Apparatus and method for pre-decompression filtering of compressed texel data

A graphics processor comprising:

• an input buffer to store a request for compressed texel data;
• texture filtering and decompression circuitry and/or logic to determine whether compressed texel data requested for a graphics processing operation is a first type of texel data or a second type of texel data;
• if the compressed texel data is of a first type then:
• a decompressor to decompress the compressed texel data prior to filtering to generate decompressed unfiltered texel data, and
• a filter to filter the decompressed unfiltered texel data to produce first filtered and decompressed texel data;
• and
• if the compressed texel data is of a second type then:
• a combined filter/decompressor to concurrently filter and decompress the texel data to produce second filtered and decompressed texel data, or
• the filter to filter the texel data before decompression to generate filtered compressed texel data and then the decompressor to decompress the filtered compressed texel data to produce the second filtered and decompressed texel data;
• and
• an output buffer to receive and store the first filtered and decompressed texel data or the second filtered and decompressed texel data;
• and
• a graphics processing unit to read the data from the output buffer to execute the graphics processing operation.

A machine-readable medium having program code stored thereon which, when executed by a machine, causes the machine to perform the operations of:

• determining whether compressed texel data requested for a graphics processing operation is a first type of texel data or a second type of texel data;
• if the compressed texel data is of a first type then:
• decompressing the compressed texel data prior to filtering to generate decompressed unfiltered texel data, and
• filtering the decompressed unfiltered texel data to produce first filtered and decompressed texel data;
• and
• if the compressed texel data is of a second type then:
• concurrently filtering and decompressing the texel data to produce second filtered and decompressed texel data, or
• filtering the texel data before decompression to generate filtered compressed texel data and then decompressing the filtered compressed texel data to produce the second filtered and decompressed texel data;
• and
• providing the first filtered and decompressed texel data or the second filtered and decompressed texel data to the graphics processing operation.