Patent Document

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION  
       [0001]     This application is a continuation of International Application PCT/JP2005/010830 filed on Jun. 14, 2005, pending at the time of filing of this continuation application and claims priority from Japanese Patent Application 2004-293459 filed on Oct. 6, 2004, the contents of which are herein wholly incorporated by reference. 
     
    
     BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION  
       [0002]     1. Field of the Invention  
         [0003]     The invention relates to an information processing technology, and more particularly to an information processing device having a graphic processor for executing image processing operations, and a data transmission method of that device.  
         [0004]     2. Description of the Related Art  
         [0005]     Computer graphics technologies and image processing technologies for use in the fields of computer games, digital broadcasting, and the like have made significant progress in recent years. Information processing devices such as computers, game consoles, and television sets are thus in need of capabilities for processing image data of higher definitions at higher speed accordingly. These information processing devices are then equipped with a graphic processor dedicated to image processing aside from their main processors for ordinary arithmetic processing, so that the main processors are freed from image processing for reduced system overhead.  
         [0006]     In order for these information processing devices to achieve sophisticated arithmetic processing, it is effective to constitute their main processors as multiprocessors. Multiprocessors assign a plurality of tasks to a plurality of processors thereof for parallel processing. Meanwhile, graphic processors perform image processing corresponding to the plurality of tasks processed by the main processors, so as to correspond to the high-speed operations of the main processors. The resulting image frames and other data are typically stored into memories once and displayed on displays or the like in order.  
         [0007]     As computer images, television images, and the like grow in definition, and the image data increases in size, memories of greater capacities have become necessary to store the image data generated by the graphic processors. Moreover, performing image processing at high speed and making screen display at high frame rates requires main processors which are capable of high-speed processing, and memories that can be accessed at high speed by the graphic processors and the like. In response to these demands, the devices are ever increasing in total cost, thereby creating a high barrier against the prevalence of the devices and their application technologies.  
       SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION  
       [0008]     The present invention has been achieved in view of the foregoing problems. It is thus an advantage of the present invention to provide a technology for achieving high-definition image processing at low cost.  
         [0009]     One of the embodiment of the present invention relates to an information processing device. This information processing device comprises: a main processor which exercises centralized control on the entire device, the main processor including a plurality of operating units; a graphic processor which executes an image processing operation; and a main memory which stores data including image frame data. A data bus to be shared between the plurality of operating units in the main processor is connected at one end to the graphic processor and at the other end to the main memory.  
         [0010]     The graphic processor may transfer generated image frame data to the main memory through the data bus via the main processor. The graphic processor may have a graphic memory which stores the generated image frame data temporarily.  
         [0011]     Incidentally, any combinations of the foregoing components, and any conversions of expressions of the present invention from/into methods, apparatuses, systems, computer programs, and the like are also intended to constitute applicable aspects of the present invention. 
     
    
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS  
       [0012]      FIG. 1  is a diagram showing an example of the configuration of a typical personal computer;  
         [0013]      FIG. 2  is a block diagram showing the configuration of the information processing device according to an embodiment; and  
         [0014]      FIG. 3  is a diagram for explaining the transmission rate of the data bus according to the present embodiment. 
     
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION  
       [0015]     In order to clarify the features of the present embodiment, a typical configuration of an information processing device having image processing functions will initially be described with reference to  FIG. 1 .  FIG. 1  is a diagram showing an example of the configuration of a typical personal computer  200 . For efficient image processing, the personal computer  200  is generally provided with a graphic processor  10  and a main memory  80  aside from a main processor  40 . The main processor  40  exercises control on the entire device and performs related calculations. The graphic processor  10  is dedicated to image processing operations. The main memory  80  stores programs, and data necessary for executing the programs. The main processor  40 , the graphic processor  10 , and the main memory  80  each are connected to a circuit called north bridge  208 . The north bridge  208  is intended for bus control, and provides transceiver functions and arbitration functions among a plurality of buses. In the north bridge  208 , buses connected to such components as the main processor  40 , the graphic processor  10 , and the main memory  80  are controlled so that desired data can be transmitted between the components. The north bridge  208  is also connected to a circuit intended for input and output control, called south bridge  210 . The south bridge  210  is connected with input and output units such as a hard disk unit  212  and a DVD (Digital Versatile Disk) drive unit  214 .  
