A Graphics Parallel Memory Organization Exploiting Request Correlations

Real-time graphics applications require memory organizations featuring parallel pixel access and low-cost implementation. This work bases on a nonlinear skew mapping scheme and exploits the correlation between consecutive requests for pixels to design an efficient parallel memory organization. The mapping achieves parallel access, of mn pixels in various shapes, to the memory organized with mn banks. The proposed design technique combines the mapping properties and the spatial correlations among pixel requests to eliminate conflicts by spending at most one extra cycle every mn consecutive parallel pixel accesses. Consequently, the technique ensures that any pixel pattern-among these commonly used in graphics-can be accessed in a single cycle from any image location. The address computations become straightforward as the numbers of the requested pixels and the banks-apart from equal-can be powers of 2.