Abstract: One embodiment of the invention sets forth a mechanism for compiling a vertex shader program into two portions, a culling portion and a shading portion. The culling portion of the compiled vertex shader program specifies vertex attributes and instructions of the vertex shader program needed to determine whether early vertex culling operations should be performed on a batch of vertices associated with one or more primitives of a graphics scene. The shading portion of the compiled vertex shader program specifies the remaining vertex attributes and instructions of the vertex shader program for performing vertex lighting and performing other operations on the vertices in the batch of vertices. When the compiled vertex shader program is executed by graphics processing hardware, the shading portion of the compiled vertex shader is executed only when early vertex culling operations are not performed on the batch of vertices.

Abstract: One embodiment of the invention sets forth a mechanism for compiling a vertex shader program into two portions, a culling portion and a shading portion. The culling portion of the compiled vertex shader program specifies vertex attributes and instructions of the vertex shader program needed to determine whether early vertex culling operations should be performed on a batch of vertices associated with one or more primitives of a graphics scene. The shading portion of the compiled vertex shader program specifies the remaining vertex attributes and instructions of the vertex shader program for performing vertex lighting and performing other operations on the vertices in the batch of vertices. When the compiled vertex shader program is executed by graphics processing hardware, the shading portion of the compiled vertex shader is executed only when early vertex culling operations are not performed on the batch of vertices.

Abstract: A system and method schedules command streams for processing by a variety of consumers. A single command stream is parsed and commands included in the command stream are output to one of the variety of consumers at a time. A pre-emptive scheduling mechanism is used so that a first consumer may yield to a second consumer when the first consumer has received a sufficient amount of commands. The pre-emptive scheduling enables several of the consumers to process commands concurrently. The pre-emptive scheduling mechanism may be implemented by a device driver inserting yield commands into the command stream or by a unit parsing the command stream.

Abstract: A graphics pipeline rasterizes primitives and generates a stream of groups of pixels, such as a stream of pixel quads. A tile coalesce unit received the stream of groups of pixels and generates pixel tiles for use by downstream pixel processing units. The pixel tiles facilitate hazard checks and transaction coherency.

Abstract: Graphics processing devices and methods are provided for culling small primitives that do not cover any pixels. A boundary (e.g., a diamond) is defined around a pixel center, with pixel coverage being determined for some types of primitives based on whether the boundary is crossed. The boundaries divide the raster into internal regions and external regions. Each region is assigned a unique canonical identifier. Each vertex of a primitive is assigned the canonical identifier corresponding to the region that contains that vertex. The canonical coordinates of the vertices are used to cull primitives that do not satisfy the boundary crossing coverage rules for any pixels.