         [0016]     The typical personal computer  200  is also provided with a not-shown graphic memory which is put under the control of the graphic processor  10 . The graphic memory stores data on image frames and fields (hereinafter, referred to collectively as “image frames”) generated by image processing in the graphic processor  10 , and data necessary for the image processing. The graphic memory may sometimes be incorporated into the graphic processor  10 . Alternatively, a dedicated area serving as the graphic memory may be allocated in the main memory  80 . When the graphic memory is incorporated into the graphic processor  10 , it can transmit data to/from functional blocks in the graphic processor  10  at high speed, though with an increase in the manufacturing cost of the device. When part of the main memory  80  is used as the graphic memory, a broadband data bus must be reserved between the main memory  80  and the graphic processor  10  so that image frame data can be transmitted to a display unit at high frame rates. This means difficulties in design. This problem becomes more apparent as the image frames increase in data size.  
         [0017]     Even when the main processor  40  is given a multiprocessor configuration for speedup, the foregoing problems make it difficult to display fine images at high frame rates while suppressing an increase in cost. As above, the inventor has recognized the importance of promoting the efficiency of data transmission between the processor and the memory, and has conceived the configuration as shown in the present embodiment.  
         [0018]      FIG. 2  is a block diagram showing the configuration of an information processing device  100  according to the embodiment of the present invention. The information processing device  100  includes a graphic processor  10 , a main processor  40 , and a main memory  80 . The graphic processor  10  and the main memory  80  are connected to each other via a data bus  30  which is shared among a plurality of control operating units  42  in the main processor  40 . It will be understood by those skilled in the art that these functional blocks may be achieved in various forms including hardware alone, software alone, and a combination of these, and not limited to any one of them.  
         [0019]     This information processing device  100  runs an operating system which provides functions and environment for effective use of the information processing device  100 , and exercises centralized control on the entire device. A plurality of application programs (hereinafter, referred to simply as applications) are executed on the operating system.  
         [0020]     The main processor  40  includes a plurality of control operating units  42  which process tasks corresponding to the applications in parallel. The control operating units  42  have respective DMA controllers  16  inside. By activating the internal DMA controllers  16 , the control operating units  42  can transfer data mutually via the data bus  30  and can transfer data to/from the graphic processor  10  or the main memory  80 . One of the control operating units  42  may be selected as a management processor. The management processor may divide the tasks corresponding to a plurality of applications in a time-shared fashion, and may assign the tasks corresponding to the respective applications to the other control operating units  42  in units of time slices for execution. The control operating unit  42  serving as the management processor may control data transmission of the other control operating units  42  by activating their DMA controllers  16  inside.  
         [0021]     As with the configuration of the typical personal computer of  FIG. 1 , the main processor  40  may further be connected to a south bridge so that it is capable of input and output from/to a hard disk unit, a DVD drive unit, and the like (not shown).  
         [0022]     The graphic processor  10  is a block or unit dedicated to image-related processing, and performs rendering etc. The graphic processor  10  includes a control block  12 , an image operating unit  14 , a DMA controller  16 , a graphic memory  18 , and a display controller  20 . These blocks are connected to each other with not-shown internal buses, and transmit and receive data signals to/from each other.  
         [0023]     The control block  12  is one for controlling the entire graphic processor  10 . The control block  12  exercises centralized control on the image operating unit  14 , the DMA controller  16  in the graphic processor  10 , the graphic memory  18 , and the display controller  20 , and performs a synchronization management on data transmission between the blocks, interruption processing, a timer management, and other processings.  
         [0024]     The image operating unit  14  performs various image-related arithmetic processing under the control of the control block  12 . Among the examples of the processing is a series of rendering processes by which image frame data is generated from three-dimensional modeling data through coordinate transformation, hidden surface elimination, and shading, and is written to the graphic memory  18 . In order to perform the processing pertaining to three-dimensional graphics at high speed in particularly, the image operating unit  14  may include such functional blocks as a not-shown rasterizer, a shader unit, and a texture unit.  
         [0025]     The DMA controller  16  of the graphic processor  10  controls the data transmission of the graphic processor  10  to/from the control operating units  42  in the main processor  40  and the main memory  80 , under instructions from the control block  12 . In the present embodiment, image frame data generated in the graphic processor  10  is sequentially transferred to the main memory  80  through the data bus  30  by activating the DMA controller  16  in the graphic processor  10 .  
         [0026]     The graphic memory  18  is a memory area dedicated to graphics-related data to be used and managed by the graphic processor  10 . Aside from its frame buffer, Z buffer, and the like for storing image frame data temporarily, the graphic memory  18  may also include an area for storing basic data to be referred to in drawing the image frame data, such as vertex data, texture data, and color lookup tables.  
