Patents by Inventor William Craig McKnight

William Craig McKnight 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: 9607407
    Abstract: A method, in one embodiment, can include performing difference transformation of image samples. In addition, the method can also include performing length selection. Furthermore; the method can include performing packing that includes utilizing varying sized bit fields to produce a compressed representation.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 31, 2012
    Date of Patent: March 28, 2017
    Assignee: NVIDIA CORPORATION
    Inventors: Jonathan Dunaisky, David Kirk McAllister, William Craig McKnight
  • Patent number: 9569348
    Abstract: One embodiment of the present invention sets forth a technique for performing a method for compressing page table entries (PTEs) prior to storing the PTEs in a translation look-aside buffer (TLB). A page table entry (PTE) request is received for a PTE that is not stored in the TLB. The PTE as well as a plurality of PTEs that are adjacent to the PTE are retrieved from a memory. The PTE and the plurality of PTEs are compressed and then stored in the TLB.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 23, 2010
    Date of Patent: February 14, 2017
    Assignee: NVIDIA Corporation
    Inventors: James Leroy Deming, Mark Allen Mosley, William Craig McKnight
  • Patent number: 9530189
    Abstract: A method for compressing framebuffer data is presented. The method includes determining a reduction ratio for framebuffer data in a tile including multiple samples. The reduction ratio determined is independent of the sampling mode, where the sampling mode is the number of samples within each pixel in the tile. The method further includes comparing a first portion of the framebuffer data for each of the multiple samples to determine an equality comparison result and also comparing a second portion of the framebuffer data for each one of the multiple samples to compute per-channel differences for each one of the multiple samples and testing the per-channel differences against a threshold value to determine a threshold comparison result. Finally, the method comprises compressing the framebuffer data for the tile based on the reduction ratio, the equality comparison result and the threshold comparison result to produce output framebuffer data for the tile.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 27, 2012
    Date of Patent: December 27, 2016
    Assignee: NVIDIA CORPORATION
    Inventors: Jonathan Dunaisky, David Kirk McAllister, Steven E. Molnar, Narayan Kulshrestha, Rui Bastos, Joseph Detmer, William Craig McKnight
  • Patent number: 9183609
    Abstract: A technique for efficiently rendering content reduces each complex blend mode to a series of basic blend operations. The series of basic blend operations are executed within a recirculating pipeline until a final blended value is computed. The recirculating pipeline is positioned within a color raster operations unit of a graphics processing unit for efficient access to image buffer data.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 20, 2012
    Date of Patent: November 10, 2015
    Assignee: NVIDIA Corporation
    Inventors: Rui Bastos, Mark J. Kilgard, William Craig McKnight, Jerome F. Duluk, Jr., Pierre Souillot, Dale L. Kirkland, Christian Amsinck, Joseph Detmer, Christian Rouet, Don Bittel
  • Publication number: 20140176568
    Abstract: A technique for efficiently rendering content reduces each complex blend mode to a series of basic blend operations. The series of basic blend operations are executed within a recirculating pipeline until a final blended value is computed. The recirculating pipeline is positioned within a color raster operations unit of a graphics processing unit for efficient access to image buffer data.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 20, 2012
    Publication date: June 26, 2014
    Applicant: NVIDIA CORPORATION
    Inventors: Rui BASTOS, Mark J. Kilgard, William Craig McKnight, Jerome F. Duluk, Pierre Souillot, Dale L. Kirkland, Christian Amsinck, Joseph Detmer, Christian Rouet, Don Bittel
  • Publication number: 20130249897
    Abstract: A method for compressing framebuffer data is presented. The method includes determining a reduction ratio for framebuffer data in a tile including multiple samples. The reduction ratio determined is independent of the sampling mode, where the sampling mode is the number of samples within each pixel in the tile. The method further includes comparing a first portion of the framebuffer data for each of the multiple samples to determine an equality comparison result and also comparing a second portion of the framebuffer data for each one of the multiple samples to compute per-channel differences for each one of the multiple samples and testing the per-channel differences against a threshold value to determine a threshold comparison result. Finally, the method comprises compressing the framebuffer data for the tile based on the reduction ratio, the equality comparison result and the threshold comparison result to produce output framebuffer data for the tile.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 27, 2012
    Publication date: September 26, 2013
    Applicant: NVIDIA CORPORATION
    Inventors: Jonathan Dunaisky, David Kirk McAllister, Steven E. Molnar, Narayan Kulshrestha, Rui Bastos, Joseph Detmer, William Craig McKnight
  • Patent number: 8341380
    Abstract: One embodiment of the present invention sets forth a system and method for supporting high-throughput virtual to physical address translation using compressed TLB cache lines with variable address range coverage. The amount of memory covered by a TLB cache line depends on the page size and page table entry (PTE) compression level. When a TLB miss occurs, a cache line is allocated with an assumed address range that may be larger or smaller than the address range of the PTE data actually returned. Subsequent requests that hit a cache line with a fill pending are queued until the fill completes. When the fill completes, the cache line's address range is set to the address range of the PTE data returned. Queued requests are replayed and any that fall outside the actual address range are reissued, potentially generating additional misses and fills.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 5, 2010
    Date of Patent: December 25, 2012
    Assignee: NVIDIA Corporation
    Inventors: James Leroy Deming, Mark Allen Mosley, William Craig McKnight, Emmett M. Kilgrariff, Steven E. Molnar, Colyn Scott Case
  • Publication number: 20110072235
    Abstract: One embodiment of the present invention sets forth a system and method for supporting high-throughput virtual to physical address translation using compressed TLB cache lines with variable address range coverage. The amount of memory covered by a TLB cache line depends on the page size and page table entry (PTE) compression level. When a TLB miss occurs, a cache line is allocated with an assumed address range that may be larger or smaller than the address range of the PTE data actually returned. Subsequent requests that hit a cache line with a fill pending are queued until the fill completes. When the fill completes, the cache line's address range is set to the address range of the PTE data returned. Queued requests are replayed and any that fall outside the actual address range are reissued, potentially generating additional misses and fills.
    Type: Application
    Filed: August 5, 2010
    Publication date: March 24, 2011
    Inventors: James Leroy Deming, Mark Allen Mosley, William Craig McKnight, Emmett M. Kilgrariff, Steven E. Molnar, Colyn Scott Case