AMD Patent Grants

Graphics texture footprint discovery

Granted: April 4, 2023
Patent Number: 11620788
Accesses to a mipmap by a shader in a graphics pipeline are monitored. The mipmap is stored in a memory or cache associated with the shader and the mipmap represents a texture at a hierarchy of levels of detail. A footprint in the mipmap of the texture is marked based on the monitored accesses. The footprint indicates, on a per-tile, per-level-of-detail (LOD) basis, tiles of the mipmap that are expected to be accessed in subsequent shader operations. In some cases, the footprint is…

Dropout for accelerated deep learning in heterogeneous architectures

Granted: April 4, 2023
Patent Number: 11620525
A heterogeneous processing system includes at least one central processing unit (CPU) core and at least one graphics processing unit (GPU) core. The heterogeneous processing system is configured to compute an activation for each one of a plurality of neurons for a first network layer of a neural network. The heterogeneous processing system randomly drops a first subset of the plurality of neurons for the first network layer and keeps a second subset of the plurality of neurons for the…

Optical bridge interconnect unit for adjacent processors

Granted: April 4, 2023
Patent Number: 11620248
A system and method for efficient data transfer in a computing system are described. A computing system includes multiple nodes that receive tasks to process. A bridge interconnect transfers data between two processing nodes without the aid of a system bus on the motherboard. One of the multiple bridge interconnects of the computing system is an optical bridge interconnect that transmits optical information across the optical bridge interconnect between two nodes. The receiving node uses…

Adaptive lens step control with multiple filters for camera fast auto focus

Granted: March 28, 2023
Patent Number: 11616901
An apparatus and method for efficiently determining a final camera lens position that captures a focused input image are described. An image signal processing system of a camera capable of performing automatic focus includes a camera lens, an image sensor, a focus engine, and a lens controller. Rather than generate a single contrast value based on digital signals corresponding to a single image, the focus engine uses at least two value generators to generate multiple contrast values. The…

Statically generated compiled representations for processing data in neural networks

Granted: March 28, 2023
Patent Number: 11615306
An electronic device includes a memory that stores input matrices A and B, a cache memory, and a processor. The processor generates a compiled representation that includes values for acquiring data from input matrix A when processing instances of input data through the neural network, the values including a base address in input matrix A for each thread from among a number of threads and relative offsets, the relative offsets being distances between elements of input matrix A to be…

Wide range clock monitor system

Granted: March 28, 2023
Patent Number: 11615230
A circuit and method are provided to monitor a clock for a data processor. The method includes receiving a clock signal and producing a first voltage proportional to a frequency of the clock signal. The first voltage is converted to a digital signal. During an initialization mode, the method ensures the clock signal is at a desired frequency and scales the digital signal using a first configurable ratio to produce a high threshold value. When changing from the initialization mode to an…

Aggregating commands in a stream based on cache line addresses

Granted: March 28, 2023
Patent Number: 11614889
An operation combiner receives a series of commands with read addresses, a modification operation, and write addresses. In some cases, the commands have serial dependencies that limit the rate at which they can be processed. The operation combiner compares the addresses for compatibility, transforms the operations to break serial dependencies, and combines multiple source commands into a smaller number of aggregate commands that can be executed much faster than the source commands. Some…

Precise suspend and resume of workloads in a processing unit

Granted: March 21, 2023
Patent Number: 11609791
A first workload is executed in a first subset of pipelines of a processing unit. A second workload is executed in a second subset of the pipelines of the processing unit. The second workload is dependent upon the first workload. The first and second workloads are suspended and state information for the first and second workloads is stored in a first memory in response to suspending the first and second workloads. In some cases, a third workload executes in a third subset of the…

Power on die discovery in 3D stacked die architectures with varying number of stacked die

Granted: March 21, 2023
Patent Number: 11610879
A handshake mechanism allows die discovery in a stacked die architecture that keeps inputs isolated until the handshake is complete. Power good indications are used as handshake signals between the die. A die keeps inputs isolated from above until a power good indication from the die above indicates presence of the die above. The die keeps inputs isolated from below until the die detects power is good and receives a power good indication from the die and the die below. In an…

Write masked latch bit cell

Granted: March 21, 2023
Patent Number: 11610627
A write masked latch bit cell of an SRAM includes a write mask circuit that is responsive to assertion of a first write mask signal to cause a value of a write data node to be a first value and is responsive to assertion of a second write mask signal to cause the value of the write data node to have a second value. A pass gate supplies the data on the write data node to an internal node of the bit cell responsive to write word line signals being asserted. A keeper circuit maintains the…

