Abstract: A method, program product and system for conducting a ray tracing operation where the rendering compute requirement is reduced or otherwise adjusted in response to a changing vantage point. Aspects may update or reuse an acceleration data structure between frames in response to the changing vantage point. Tree and image construction quality may be adjusted in response to rapid changes in the camera perspective. Alternatively or additionally, tree building cycles may be skipped. All or some of the tree structure may be built in intervals, e.g., after a preset number of frames. More geometric image data may be added per leaf node in the tree in response to an increase in the rate of change. The quality of the rendering algorithm may additionally be reduced. A ray tracing algorithm may decrease the depth of recursion, and generate fewer cast and secondary rays. The ray tracer may further reduce the quality of soft shadows, resolution and global illumination samples, among other quality parameters.

Abstract: A method, program product and system for conducting a ray tracing operation where the rendering compute requirement is reduced by varying the size of bounding volumes into which image data is divided and/or by varying a number of primitives included within nodes of an acceleration data structure that correspond to the bounding volumes.

Abstract: Embodiments of the invention provide an efficient and flexible organization of data for an acceleration data structure (e.g., spatial index). In contrast to storing primitive information within a spatial index, embodiments of the invention may store pointers in the spatial index which point to or link to primitive-defining information in buffers. Storing pointers to primitive-defining information may reduce the size of the spatial index. Additionally, embodiments of the invention enable vertex and triangle sharing. Vertex and triangle sharing may reduce the amount of storage space required to define the primitives within the three-dimensional scene. Furthermore, the data organization provided by the embodiments of the invention allows for easy manipulation of the spatial index and primitive data.

Abstract: A circuit arrangement and method provide a hybrid rendering architecture capable of interfacing a streaming geometry frontend with a physical rendering backend using a dynamic accelerated data structure (ADS) generator. The dynamic ADS generator effectively parallelizes the generation of the ADS, such that an ADS may be built using a plurality of parallel threads of execution. By doing so, both the frontend and backend rendering processes are amendable to parallelization, and enabling if so desired real time rendering using physical rendering techniques such as ray tracing and photon mapping. Furthermore, conventional streaming geometry frontends such as OpenGL and DirectX compatible frontends can readily be adapted for use with physical rendering backends, thereby enabling developers to continue to develop with known API's, yet still obtain the benefits of physical rendering techniques.

Abstract: A multithreaded rendering software pipeline architecture utilizes a rolling context data structure to store multiple contexts that are associated with different image elements that are being processed in the software pipeline. Each context stores state data for a particular image element, and the association of each image element with a context is maintained as the image element is passed from stage to stage of the software pipeline, thus ensuring that the state used by the different stages of the software pipeline when processing the image element remains coherent irrespective of state changes made for other image elements being processed by the software pipeline. Multiple image elements may therefore be processed concurrently by the software pipeline, and often without regard for synchronization or serialization of state changes that affect only certain image elements.

Abstract: A circuit arrangement and method support a multithreaded rendering architecture capable of dynamically routing pixel fragments from a pixel fragment generator to any pixel shader from among a pool of pixel shaders. The pixel fragment generator is therefore not tied to a specific pixel shader, but is instead able to utilize multiple pixel shaders in a pool of pixel shaders to minimize bottlenecks and improve overall hardware utilization and performance during image processing.

Abstract: A circuit arrangement and method perform concurrent texture processing of groups of pixels with a single instruction multiple data (SIMD) execution unit to improve the utilization of the SIMD execution unit when performing scalar operations associated with a texture processing algorithm. In addition, when utilized in connection with a multi-threaded SIMD execution unit, groups of pixels may be concurrently processed in different threads executed by the SIMD execution unit to further maximize the utilization of the SIMD execution unit by reducing the adverse effects of dependencies in scalar and/or vector operations incorporated into a texture processing algorithm.

Abstract: An apparatus and program product manage access to a remote computing grid that is not normally accessible to a client. A client computer may communicate with the computing grid via a dropbox configured to receive and distribute data between the client computer and the grid. The connection may remain open while multiple commands are thus communicated to the computing grid, and the identity of the client submitting the commands may be authenticated.

Abstract: By employing a two-tier load balancing scheme, embodiments of the present invention may reduce the overhead of shared resource management, while increasing the potential aggregate throughput of a thread pool. As a result, the techniques presented herein may lead to increased performance in many computing environments, such as graphics intensive gaming.

