Allocation of resources to tasks

A method of sub-dividing a program into a plurality of phases, the method comprising:

• analysing instructions in the program and numbers of temporary registers that are live at different positions within the program when the program is executed to define positions of one or more phase boundaries within the program, wherein a temporary register is live if data has been written to it but has not yet been read for a last time;
• and
• for an identified phase boundary, inserting a phase instruction into the program.

A texture/shading unit for use in a graphics processing pipeline, the texture/shading unit comprising:

• hardware logic arranged in response to selecting a task for execution, to allocate to the task both a static allocation of temporary registers for the entire task and a dynamic allocation of temporary registers for a first phase of the task, wherein the task executes a program comprising a plurality of phases;
• and
• wherein the hardware logic is further arranged, when the task reaches a boundary between two phases, to free the dynamic allocation of temporary registers, wherein the static allocation of temporary registers is not freed until the task has completed execution.