Matrix data broadcast architecture

Granted: March 21, 2023
Patent Number: 11609785
Systems, apparatuses, and methods for efficient parallel execution of multiple work units in a processor by reducing a number of memory accesses are disclosed. A computing system includes a processor core with a parallel data architecture. The processor core executes a software application with matrix operations. The processor core supports the broadcast of shared data to multiple compute units of the processor core. A compiler or other code assigns thread groups to compute units based…

Method and apparatus of integrating memory stacks

Granted: March 14, 2023
Patent Number: 11604754
A method and apparatus of integrating memory stacks includes providing a first memory die of a first memory technology and a second memory die of a second memory technology. A first logic die is in communication with the first memory die of the first memory technology, and includes a first memory controller including a first memory control function for interpreting requests in accordance with a first protocol for the first memory technology. A second logic die is in communication with…

Device and method for data compression using a metadata cache

Granted: March 14, 2023
Patent Number: 11604738
A processing device is provided which includes memory comprising data cache memory configured to store compressed data and metadata cache memory configured to store metadata, each portion of metadata comprising an encoding used to compress a portion of data. The processing device also includes at least one processor configured to compress portions of data and select, based on one or more utility level metrics, portions of metadata to be stored in the metadata cache memory. The at least…

Dynamic modification of coherent atomic memory operations

Granted: March 14, 2023
Patent Number: 11604737
A processing device determines a scope indicating at least a portion of the processing system and target data from atomic memory operation to be performed. Based on the scope, the processing device determines one or more hardware parameters for at least a portion of the processing system. The processing device then compares the hardware parameters to the scope and target data to determine one or more corrections. The processing device then provides the scope, target data, hardware…

Sync point mechanism between master and slave nodes

Granted: March 14, 2023
Patent Number: 11604655
In a system with a master processor and slave processors, sync points are used in boot instructions. While executing the boot instructions, the slave processor determines whether the sync point is enabled. In response to determining the sync point is enabled, the slave processor pauses execution of the boot instructions, waits for commands from the master processor, receives commands from the master processor, executes the received commands until a release command is received, and then…

Methods and systems for utilizing a master-shadow physical register file based on verified activation

Granted: March 7, 2023
Patent Number: 11599359
A processor in a data processing system includes a master-shadow physical register file and a renaming unit. The master-shadow physical register file has a master storage coupled to shadow storage. The renaming unit is coupled to the master-shadow physical register file. Based on an occurrence of shadow transfer activation conditions verified by the renaming unit, data in the master storage is transferred from the master storage to the shadow storage for storage. Data is transferred from…

Method and apparatus for virtualizing the micro-op cache

Granted: February 21, 2023
Patent Number: 11586441
Systems, apparatuses, and methods for virtualizing a micro-operation cache are disclosed. A processor includes at least a micro-operation cache, a conventional cache subsystem, a decode unit, and control logic. The decode unit decodes instructions into micro-operations which are then stored in the micro-operation cache. The micro-operation cache has limited capacity for storing micro-operations. When new micro-operations are decoded from pending instructions, existing micro-operations…

Distribution of data and memory timing parameters across memory modules based on memory access patterns

Granted: February 21, 2023
Patent Number: 11586563
A processor distributes memory timing parameters and data among different memory modules based upon memory access patterns. The memory access patterns indicate different types, or classes, of data for an executing workload, with each class associated with different memory access characteristics, such as different row buffer hit rate levels, different frequencies of access, different criticalities, and the like. The processor assigns each memory module to a data class and sets the memory…

Adaptive cache management based on programming model information

Granted: February 21, 2023
Patent Number: 11586539
A processing system selectively allocates space to store a group of one or more cache lines at a cache level of a cache hierarchy having a plurality of cache levels based on memory access patterns of a software application executing at the processing system. The processing system generates bit vectors indicating which cache levels are to allocate space to store groups of one or more cache lines based on the memory access patterns, which are derived from data granularity and movement…

Method of task transition between heterogenous processors

Granted: February 21, 2023
Patent Number: 11586472
A method, system, and apparatus determines that one or more tasks should be relocated from a first processor to a second processor by comparing performance metrics to associated thresholds or by using other indications. To relocate the one or more tasks from the first processor to the second processor, the first processor is stalled and state information from the first processor is copied to the second processor. The second processor uses the state information and then services incoming…