Patent ID: 7907143
Filing Date: 2011-03-15
Classification: G06F,G06T

Abstract:
1. A method of accessing state information of a graphics processing subsystem within a computer system, the method comprising: providing a shader program to the graphics processing subsystem, the shader program including at least one state output instruction; executing multiple concurrent instances of the shader program using a plurality of programmable execution units of the graphics processing subsystem; in response to the state output instruction in a first instance of one of the multiple concurrent instances of the shader program, halting the programmable execution unit executing the first instance and transferring the state information from the graphics processing subsystem, halting a second programmable execution unit of the graphics processing subsystem from executing a second instance of the shader program; and restarting the halted second programmable execution unit with the same second instance of the shader program, wherein the first instance is able to resume execution after the state information has been transferred without negatively impacting execution of the other multiple concurrent instances.