATI Technologies ULC
    Inventors: Anirudh R. Acharya, Michael J. Mantor, Rex Eldon McCrary, Anthony Asaro, Jeffrey Gongxian Cheng, Mark Fowler
  • Patent number: 11461045
    Abstract: A processing unit is configured to access a first memory that supports atomic operations and a second memory via an interface. The second memory or the interface does not support atomicity of the atomic operations. A trap handler is configured to trap atomic operations and enforce atomicity of the trapped atomic operations. The processing unit selectively provides atomic operations to the trap handler in response to detecting that memory access requests in the atomic operations are directed to the second memory via the interface. In some cases, the processing unit detects a frequency of traps that result from atomic operations that include memory access requests to a page stored in the second memory. The processing unit transfers the page from the second memory to the first memory in response to the trap frequency exceeding a threshold.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 29, 2019
    Date of Patent: October 4, 2022
    Assignee: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc.
    Inventor: Mark Fowler
  • Publication number: 20220277508
    Abstract: A method, computer system, and a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium for performing primitive batch binning are disclosed. The method, computer system, and non-transitory computer-readable storage medium include techniques for generating a primitive batch from a plurality of primitives, computing respective bin intercepts for each of the plurality of primitives in the primitive batch, and shading the primitive batch by iteratively processing each of the respective bin intercepts computed until all of the respective bin intercepts are processed.
    Type: Application
    Filed: May 16, 2022
    Publication date: September 1, 2022
    Applicants: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc., ATI Technologies ULC
    Inventors: Michael Mantor, Laurent Lefebvre, Mark Fowler, Timothy Kelley, Mikko Alho, Mika Tuomi, Kiia Kallio, Patrick Klas Rudolf Buss, Jari Antero Komppa, Kaj Tuomi
  • Publication number: 20220269620
    Abstract: A processor maintains an access log indicating a stream of cache misses at a cache of the processor. In response to each of at least a subset of cache misses at the cache, the processor records a corresponding entry in the access log, indicating a physical memory address of the memory access request that resulted in the corresponding miss. In addition, the processor maintains an address translation log that indicates a mapping of physical memory addresses to virtual memory addresses. In response to an address translation (e.g., a page walk) that translates a virtual address to a physical address, the processor stores a mapping of the physical address to the corresponding virtual address at an entry of the address translation log. Software executing at the processor can use the two logs for memory management.
    Type: Application
    Filed: February 8, 2022
    Publication date: August 25, 2022
    Inventors: Benjamin T. SANDER, Mark Fowler, Anthony Asaro, Gongxian Jeffrey Cheng, Michael Mantor
  • Patent number: 11335052
    Abstract: A system, method and a non-transitory computer readable storage medium are provided for hybrid rendering with deferred primitive batch binning. A primitive batch is generated from one or more primitives. A bin is identified for processing the primitive batch. At least a portion of each primitive intersecting the identified bin is processed and a next bin for processing the primitive batch is identified based on an intercept walk order. The processing is iteratively repeated for the one or more primitives in the primitive batch for successive bins until all primitives of the primitive batch are completely processed. Then, the one or more primitives in the primitive batch are further processed.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 2, 2018
    Date of Patent: May 17, 2022
    Assignees: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc., ATI Technologies ULC
    Inventors: Michael Mantor, Laurent Lefebvre, Mark Fowler, Timothy Kelley, Mikko Alho, Mika Tuomi, Kiia Kallio, Patrick Klas Rudolf Buss, Jari Antero Komppa, Kaj Tuomi
  • Patent number: 11288205
    Abstract: A processor maintains an access log indicating a stream of cache misses at a cache of the processor. In response to each of at least a subset of cache misses at the cache, the processor records a corresponding entry in the access log, indicating a physical memory address of the memory access request that resulted in the corresponding miss. In addition, the processor maintains an address translation log that indicates a mapping of physical memory addresses to virtual memory addresses. In response to an address translation (e.g., a page walk) that translates a virtual address to a physical address, the processor stores a mapping of the physical address to the corresponding virtual address at an entry of the address translation log. Software executing at the processor can use the two logs for memory management.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 23, 2015
    Date of Patent: March 29, 2022
    Assignees: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc., ATI TECHNOLOGIES ULC
    Inventors: Benjamin T. Sander, Mark Fowler, Anthony Asaro, Gongxian Jeffrey Cheng, Mike Mantor
  • Publication number: 20210343066
    Abstract: A processor receives a request to access one or more levels of a partially resident texture (PRT) resource. The levels represent a texture at different levels of detail (LOD) and the request includes normalized coordinates indicating a location in the texture. The processor accesses a texture descriptor that includes dimensions of a first level of the levels and one or more offsets between a reference level and one or more second levels that are associated with one or more residency maps that indicate texels that are resident in the PRT resource. The processor translates the normalized coordinates to texel coordinates in the one or more residency maps based on the offset and accesses, in response to the request, the one or more residency maps based on the texel coordinates to determine whether texture data indicated by the normalized coordinates is resident in the PRT resource.
