1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to computer systems using a bus bridge(s) to interface a central processor(s), video graphics processor(s), random access memory and input-output peripherals together, and more particularly, in efficiently allocating memory space for the video graphics processor(s) in the computer system.
2. Description of the Related Technology
Use of computers, especially personal computers, in business and at home is becoming more and more pervasive because the computer has become an integral tool of most information workers who work in the fields of accounting, law, engineering, insurance, services, sales and the like. Rapid technological improvements in the field of computers have opened up many new applications heretofore unavailable or too expensive for the use of older technology mainframe computers. These personal computers may be stand-alone workstations (high end individual personal computers), desk-top personal computers, portable lap-top computers and the like, or they may be linked together in a network by a "network server" which is also a personal computer which may have a few additional features specific to its purpose in the network. The network server may be used to store massive amounts of data, and may facilitate interaction of the individual workstations connected to the network for electronic mail ("E-mail"), document databases, video teleconferencing, white boarding, integrated enterprise calendar, virtual engineering design and the like. Multiple network servers may also be interconnected by local area networks ("LAN") and wide area networks ("WAN").
A significant part of the ever increasing popularity of the personal computer, besides its low cost relative to just a few years ago, is its ability to run sophisticated programs and perform many useful and new tasks. Personal computers today may be easily upgraded with new peripheral devices for added flexibility and enhanced performance. A major advance in the performance of personal computers (both workstation and network servers) has been the implementation of sophisticated peripheral devices such as video graphics adapters, local area network interfaces, SCSI bus adapters, full motion video, redundant error checking and correcting disk arrays, and the like. These sophisticated peripheral devices are capable of data transfer rates approaching the native speed of the computer system microprocessor central processing unit ("CPU"). The peripheral devices' data transfer speeds are achieved by connecting the peripheral devices to the microprocessor(s) and associated system random access memory through high speed expansion local buses. Most notably, a high speed expansion local bus standard has emerged that is microprocessor independent and has been embraced by a significant number of peripheral hardware manufacturers and software programmers. This high speed expansion bus standard is called the "Peripheral Component Interconnect" or "PCI." A more complete definition of the PCI local bus may be found in the PCI Local Bus Specification, revision 2.1; PCI/PCI Bridge Specification, revision 1.0; PCI System Design Guide, revision 1.0; PCI BIOS Specification, revision 2.1, and Engineering Change Notice ("ECN") entitled "Addition of `New Capabilities` Structure," dated May 20, 1996, the disclosures of which are hereby incorporated by reference. These PCI specifications and ECN are available from the PCI Special Interest Group, P.O. Box 14070, Portland, Oreg. 97214.
A computer system has a plurality of information (data and address) buses such as a host bus, a memory bus, at least one high speed expansion local bus such as the PCI bus, and other peripheral buses such as the Small Computer System Interface (SCSI), Extension to Industry Standard Architecture (EISA), and Industry Standard Architecture (ISA). The microprocessor(s) of the computer system communicates with main memory and with the peripherals that make up the computer system over these various buses. The microprocessor(s) communicates to the main memory over a host bus to memory bus bridge. The peripherals, depending on their data transfer speed requirements, are connected to the various buses which are connected to the microprocessor host bus through bus bridges that detect required actions, arbitrate, and translate both data and addresses between the various buses.
Increasingly sophisticated microprocessors have revolutionized the role of the personal computer by enabling complex applications software to run at mainframe computer speeds. The latest microprocessors have brought the level of technical sophistication to personal computers that, just a few years ago, was available only in mainframe and mini-computer systems. Some representative examples of these new microprocessors are the "PENTIUM" and "PENTIUM PRO" (registered trademarks of Intel Corporation). Advanced microprocessors are also manufactured by Advanced Micro Devices, Cyrix, IBM, Digital Equipment Corp., and Motorola.
These sophisticated microprocessors have, in turn, made possible running complex application programs using advanced three dimensional ("3-D") graphics for computer aided drafting and manufacturing, engineering simulations, games and the like. Increasingly complex 3-D graphics require higher speed access to ever larger amounts of graphics data stored in memory. This memory may be part of the video graphics processor system, but, preferably, would be best (lowest cost) if part of the main computer system memory. Intel Corporation has proposed a low cost but improved 3-D graphics standard called the "Accelerated Graphics Port" (AGP) initiative. With AGP 3-D, graphics data, in particular textures, may be shifted out of the graphics controller local memory to computer system memory. The computer system memory is lower in cost than the graphics controller local memory and is more easily adapted for a multitude of other uses besides storing graphics data.
