Applying texture processing to a block of fragments in a graphics processing unit

A graphics processing unit configured to apply texture processing to a block of fragments, each of the fragments being associated with a texture coordinate for each of a plurality of dimensions of a texture, the graphics processing unit comprising a fragment processing unit and a texture processing unit,

• wherein the fragment processing unit is configured to:
• detect whether the texture coordinates for the fragments of the block are axis-aligned;
• and
• in response to detecting that the texture coordinates for the fragments of the block are axis-aligned, send a reduced set of texture coordinates to the texture processing unit;
• and
• in response to detecting that the texture coordinates for the fragments of the block are not axis-aligned, send a non-reduced set of texture coordinates to the texture processing unit;
• and
• wherein the texture processing unit is configured to:
• process the reduced set of texture coordinates or the non-reduced texture coordinates to generate texel addresses of texels to be fetched;
• fetch texels using the generated texel addresses;
• determine a processed value for each of the fragments of the block based on the fetched texels;
• and
• output the processed values.

A non-transitory computer readable storage medium having stored thereon an integrated circuit definition dataset that, when processed in an integrated circuit manufacturing system, configures the integrated circuit manufacturing system to manufacture a graphics processing unit that is configured to apply texture processing to a block of fragments, each of the fragments being associated with a texture coordinate for each of a plurality of dimensions of a texture, the graphics processing unit comprising a fragment processing unit and a texture processing unit,

• wherein the fragment processing unit is configured to:
• detect whether the texture coordinates for the fragments of the block are axis-aligned;
• and
• in response to detecting that the texture coordinates for the fragments of the block are axis-aligned, send a reduced set of texture coordinates to the texture processing unit;
• and
• in response to detecting that the texture coordinates for the fragments of the block are not axis-aligned, send a non-reduced set of texture coordinates to the texture processing unit;
• and
• wherein the texture processing unit is configured to:
• process the reduced set of texture coordinates or the non-reduced set of texture coordinates to generate texel addresses of texels to be fetched;
• fetch texels using the generated texel addresses;
• determine a processed value for each of the fragments of the block based on the fetched texels;
• and
• output the processed values.