Program-based dynamic precision selection framework with a dual-mode unified shader for mobile GPUs

To extend the life of battery-driven mobile devices while maintaining image quality, this work proposes a Program-based Dynamic Precision Selection (PDPS) framework with a dual-mode unified shader. Since fixed-point arithmetic can be performed faster and more energy-efficiently than floating-point arithmetic on power-limited devices, the use of fixed-point rather than floating-point rendering is a critical concern. The proposed PDPS framework is composed of a runtime profile-based mechanism for automatically determining the precision of each shading program in fixed-point arithmetic. Additionally, a scene change detection mechanism is developed to recalculate the rendering precision whenever a 3D scene changes. The results reveal an average 18% reduction in energy and 35% faster performance under fixed-point rendering. The degradation in rendered image quality under the proposed PDPS cannot be detected by the naked eye, and the PSNR is an average of 15% better than that achieved using related approach.