         [0027]     For example, image frame data resulting from rasterization, shading, and the like in the image operating unit  14  is once written to the frame buffer. The image operating unit  14  may also apply fogging, alpha blending, and other processing to the image frame data written in the frame buffer, thereby determining final drawing colors for data update.  
         [0028]     The display controller  20  generates horizontal and vertical synchronizing signals. According to the display timing of a display unit  22 , the display controller  20  reads pixel data out of the image frame data stored in the main memory  80  line by line in succession. Moreover, the display controller  20  converts the pixel data read line by line from the form of digital data consisting of RGB color values into a format compatible to the display unit  22 , and outputs the resultant.  
         [0029]     Next, description will be given of the process by which the configuration shown in  FIG. 2  performs image processing.  
         [0030]     Initially, the control operating units  41  of the main processor  40  are processing tasks corresponding to currently-running applications in parallel. Suppose here that the need for data to be transmitted between the control operating units  42  arises, such as when a control operating unit  42  serving as the management processor for controlling the other control operating units  42  transfers control-related data to the other control operating units  42 . Then, the control operating units  42  activate their DMA controllers  16  inside and perform data transmission by using the data bus  30 .  
         [0031]     In the present embodiment, the data bus  30  shared among the control operating units  42  is also connected to the main memory  80 . As a result, data obtained resulting from operations in the control operating units  42  can be transferred directly to the main memory  80  by activating the DMA controllers  16  in the respective control operating units  42 .  
         [0032]     If any need for image processing arises while the control operating units  42  are processing the tasks, the main processor  40  requests the graphic processor  10  to perform the image processing. In the graphic processor  10 , the control block  12  accepts the request for the image processing from the main processor  40 , and exercises control so that the processing is performed in the image operating unit  14 . In the present embodiment, the data bus  30  shared among the control operating units  42  in the main processor  40  is also connected to the graphic processor  10 . Texture data and drawing primitive data necessary for the image operating unit  14  to perform the image processing are thus transmitted from the control operating units  42  through the data bus  30 , and stored into the graphic memory  18 . Here, the graphic processor  10  may issue data transfer commands by activating the DMA controller  16  in the graphic processor  10  depending on the internal state of processing. Alternatively, the DMA controllers in the control operating units  42  may be activated at the time of requesting the image processing so that the transfer commands are issued from the control operating units  42 . Moreover, the data may be once transferred from the control operating units  42  to the main memory  80  through the data bus  30 . The data is then transferred from the main memory  80  to the graphic memory  18  when the graphic processor  10  activates the DMA controller  16  in the graphic processor  10  in accordance with the internal state of processing. In this case, the control operating units  42  shall transmit such information as the addresses of locations where the necessary data is stored in the main memory  80  to the graphic processor  10  when requesting the image processing of the graphic processor  10 .  
         [0033]     The image frame data generated by the image operating unit  14  is sequentially transferred to the main memory  80  through the data bus  30  by activating the DMA controller  16  in the graphic processor  10 . Here, the graphic memory  18  may be used as a temporary memory area before transfer.  
         [0034]     The image frame data sequentially stored in the main memory  80  is read and transmitted by the display controller  20  in accordance with the display timing of the display unit  22 . The image frame data is thus transferred to the display unit  22  through the data bus  30  and the graphic processor  10  in succession.  
         [0035]     The display unit  22  typically draws an image frame by drawing the scan lines of the screen left to right or top to bottom in succession. When the bottom right of the screen is reached, the scan line returns to the top left again to draw the next image frame. The time for the scan line to return from the bottom right to the top left of the screen is called vertical blanking interval, which is approximately 670 μs. Each single image frame must be transmitted from the main memory  80  to the graphic processor  10  within this vertical blanking interval. For example, in the cases of high-definition TV pictures or the like where a screenful of image having a transfer size of 8 MB is displayed, the data bus  30  requires a transfer rate of 8 MB/670 μs≈12 GB/s.  
         [0036]     In the present embodiment, the broadband data bus  30  by which the individual control operating units  42  are connected in the multiprocessor system is simply extended up to the main memory  80  and the graphic processor  10 . The high-speed data transmission is thus achieved easily. To complete the transfer in a single clock, the bus width W of the data bus  30  is set to satisfy the inequality S≦WF, where S is the transfer rate necessary for the foregoing image display and F is the clock frequency. For example, if the data bus  30  is given a bus width of 64 bits, a transfer rate of 20 GB/s can be obtained at a clock frequency of 5 GHz. When this data bus  30  is used to transfer image frame data from the main memory  80  to the graphic processor  10 , it is sufficiently possible to display 8MB-class high-definition images, such as high-definition TV pictures mentioned above, without dropping frames while allowing for data transfer other than the image data, for a practical rate, and so on.  
