Redundancy method and apparatus for shader column repair

A method comprising:

• identifying a defective shader pipe of a plurality of shader pipes in a shader pipe array;
• and
• in response to identifying the defective shader pipe, generating a signal directing a redundant shader switch to transfer data for the defective shader pipe to a redundant shader pipe array,
• wherein the data is directly transferred from the defective shader pipe to the redundant shader pipe array after the data is sent to and received by the shader array.

A system comprising:

• a redundant shader pipe array configured to perform rendering calculations on data provided thereto;
• a shader pipe array comprising:
• a plurality of shader pipes, each of the plurality of shader pipes being configured to receive data dispatched to the respective shader pipe and perform rendering calculations on the received data provided thereto, and
• at least one direct path between the shader pipe array and the redundant shader pipe array;
• a circuit configured to identify a defective shader pipe of the plurality of shader pipes in the shader pipe array, and, in response to identifying the defective shader pipe, generate a signal;
• and
• a redundant shader switch configured to:
• receive the generated signal, and
• in response to receiving the generated signal, transfer the data that has already been dispatched to and received by the shader pipe array to the redundant shader pipe array via the at least one direct path.