Abstract: A simulation system includes glitch injection circuitry in one or more hardware design units to allow the injection of glitches or noise to evaluate the system's response to errors on signals between the hardware design units. The simulation system includes a stimulation module with a set of drivers to input simulation patterns into the design units. Some inputs to software models are driven by the outputs of software models of another design unit. The stimulation module can monitor these signals driven by the software model but it is difficult for the stimulation module to directly drive these signals. The added glitch circuitry allows injection of errors into the simulated hardware by the stimulation module on signals that are not directly driven by the stimulation module but are driven by the outputs of hardware design units.

Abstract: An apparatus, program product and method for managing access to a remote computing grid that is not normally accessible to a client. A client computer may communicate with the computing grid via a dropbox configured to receive and distribute data between the client computer and the grid. The connection may remain open while multiple commands are thus communicated to the computing grid, and the identity of the client submitting the commands may be authenticated.

Abstract: According to embodiments of the invention, methods and apparatus are provided for tracking the status or state of a message spawned or sent from one processing element to another processing element in a multiple core processing element network. According to embodiments of the invention, a message status tracker may be incorporated within a multiple core processing element network. As a message is spawned or sent from an originating processing element to a receiving processing element, a counter within the message status tracker may be incremented. If the receiving processing element spawns further messages in response to the received message, the counter may be further incremented. When a receiving processing element finishes a process in response to a received message, the receiving processing element may decrement the counter. When the counter is decremented to an original value (e.g., zero) the original message may be considered complete.

Abstract: A method, article of manufacture and apparatus for simulating a plurality of transactions. A first group of transactions with first simulation properties are provided and a second group of transactions with second simulation properties are provided. The first simulation properties are different from the second simulation properties. During software simulation of a hardware model, the first group of transactions and the second group of transactions are issued to the hardware model. The first group of transactions and the second group of transactions are processed using the hardware model. At least a portion of the first group of transactions and the second group of transactions is processed simultaneously using the hardware model. The first simulation properties are used to process the first group of transactions using the hardware model and wherein the second simulation properties are used to process the second group of transactions using the hardware model.

Abstract: A simulation system includes glitch injection circuitry in one or more hardware design units to allow the injection of glitches or noise to evaluate the system's response to errors on signals between the hardware design units. The simulation system includes a stimulation module with a set of drivers to input simulation patterns into the design units. Some inputs to software models are driven by the outputs of software models of another design unit. The stimulation module can monitor these signals driven by the software model but it is difficult for the stimulation module to directly drive these signals. The added glitch circuitry allows injection of errors into the simulated hardware by the stimulation module on signals that are not directly driven by the stimulation module but are driven by the outputs of hardware design units.

Abstract: A simulation system includes glitch injection circuitry in one or more hardware design units to allow the injection of glitches or noise to evaluate the system's response to errors on signals between the hardware design units. The simulation system includes a stimulation module with a set of drivers to input simulation patterns into the design units. Some inputs to software models are driven by the outputs of software models of another design unit. The stimulation module can monitor these signals driven by the software model but it is difficult for the stimulation module to directly drive these signals. The added glitch circuitry allows injection of errors into the simulated hardware by the stimulation module on signals that are not directly driven by the stimulation module but are driven by the outputs of hardware design units.

Abstract: Embodiments of the invention may update an ADS (e.g., spatial index) when an object moves into an empty bounding volume by partitioning the empty bounding volume and adding corresponding nodes to an ADS. The added nodes may be branched to from an empty leaf node which corresponds to the empty bounding volume. Furthermore, embodiments of the invention may update an ADS when an object moves out of the empty bounding volume by removing the nodes which were added when the object moved into the empty bounding volume. In order to locate the nodes which were added, embodiments of the invention may assert a bit in a data structure associated with the empty leaf node when the nodes are added to the ADS.

Abstract: Embodiments of the invention provide an efficient and flexible organization of data for an acceleration data structure (e.g., spatial index). In contrast to storing primitive information within a spatial index, embodiments of the invention may store pointers in the spatial index which point to or link to primitive-defining information in buffers. Storing pointers to primitive-defining information may reduce the size of the spatial index. Additionally, embodiments of the invention enable vertex and triangle sharing. Vertex and triangle sharing may reduce the amount of storage space required to define the primitives within the three-dimensional scene. Furthermore, the data organization provided by the embodiments of the invention allows for easy manipulation of the spatial index and primitive data.