Hardware acceleration for Window systems

• DOI: 10.1145/74334.74339
• Publication Date: 2005-11-16T14:47:25Z
• Authors: D. Rhoden; C. Wilcox
• Keywords: Human multitasking; Context switch; Graphics hardware; Workstation

Graphics pipelines are quickly evolving to support multitasking workstations. The driving force behind this evolution is the window system, which must provide high performance graphics within multiple windows, while maintaining interactivity. virtual system presented by [7] provides a clean solution problem of context switching hardware between processes, but does not solve all problems associated with sharing pipelines.The primary difficulty in accelerator pipeline latency encountered during flush. This removes responsiveness and interactivity system. As primitives become more complex longer, grows. Hardware solutions described further accelerate eliminating need for flushing resynchronization. An overview entire presented, highlighting mechanisms contribute acceleration.