    Type: Application
    Filed: April 14, 2021
    Publication date: November 4, 2021
    Inventors: Maxim V. KAZAKOV, Mark FOWLER
  • Patent number: 11100004
    Abstract: A processor uses the same virtual address space for heterogeneous processing units of the processor. The processor employs different sets of page tables for different types of processing units, such as a CPU and a GPU, wherein a memory management unit uses each set of page tables to translate virtual addresses of the virtual address space to corresponding physical addresses of memory modules associated with the processor. As data is migrated between memory modules, the physical addresses in the page tables can be updated to reflect the physical location of the data for each processing unit.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 23, 2015
    Date of Patent: August 24, 2021
    Assignees: ADVANCED MICRO DEVICES, INC., ATI TECHNOLOGIES ULC
    Inventors: Gongxian Jeffrey Cheng, Mark Fowler, Philip J. Rogers, Benjamin T. Sander, Anthony Asaro, Mike Mantor, Raja Koduri
  • Patent number: 11074075
    Abstract: Systems, apparatuses, and methods for maintaining separate pending load and store counters are disclosed herein. In one embodiment, a system includes at least one execution unit, a memory subsystem, and a pair of counters for each thread of execution. In one embodiment, the system implements a software based approach for managing dependencies between instructions. In one embodiment, the execution unit(s) maintains counters to support the software-based approach for managing dependencies between instructions. The execution unit(s) are configured to execute instructions that are used to manage the dependencies during run-time. In one embodiment, the execution unit(s) execute wait instructions to wait until a given counter is equal to a specified value before continuing to execute the instruction sequence.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 24, 2017
    Date of Patent: July 27, 2021
    Assignee: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc.
    Inventors: Mark Fowler, Brian D. Emberling
  • Patent number: 10991146
    Abstract: A processor receives a request to access one or more levels of a partially resident texture (PRT) resource. The levels represent a texture at different levels of detail (LOD) and the request includes normalized coordinates indicating a location in the texture. The processor accesses a texture descriptor that includes dimensions of a first level of the levels and one or more offsets between a reference level and one or more second levels that are associated with one or more residency maps that indicate texels that are resident in the PRT resource. The processor translates the normalized coordinates to texel coordinates in the one or more residency maps based on the offset and accesses, in response to the request, the one or more residency maps based on the texel coordinates to determine whether texture data indicated by the normalized coordinates is resident in the PRT resource.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 20, 2019
    Date of Patent: April 27, 2021
    Assignee: ADVANCED MICRO DEVICES, INC.
    Inventors: Maxim V. Kazakov, Mark Fowler
  • Patent number: 10943389
    Abstract: Techniques for removing or identifying overlapping fragments in a fragment stream after z-culling are disclosed. The techniques include maintaining a first-in-first-out buffer that stores post-z-cull fragments. Each time a new fragment is received at the buffer, the screen position of the fragment is checked against all other fragments in the buffer. If the screen position of the fragment matches the screen position of a fragment in the buffer, then the fragment in the buffer is removed or marked as overlapping. If the screen position of the fragment does not match the screen position of any fragment in the buffer, then no modification is performed to fragments already in the buffer. In either case, he fragment is added to the buffer. The contents of the buffer are transmitted to the pixel shader for pixel shading at a later time.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 9, 2016
    Date of Patent: March 9, 2021
    Assignees: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc., ATI Technologies ULC
    Inventors: Laurent Lefebvre, Michael Mantor, Mark Fowler, Mikko Alho, Mika Tuomi, Kiia Kallio, Patrick Klas Rudolf Buss, Jari Antero Komppa, Kaj Tuomi, Christopher J. Brennan
  • Publication number: 20210011760
    Abstract: Systems, apparatuses, and methods for abstracting tasks in virtual memory identifier (VMID) containers are disclosed. A processor coupled to a memory executes a plurality of concurrent tasks including a first task. Responsive to detecting one or more instructions of the first task which correspond to a first operation, the processor retrieves a first identifier (ID) which is used to uniquely identify the first task, wherein the first ID is transparent to the first task. Then, the processor maps the first ID to a second ID and/or a third ID. The processor completes the first operation by using the second ID and/or the third ID to identify the first task to at least a first data structure. In one implementation, the first operation is a memory access operation and the first data structure is a set of page tables. Also, in one implementation, the second ID identifies a first application of the first task and the third ID identifies a first operating system (OS) of the first task.