The proposed Intel AGP 3-D graphics standard defines a high speed data pipeline, or "AGP bus," between the graphics controller and system memory. This AGP bus has sufficient bandwidth for the graphics controller to retrieve textures from system memory without materially affecting computer system performance for other non-graphics operations. The Intel 3-D graphics standard is a specification which provides signal, protocol, electrical, and mechanical specifications for the AGP bus and devices attached thereto. This specification is entitled "Accelerated Graphics Port Interface Specification Revision 1.0," dated Jul. 31, 1996, the disclosure of which is hereby incorporated by reference. The AGP Specification is available from Intel Corporation, Santa Clara, Calif.
The AGP Specification uses the 66 MHz PCI (Revision 2.1) Specification as an operational baseline, with three performance enhancements to the PCI Specification which are used to optimize the AGP Specification for high performance 3-D graphics applications. These enhancements are: 1) pipelined memory read and write operations, 2) demultiplexing of address and data on the AGP bus by use of sideband signals, and 3) data transfer rates of 133 MHz for data throughput in excess of 500 megabytes per second ("MB/s"). The remaining AGP Specification does not modify the PCI Specification, but rather provides a range of graphics-oriented performance enhancements for use by 3-D graphics hardware and software designers. The AGP Specification is neither meant to replace nor diminish full use of the PCI standard in the computer system. The AGP Specification creates an independent and additional high speed local bus for use by 3-D graphics devices such as a graphics controller, wherein the other input-output ("I/O") devices of the computer system may remain on any combination of the PCI, SCSI, EISA and ISA buses.
To functionally enable this AGP 3-D graphics bus, new computer system hardware and software are required. This requires new computer system core logic designed to function as a host bus/memory bus/PCI bus to AGP bus bridge meeting the AGP Specification, and new Read Only Memory Basic Input Output System ("ROM BIOS") and Application Programming Interface ("API") software to make the AGP dependent hardware functional in the computer system. The computer system core logic must still meet the PCI standards referenced above and facilitate interfacing the PCI bus(es) to the remainder of the computer system. In addition, new AGP compatible device cards must be designed to properly interface, mechanically and electrically, with the AGP bus connector.
AGP and PCI device cards are neither physically nor electrically interchangeable even though there is some commonality of signal functions between the AGP and PCI interface specifications. The present AGP Specification only makes allowance for a single AGP device on an AGP bus, whereas, the PCI Specification allows two plug-in slots for PCI devices plus a bridge on a PCI bus running at 66 MHz. The single AGP device is capable of functioning in both a 1x mode (264 MB/s peak) and a 2x mode (532 MB/s peak). The AGP bus is defined as a 32 bit bus, and may have up to four bytes of data transferred per clock in the 1x mode and up to eight bytes of data per clock in the 2x mode. The PCI bus is defined as either a 32 bit or 64 bit bus, and may have up to four or eight bytes of data transferred per clock, respectively. The AGP bus, however, has additional sideband signals which enables it to transfer blocks of data more efficiently than is possible using a PCI bus. An AGP bus running in the 2x mode provides sufficient video data throughput (532 MB/s peak) to allow increasingly complex 3-D graphics applications to run on personal computers.
A major performance/cost enhancement using AGP in a computer system is accomplished by shifting texture data structures from local graphics memory to main memory. Textures are ideally suited for this shift for several reasons. Textures are generally read-only, and therefore problems of access ordering and coherency are less likely to occur. Shifting of textures serves to balance the bandwidth load between system memory and local graphics memory, since a well-cached host processor has much lower memory bandwidth requirements than does a 3-D rendering machine; texture access comprises perhaps the single largest component of rendering memory bandwidth, so avoiding loading or caching textures in local graphics memory saves not only this component of local memory bandwidth, but also the bandwidth necessary to load the texture store in the first place, and, further, this data must pass through main memory anyway as it is loaded from a mass store device. Texture size is dependent upon application quality rather than on display resolution, and therefore may require the greatest increase in memory as software applications become more advanced. Texture data is not persistent and may reside in the computer system memory only for the duration of the software application, so any system memory spent on texture storage can be returned to the free memory heap when the application concludes (unlike a graphic controller's local frame buffer which may remain in persistent use). For these reasons, shifting texture data from local graphics memory to main memory significantly reduces computer system costs when implementing 3-D graphics.
A 32 bit address bus, as used in the PCI 2.1 Specification, permits addressing devices within 4 gigabytes (GB) of the computer system address space. Extended addressing is required to access memory addresses above 4 GB. Extended addressing typically uses a 64 bit address bus, but is not commonly used in the personal computer industry because it raises the computer system costs and is more complex to implement. If extended addressing is not used, and there is not enough address space for system devices, device address space must be taken from the physical memory address space. This is not desirable as expensive physical memory space may be wasted.
