Patent ID: 8432410
Filing Date: 2013-04-30
Classification: G06T

Abstract:
1. A method for providing image data represented in shared exponent format for graphics processing, comprising: receiving, from a three-dimensional (3D) graphics applications programming interface (API) extension, source image data specified by an application program, wherein the source image data is not represented in the shared exponent format; receiving, from the 3D graphics API extension, a format parameter that specifies the shared exponent format for destination image data, wherein the shared exponent format has a shared exponent bias of 15 and a mantissa value of zero indicates an image component value of the destination image data is zero independent of a value of the shared exponent; encoding, by a pixel processing pipeline instead of the application program, the source image data into the shared exponent format to produce the destination image data represented in the shared exponent format when the source image data is not represented in the shared exponent format specified by the format parameter; and transmitting the destination image data represented in the shared exponent format to a graphics memory for storage.