Method for programmable timeouts of tree traversal mechanisms in hardware

G Muthler, RC BABICH, WP Newhall Jr… - US Patent …, 2021 - Google Patents
In a ray tracer, to prevent any long-running query from hanging the graphics processing unit,
a traversal coprocessor provides a preemption mechanism that will allow rays to stop …

Method for forward progress tree traversal mechanisms in hardware

G Muthler, RC BABICH, WP Newhall Jr… - US Patent …, 2020 - Google Patents
In a ray tracer, to prevent any long-running query from hanging the graphics processing unit,
a traversal coprocessor provides a preemption mechanism that will allow rays to stop …

System, method and computer program product for performing a scan operation

SM Laine, TO Aila, MJ Harris - US Patent 8,996,846, 2015 - Google Patents
US8996846B2 - System, method and computer program product for performing a scan
operation - Google Patents US8996846B2 - System, method and computer program product for …

System, method, and computer program product for grou** linearly ordered primitives

MJ Garland, TO Aila, S Sengupta - US Patent 8,773,422, 2014 - Google Patents
(57) ABSTRACT A system, method, and computer program product are pro vided for
grou** linearly ordered primitives. In operation, a plurality of primitives are linearly …

Ray tracing system, method, and computer program product for simultaneously traversing a hierarchy of rays and a hierarchy of objects

C Lauterbach, DP Luebke, MJ Garland - US Patent 8,284,188, 2012 - Google Patents
ABSTRACT A ray tracing system, method, and computer program product are provided for
simultaneously traversing a hierarchy of rays and a hierarchy of objects. In operation, a …

System, method, and computer program product for performing a scan operation on a sequence of single-bit values using a parallel processor architecture

MJ Garland, SM Laine, TO Aila, DP Luebke - US Patent 8,661,226, 2014 - Google Patents
7,194,125 B2 3/2007 Vlasic et al. 7,348,975 B2 3/2008 Reshetov et al. 7,580,927 B1 8/2009
Abugov et al. 7,616,782 B2 11/2009 Badawy 7,903,125 B1 3/2011 Ayers et al. 8,065,288 B1 …

System, method, and computer program product for converting a reduction algorithm to a segmented reduction algorithm

S Sengupta, MJ Garland - US Patent 8,321,492, 2012 - Google Patents
(57) ABSTRACT A system, method, and computer program product are pro vided for
converting a reduction algorithm to a segmented reduction algorithm. In operation, a …

Method and apparatus for the proper ordering and enumeration of multiple successive ray-surface intersections within a ray tracing architecture

I Wald - US Patent 11,107,266, 2021 - Google Patents
An apparatus and method are described for performing a distance test in a ray tracing
system. For example, one embodiment of a graphics processing apparatus comprises: a ray …

Method for forward progress and programmable timeouts of tree traversal mechanisms in hardware

G Muthler, RC BABICH, WP Newhall Jr… - US Patent …, 2022 - Google Patents
In a ray tracer, to prevent any long-running query from hanging the graphics processing unit,
a traversal coprocessor provides a preemption mechanism that will allow rays to stop …

Apparatus and method for cross-instance front-to-back traversal for ray tracing heavily-instanced scenes

I Wald, C Benthin, S Woop - US Patent App. 18/228,777, 2024 - Google Patents
Ray tracing is a technique in which a light transport is simulated through physically-based
rendering. Widely used in cinematic rendering, it was considered too resource-intensive for …