DYNAMIC ENABLING AND DISABLING OF SIMD UNITS IN A GRAPHICS PROCESSOR

摘要

Systems and methods to improve performance in a graphics processing unit are described herein. Embodiments achieve power saving in a graphics processing unit by dynamically activating/deactivating individual SIMDs in a shader complex that comprises multiple SIMD units. On-the-fly dynamic disabling and enabling of individual SIMDs provides flexibility in achieving a required performance and power level for a given processing application. In this way, embodiments achieve optimal usage of a graphics processing unit. Embodiments of the invention also achieve dynamic grain (e.g., medium grain) clock gating of SIMDs in a shader complex. Embodiments reduce switching power by shutting down clock trees to unused logic by providing a clock on demand mechanism. In this way, embodiments enhance clock gating to save more switching power for the duration of time when SIMDs are idle (or assigned no work).