Integrated Functions (Continued)
4.4 GRAPHICS PIPELINE
The graphics pipeline of the GXLV processor contains a
2D graphics accelerator. This hardware accelerator has a
BitBLT/vector engine which dramatically improves graph-
ics performance when rendering and moving graphical
objects. Overall operating system performance is
improved as well. The accelerator hardware supports pat-
tern generation, source expansion, pattern/source trans-
parency, and 256 ternary raster operations. The block
diagram of the graphics pipeline is shown in Figure 4-11.
specifies the direction of the vector and a “read destina-
tion data” flag. If the flag is set, the hardware will read
destination data along the vector and store it temporarily
in the BLT Buffer 0.
The BLT buffers use a portion of the L1 cache, called
“scratchpad RAM”, to temporarily store source and desti-
nation data, typically on a scan line basis. See Section
4.1.4.2 “Scratchpad RAM Utilization” for an explanation of
scratchpad RAM. The hardware automatically loads
frame-buffer data (source or destination) into the BLT buff-
ers for each scan line. The driver is responsible for making
sure that this does not overflow the memory allocated for
the BLT buffers. When the source data is a bitmap, the
hardware loads the data directly into the BLT buffer at the
beginning of the BLT operation.
4.4.1 BitBLT/Vector Engine
BLTs are initiated by writing to the GP_BLT_MODE regis-
ter, which specifies the type of source data (none, frame
buffer, or BLT buffer), the type of the destination data
(none, frame buffer, or BLT buffer), and a source expan-
sion flag.
Vectors
are
initiated
by
writing
to
the
GP_VECTOR_MODE register (GX_BASE+8204h), which
Scratchpad RAM
and
BitBLT Buffers
C-Bus
Graphics
Pipeline
Output Aligner
Output Aligner
Pattern
Source
Hardware
Expansion
Internal Bus
Control Logic
Interface Unit
BE
PAT
BE
SRC
DST
Raster Operation
Register Access
DRAM Interface
X-Bus
Key:
BE = Byte Enable
PAT = Pattern Data
SRC = Source Data
DST = Destination Data
Memory
Controller
Figure 4-11. Graphics Pipeline Block Diagram
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