    Type: Application
    Filed: July 24, 2020
    Publication date: January 14, 2021
    Inventors: Anirudh R. Acharya, Michael J. Mantor, Rex Eldon McCrary, Anthony Asaro, Jeffrey Gongxian Cheng, Mark Fowler
  • Publication number: 20200310684
    Abstract: A processing unit is configured to access a first memory that supports atomic operations and a second memory via an interface. The second memory or the interface does not support atomicity of the atomic operations. A trap handler is configured to trap atomic operations and enforce atomicity of the trapped atomic operations. The processing unit selectively provides atomic operations to the trap handler in response to detecting that memory access requests in the atomic operations are directed to the second memory via the interface. In some cases, the processing unit detects a frequency of traps that result from atomic operations that include memory access requests to a page stored in the second memory. The processing unit transfers the page from the second memory to the first memory in response to the trap frequency exceeding a threshold.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 29, 2019
    Publication date: October 1, 2020
    Inventor: Mark FOWLER
  • Publication number: 20200250877
    Abstract: A processor receives a request to access one or more levels of a partially resident texture (PRT) resource. The levels represent a texture at different levels of detail (LOD) and the request includes normalized coordinates indicating a location in the texture. The processor accesses a texture descriptor that includes dimensions of a first level of the levels and one or more offsets between a reference level and one or more second levels that are associated with one or more residency maps that indicate texels that are resident in the PRT resource. The processor translates the normalized coordinates to texel coordinates in the one or more residency maps based on the offset and accesses, in response to the request, the one or more residency maps based on the texel coordinates to determine whether texture data indicated by the normalized coordinates is resident in the PRT resource.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 20, 2019
    Publication date: August 6, 2020
    Inventors: Maxim V. KAZAKOV, Mark FOWLER
  • Patent number: 10725822
    Abstract: Systems, apparatuses, and methods for abstracting tasks in virtual memory identifier (VMID) containers are disclosed. A processor coupled to a memory executes a plurality of concurrent tasks including a first task. Responsive to detecting one or more instructions of the first task which correspond to a first operation, the processor retrieves a first identifier (ID) which is used to uniquely identify the first task, wherein the first ID is transparent to the first task. Then, the processor maps the first ID to a second ID and/or a third ID. The processor completes the first operation by using the second ID and/or the third ID to identify the first task to at least a first data structure. In one implementation, the first operation is a memory access operation and the first data structure is a set of page tables. Also, in one implementation, the second ID identifies a first application of the first task and the third ID identifies a first operating system (OS) of the first task.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 31, 2018
    Date of Patent: July 28, 2020
    Assignees: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc., ATI Technologies ULC
    Inventors: Anirudh R. Acharya, Michael J. Mantor, Rex Eldon McCrary, Anthony Asaro, Jeffrey Gongxian Cheng, Mark Fowler
  • Publication number: 20200042348
    Abstract: Systems, apparatuses, and methods for abstracting tasks in virtual memory identifier (VMID) containers are disclosed. A processor coupled to a memory executes a plurality of concurrent tasks including a first task. Responsive to detecting one or more instructions of the first task which correspond to a first operation, the processor retrieves a first identifier (ID) which is used to uniquely identify the first task, wherein the first ID is transparent to the first task. Then, the processor maps the first ID to a second ID and/or a third ID. The processor completes the first operation by using the second ID and/or the third ID to identify the first task to at least a first data structure. In one implementation, the first operation is a memory access operation and the first data structure is a set of page tables. Also, in one implementation, the second ID identifies a first application of the first task and the third ID identifies a first operating system (OS) of the first task.
    Type: Application
    Filed: July 31, 2018
    Publication date: February 6, 2020
    Inventors: Anirudh R. Acharya, Michael J. Mantor, Rex Eldon McCrary, Anthony Asaro, Jeffrey Gongxian Cheng, Mark Fowler
  • Patent number: 10540280
    Abstract: Techniques for performing cache invalidates and write-backs in an accelerated processing device (e.g., a graphics processing device that renders three-dimensional graphics) are disclosed. The techniques involve receiving requests from a “master” (e.g., the central processing unit). The techniques involve invalidating virtual-to-physical address translations in an address translation request. The techniques include splitting up the requests based on whether the requests target virtually or physically tagged caches. Addresses for the portions of a request that target physically tagged caches are translated using invalidated virtual-to-physical address translations for speed. The split up request is processed to generate micro-transactions for individual caches targeted by the request. Micro-transactions for physically and virtually tagged caches are processed in parallel. Once all micro-transactions for a request have been processed, the unit that made the request is notified.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 23, 2016
    Date of Patent: January 21, 2020
    Assignees: ADVANCED MICRO DEVICES, INC., ATI TECHNOLOGIES ULC
    Inventors: Mark Fowler, Jimshed Mirza, Anthony Asaro
  • Patent number: 10540802
    Abstract: A processor receives a request to access one or more levels of a partially resident texture (PRT) resource. The levels represent a texture at different levels of detail (LOD) and the request includes normalized coordinates indicating a location in the texture. The processor accesses a texture descriptor that includes dimensions of a first level of the levels and one or more offsets between a reference level and one or more second levels that are associated with one or more residency maps that indicate texels that are resident in the PRT resource. The processor translates the normalized coordinates to texel coordinates in the one or more residency maps based on the offset and accesses, in response to the request, the one or more residency maps based on the texel coordinates to determine whether texture data indicated by the normalized coordinates is resident in the PRT resource.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 31, 2019
    Date of Patent: January 21, 2020
    Assignee: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc.
    Inventors: Maxim V. Kazakov, Mark Fowler