An imaging apparatus including a frame buffer executes high-speed shooting consecutively in plural sessions.

An imaging element includes a buffer, an image producing unit, a managing unit, and an output unit. The image producing unit produces an image in the case where an empty capacity of any of plural areas in the buffer exceeds a predetermined threshold value. The managing unit causes an area whose empty capacity exceeds the predetermined threshold value, of the plural areas to retain the image as a buffering image. The output unit extracts the buffering image from the buffer and outputting the buffering image, in order of the retention of the buffering image.

Methods and devices for managing first-in first-out (FIFO) queues in graphics processing are described. A write operation can be executed by multiple write threads on a graphics processing unit (GPU) to write data to memory locations in the multiple pages of memory. Similarly, and/or simultaneously, a read operation can be executed by multiple read threads to read data from the memory locations. The write and read operations include updating a pointer or multiple pointers indicating the point at which all preceding data has been fully written, or fully read. The read and write operations can also include maintaining and advancing one or more allocation pointers, and performing comparisons with the read and write done pointers, and/or various methods of synchronization, to handle overflow and underflow scenarios, to ensure read operations only read valid data, and write operations do not attempt to write to locations which are already in use.

The present disclosure relates to a method for instruction processing with a processor having multiple execution units. The processor includes a dependency cache containing instructions in association with respective execution unit indicators. The method includes: tracking the number of dependent instructions currently assigned to each execution unit of the processor respectively. In response to receiving an instruction of a dependency chain, the execution unit assigned to a previous instruction of the dependency chain on which depends the received instruction may be identified in the dependency cache. In case more than a predefined maximum number of dependent instructions of at least one dependency chain is currently assigned to the identified execution unit, another execution unit of the processor may be selected for scheduling the received instruction, otherwise the received instruction may be scheduled on the identified execution unit.

A system and method for multi-channel communication with dual in-line memory modules (DIMMs) is disclosed. The system retrieves information characterizing a plurality of memory channels, each of each is configurable to facilitate data communication between a DIMM and a memory controller with associated memory channel interfaces. Based on the retrieved information, one of the memory channels is designated as the active memory channel, granting the designated memory channel the ability to issue memory requests or transactions to the DIMM. On a periodic or as-needed basis (e.g., when the active memory channel is stalled or nearly stalled), the system determines whether to designate a different of the memory channels as the active memory channel, thereby enabling the newly-designated active memory channel the ability to issue memory requests or transactions to the DIMM. In some embodiments, only one of the memory channels is active at a time for communication with each DIMM.

A system and method for multi-channel communication with dual in-line memory modules (DIMMs) is disclosed. The system retrieves information characterizing a plurality of memory channels, each of each is configurable to facilitate data communication between a DIMM and a memory controller with associated memory channel interfaces. Based on the retrieved information, one of the memory channels is designated as the active memory channel, granting the designated memory channel the ability to issue memory requests or transactions to the DIMM. On a periodic or as-needed basis (e.g., when the active memory channel is stalled or nearly stalled), the system determines whether to designate a different of the memory channels as the active memory channel, thereby enabling the newly-designated active memory channel the ability to issue memory requests or transactions to the DIMM. In some embodiments, only one of the memory channels is active at a time for communication with each DIMM.

A receiving circuit of a communications link comprises: a first data buffer configured to input, under control of a first clock signal, data of a first data stream transmitted by a transmitting circuit, and to generate a credit trigger signal indicating when a data value is read from the first data buffer, wherein data is read from the first data buffer, or from a further data buffer coupled to the output of the first data buffer, under control of a second clock signal; and a credit generation circuit configured to generate, based on the credit trigger signal, a credit signal for transmission to the transmitting circuit under control of the first clock signal, the credit signal indicating that one or more further data values of the first data stream can be transmitted by the transmitting circuit.

A receiving circuit of a communications link comprises: a first data buffer configured to input, under control of a first clock signal, data of a first data stream transmitted by a transmitting circuit, and to generate a credit trigger signal indicating when a data value is read from the first data buffer, wherein data is read from the first data buffer, or from a further data buffer coupled to the output of the first data buffer, under control of a second clock signal; and a credit generation circuit configured to generate, based on the credit trigger signal, a credit signal for transmission to the transmitting circuit under control of the first clock signal, the credit signal indicating that one or more further data values of the first data stream can be transmitted by the transmitting circuit.

A set of data entries is transferred via a memory mapped interface from an external peripheral device to a processor device and is stored in a shared memory region. Based on a first pointer to the shared memory region, a first process executed by the processor device processes a first group of the data entries. Based on a second pointer to the shared memory region, a second process executed by the processor device processes a second group of the data entries. The second process indicates the second pointer to the first process. The first process indicates a lower one of the first pointer and the second pointer to the peripheral device.

A set of data entries is transferred via a memory mapped interface from an external peripheral device to a processor device and is stored in a shared memory region. Based on a first pointer to the shared memory region, a first process executed by the processor device processes a first group of the data entries. Based on a second pointer to the shared memory region, a second process executed by the processor device processes a second group of the data entries. The second process indicates the second pointer to the first process. The first process indicates a lower one of the first pointer and the second pointer to the peripheral device.

The present disclosure relates to a method for instruction processing with a processor having multiple execution units. The processor includes a dependency cache containing instructions in association with respective execution unit indicators. The method includes: tracking the number of dependent instructions currently assigned to each execution unit of the processor respectively. In response to receiving an instruction of a dependency chain, the execution unit assigned to a previous instruction of the dependency chain on which depends the received instruction may be identified in the dependency cache. In case more than a predefined maximum number of dependent instructions of at least one dependency chain is currently assigned to the identified execution unit, another execution unit of the processor may be selected for scheduling the received instruction, otherwise the received instruction may be scheduled on the identified execution unit.