         [0037]     In the present embodiment, the image frame data generated by the graphic processor  10  is transmitted to the main memory  80  sequentially, and thus the graphic memory  18  in the graphic processor  10  does not require a large capacity. A buffering capacity as much as a single frame is not free of concern about an overflow, whereas too large a memory capacity can cause problems in cost and design. The graphic memory  18  is thus given a capacity equivalent to two frames or smaller, for example. Since the role of the graphic memory  18  implemented in the graphic processor  10  is partly committed to the main memory  80  and the capacity of the graphic memory  18  is minimized, it is possible to manufacture high-performance information processing devices at low prices and to promote the prevalence of the devices. Design is also facilitated.  
         [0038]      FIG. 3  is a diagram for explaining the transmission rate of the data bus  30  according to the present embodiment. The data bus  30  is composed of data buses  30   a  to  30   d.  The data buses  30   a  and  30   b  are intended to transfer generated image frame data from the graphic processor  10  to the main memory  80  via the main processor  40 . The data buses  30   c  and  30   d  are intended for transfer from the main memory  80  to the graphic processor  10  via the main processor  40 . In order for the information processing device of the present embodiment to exert sufficient effects in processing high-definition images, the data buses  30   a  to  30   d  shall have the following bus widths. That is, these data buses are configured to satisfy at least the condition that S≦WaF, WbF, WcF, WdF, where Wa is the bus width of the data bus  30   a,  Wb is the bus width of the data bus  30   b,  Wc is the bus width of the data bus  30   c,  Wd is the bus width of the data bus  30   d,  S is the transmission rate at which a single image frame can be transmitted within the vertical blanking interval, and F is the clock frequency. This precludes a delay in sending out image frame data to the display unit  22  ascribable to the data transmission processing between the graphic processor  10  and the main memory  80 .  
         [0039]     The data bus  30   d  extending from the main processor  40  to the graphic processor  10  is required to transfer texture data, drawing primitive data, and other data necessary for image processing when the main processor  40  requests the image processing of the graphic processor  10 . Providing a yet higher transfer rate for the data bus  30   d  precludes the transfer of the image frame data from being interfered with data transfer necessary for such image processing. The bus widths are thus determined so that S≦WaF, WbF, WcF≦WdF. Here, assuming the image frames of 8 MB mentioned above, the bus widths are determined so that the transmission rates WaF, WbF, WcF, and WdF reach or exceed 12 GB/s.  
         [0040]     With the foregoing configuration, images can be displayed on the display unit  22  without delay even under the conditions of the present embodiment that image frame data is stored in the main memory  80  and the data bus  30  extending to/from the graphic processor  10  is also used to transmit other data. This configuration is advantageous in terms of manufacturing cost and in design as compared to the cases where a high-capacity graphic memory is provided separately and where a special bus is provided for graphics use.  
         [0041]     In the present embodiment, a bus originally provided in the main processor  40  is utilized to establish connection between the graphic processor  10  and the main memory  80 . In particular, the multiprocessor structure has broadband buses, and thus is sufficiently capable of the high-rate data transmission according to the present embodiment. This configuration is advantageous in terms of packaging area and timing design since it eliminates the need to lay a number of buses inside the chip.  
         [0042]     Up to this point, the present invention has been described in conjunction with the embodiment thereof. The foregoing embodiment has been given solely by way of illustration. It will be understood by those skilled in the art that various modifications may be made to combinations of the foregoing components and processes, and all such modifications are also intended to fall within the scope of the present invention.  
         [0043]     The embodiment has dealt with the case where the data bus  30  is shared by the graphic processor  10 , the main processor  40 , and the main memory  80 . With the same configuration, the graphic processor  10  may be replaced with a processor having different functions. For example, a plurality of blocks having the functions of the main processor  40  of the present embodiment may be provided and connected to the main memory with the single data bus. Even in this case, it is possible to transfer large sizes of data at high speed without the provision of memories for the respective blocks. A highly reliable device can thus be achieved at low price.  
         [0044]     As above, the present invention is applicable to electronic apparatuses which handle large sizes of data, such as computers, game consoles, and television sets.

Technology Category: 3