As personal computers become more sophisticated, they require more memory. The more advanced personal computers are capable of accommodating physical system memory which may approach the 4 GB limit. Input-output devices such as, for example, video graphics adapters (VGA), SCSI, network interface cards (NIC) and the like, must use the address space which resides above the top of the physical system memory and below the 4 GB limit. If the required address space for these devices is not available, then extended addressing must be utilized or physical memory addresses must be used, preventing or wasting the use of the physical memory at those address locations. It is therefore desirable to conserve the address space above the top of the physical memory.
Generally, in a computer system memory architecture the graphics controller's physical address space resides above the top of system memory. The graphics controller uses this physical address space to access its local memory which holds information required to generate a graphics screen. In the AGP system, information still resides in the graphics controller's local memory (textures, alpha, z-buffer, etc.), but some data which previously resided in this local memory is moved to system memory (primarily textures, but also command lists, etc.). The address space employed by the graphics controller to access these textures becomes virtual, meaning that the physical memory corresponding to this address space doesn't actually exist above the top of memory. In reality, each of these virtual addresses corresponds to a physical address in system memory. The graphics controller sees this virtual address space, referenced hereinafter as "AGP device address space," as one contiguous block of memory, but the corresponding physical memory addresses may be allocated in 4 kilobyte ("KB"), non-contiguous pages throughout the computer system physical memory.
There are two primary AGP usage models for 3D rendering, that have to do with how data are partitioned and accessed, and the resultant interface data flow characteristics. In the "DMA" model, the primary graphics memory is a local memory which includes a "local frame buffer" and is associated with the AGP graphics controller or "video accelerator." 3D structures are stored in system memory, but are not used (or "executed") directly from this memory; rather they are copied to primary (local) memory, to which the rendering engine's address generator (of the AGP graphics controller) makes references thereto. This implies that the traffic on the AGP bus tends to be long, sequential transfers, serving the purpose of bulk data transport from system memory to primary graphics (local) memory. This sort of access model is amenable to a linked list of physical addresses provided by software (similar to operation of a disk or network I/O device), and is generally not sensitive to a non-contiguous view of the memory space.
In the "execute" model, the video accelerator uses both the local memory and the system memory as primary graphics memory. From the accelerator's perspective, the two memory systems are logically equivalent; any data structure may be allocated in either memory, with performance optimization as the only criteria for selection. In general, structures in system memory space are not copied into the local memory prior to use by the video accelerator, but are "executed" in place. This implies that the traffic on the AGP bus tends to be short, random accesses, which are not amenable to an access model based on software resolved lists of physical addresses. Since the accelerator generates direct references into system memory, a contiguous view of that space is essential. But, since system memory is dynamically allocated in, for example, random 4,096 byte blocks of the memory, hereinafter 4 kilobyte ("KB") pages, it is necessary in the "execute" model to provide an address mapping mechanism that maps the random 4 KB pages into a single contiguous address space above the physical memory address space or top of memory (TOM).
The AGP Specification, incorporated by reference hereinabove, supports both the "DMA" and "execute" models. However, since a primary motivation of the AGP is to reduce growth pressure on the graphics controller's local memory (including local frame buffer memory), the "execute" model is preferred. Consistent with this preference, the AGP Specification requires a virtual-to-physical address re-mapping mechanism which ensures the graphics accelerator (AGP master) will have a contiguous view of graphics data structures dynamically allocated in the system memory. This address re-mapping applies only to a single, programmable range of the system physical address space and is common to all system agents. Addresses falling in this range are re-mapped to non-contiguous pages of physical system memory. All addresses not in this range are passed through without modification, and map directly to main system memory, or to device specific ranges, such as a PCI device's physical memory. Re-mapping is accomplished via a "Graphics Address Remapping Table" ("GART table") which is set up and maintained by a GART miniport driver software, and used by the core logic chipset to perform the re-mapping. In order to avoid compatibility issues and allow future implementation flexibility, this mechanism is specified at a software (API) level. In other words, the actual GART table format may be abstracted to the API by a hardware abstraction layer ("HAL") or mini-port driver that is provided with the core logic chipset. While this API does not constrain the future partitioning of re-mapping hardware, the re-mapping function will typically be implemented in the core logic chipset.
The size of AGP device address space is always greater than or equal to the amount of physical system memory allocated to AGP. The amount of physical memory allocated to AGP is managed by the computer operating system. Typically, AGP device address space may be from a minimum of 32 MB to a maximum of 2 GB, with a default value of, for example, 256 MB. When no AGP device is connected to the computer system, no AGP device address space need be allocated. What is needed is a system and method of preventing allocation of virtual address space for an AGP device when there is no AGP device present in the computer system.
USPTO Backgrounds
USPTO Backgrounds