Patents by Inventor Serge Metral

Serge Metral 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).

  • Use of multi-thread hardware for efficient sampling
    Patent number: 9405575
    Abstract: This disclosure pertains to systems, methods, and computer readable media for utilizing an unused hardware thread of a multi-core microcontroller of a graphical processing unit (GPU) to gather sampling data of commands being executed by the GPU. The multi-core microcontroller may include two or more hardware threads and may be responsible for managing the scheduling of commands on the GPU. In one embodiment, the firmware code of the multi-core microcontroller which is responsible for running the GPU may run entirely on one hardware thread of the microcontroller, while the second hardware thread is kept in a dormant state. This second hardware thread may be used for gathering sampling data of the commands run on the GPU. The sampling data can be used to assist developers identify bottlenecks and to help them optimize their software programs.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 9, 2013
    Date of Patent: August 2, 2016
    Assignee: Apple Inc.
    Inventors: Zachary Burka, Serge Metral
  • Use of Multi-Thread Hardware For Efficient Sampling
    Publication number: 20150074668
    Abstract: This disclosure pertains to systems, methods, and computer readable media for utilizing an unused hardware thread of a multi-core microcontroller of a graphical processing unit (GPU) to gather sampling data of commands being executed by the GPU. The multi-core microcontroller may include two or more hardware threads and may be responsible for managing the scheduling of commands on the GPU. In one embodiment, the firmware code of the multi-core microcontroller which is responsible for running the GPU may run entirely on one hardware thread of the microcontroller, while the second hardware thread is kept in a dormant state. This second hardware thread may be used for gathering sampling data of the commands run on the GPU. The sampling data can be used to assist developers identify bottlenecks and to help them optimize their software programs.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 9, 2013
    Publication date: March 12, 2015
    Applicant: Apple Inc.
    Inventors: Zachary Burka, Serge Metral