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US 6,333,744 B1Granted
Graphics pipeline including combiner stages
AssigneeNVIDIA Corporation
InventorsDavid B. Kirk, Matthew Papakipos, Shaun Ho, Walter Donovan, Curtis Priem
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A graphics pipeline including a rasterizing stage producing diffuse color values; a plurality of texture stages producing texture values defining a particular texture; a combiner stage for combining four of a plurality of selectable input values including diffuse color values, texture values furnished by a plurality of texture stages, and proportions for combination of the selectable input values; the combiner stage being capable of providing a result equivalent to a sum of products of any two sets of input values, and a product of two input values.
Claims21
A graphics pipeline comprising:
- a rasterizing stage configured to generate pixel coordinates, color values and texture coordinates for each of at least two pixels during each clock interval of the pipeline in response to data indicative of a single polygonal primitive, wherein the pixels define at least part of a surface to be displayed;
- a plurality of texture stages configured to generate, in response to the texture coordinates, texture values each defining a particular texture for at least one of the pixels;
- and
- a combiner stage, coupled to the rasterizing stage and the texture stages and configured to produce output values for at least two textured pixels during each clock interval of the pipeline, by combining a plurality of selectable input values to provide a result equivalent to a sum of products of sets of the input values, wherein the input values include at least a subset of the color values from the rasterizing stage and the texture values from the texture stages.
1 more element
A graphics pipeline, comprising:
- a rasterizing stage producing color values and texture coordinates for pixels defining a surface to be displayed;
- a plurality of texture stages responding to the texture coordinates to generate texture values each defining a particular texture for pixels defining a surface to be displayed;
- and
- a combiner stage for combining a plurality of selectable input values to provide a result equivalent to a sum of products of sets of the input values, wherein the input values include at least a subset of the color values produced by the rasterizing stage and the texture values generated by the texture stages, and in which at least one of the input values to the combiner stage is a result provided by the combiner stage.
1 more element
A graphics pipeline, comprising:
- a rasterizing stage producing color values and texture coordinates for pixels defining a surface to be displayed;
- a plurality of texture stages responding to the texture coordinates to generate texture values each defining a particular texture for pixels defining a surface to be displayed;
- and
- a combiner stage for combining a plurality of selectable input values to provide a result equivalent to a sum of products of sets of the input values, in which the input values to the combiner stage include diffuse color values, texture values furnished by a plurality of texture stages, proportions for combination of the selectable input values, and a result provided by the combiner stage.
1 more element
A graphics pipeline, comprising:
- a rasterizing stage producing color values and texture coordinates for pixels defining a surface to be displayed;
- a plurality of texture stages responding to the texture coordinates to generate texture values each defining a particular texture for pixels defining a surface to be displayed;
- and
- a combiner stage for combining a plurality of selectable input values to provide a result equivalent to a sum of products of sets of the input values, in which the combiner stage includes a plurality of stages, each coupled and configured for combining the plurality of selectable input values to provide the result equivalent to the sum of products of sets of the input values, and in which the selectable input values to each of the plurality of stages of the combiner stage include diffuse color values, texture values furnished by the plurality of texture stages, proportions for combination of the selectable input values, and a result provided by the combiner stage.
1 more element
A graphics pipeline, comprising:
- a rasterizing stage producing color values and texture coordinates for pixels defining a surface to be displayed;
- a plurality of texture stages responding to the texture coordinates to generate texture values each defining a particular texture for pixels defining a surface to be displayed;
- and
- a combiner stage for combining a plurality of selectable input values to provide a result equivalent to a sum of products of sets of the input values, in which the combiner stage includes a plurality of stages, each coupled and configured for combining the plurality of selectable input values to provide the result equivalent to the sum of products of sets of the input values, and in which each of the stages of the combiner stage includes means for selectably shifting said result.
1 more element
A graphics pipeline, comprising:
- a rasterizing stage producing color values and texture coordinates for pixels defining a surface to be displayed;
- a plurality of texture stages responding to the texture coordinates to generate texture values each defining a particular texture for pixels defining a surface to be displayed;
- and
- a combiner stage for combining a plurality of selectable input values to provide a result equivalent to a sum of products of sets of the input values, in which the combiner stage includes a plurality of stages, each coupled and configured for combining the plurality of selectable input values to provide the result equivalent to the sum of products of sets of the input values, and in which each of the stages of the combiner stage includes means for selectably inverting said result.
1 more element
A graphics pipeline, comprising:
- a rasterizing stage producing color values and texture coordinates for pixels defining a surface to be displayed;
- a plurality of texture stages responding to the texture coordinates to generate texture values each defining a particular texture for pixels defining a surface to be displayed;
- and
- a combiner stage for combining a plurality of selectable input values to provide a result equivalent to a sum of products of sets of the input values, in which the combiner stage includes a plurality of stages, each coupled and configured for combining the plurality of selectable input values to provide the result equivalent to the sum of products of sets of the input values, and in which each of the stages of the combiner stage includes means for selecting a portion of said result.
1 more element
A graphics pipeline, comprising:
- a rasterizing stage producing color values and texture coordinates for pixels defining a surface to be displayed;
- a plurality of texture stages responding to the texture coordinates to generate texture values each defining a particular texture for pixels defining a surface to be displayed;
- and
- a combiner stage for combining a plurality of selectable input values to provide a result equivalent to a sum of products of sets of the input values, in which the combiner stage includes a plurality of registers for storing selected ones of the input values, and in which the selectable input values include diffuse color values, texture values furnished by the plurality of texture stages, proportions for combination of the selectable input values, and a result provided by the combiner stage.
1 more element
A graphics pipeline, comprising:
- a rasterizing stage producing color values and texture coordinates for pixels defining a surface to be displayed;
- a plurality of texture stages responding to the texture coordinates to generate texture values each defining a particular texture for pixels defining a surface to be displayed;
- and
- a combiner stage for combining a plurality of selectable input values to provide a result equivalent to a sum of products of sets of the input values, in which the combiner stage includes a plurality of registers for storing selected ones of the input values, and in which the combiner stage includes means for selectably shifting said result.
1 more element
A graphics pipeline, comprising:
- a rasterizing stage producing color values and texture coordinates for pixels defining a surface to be displayed;
- a plurality of texture stages responding to the texture coordinates to generate texture values each defining a particular texture for pixels defining a surface to be displayed;
- and
- a combiner stage for combining a plurality of selectable input values to provide a result equivalent to a sum of products of sets of the input values, in which the combiner stage includes a plurality of registers for storing selected ones of the input values, and in which the combiner stage includes means for selectably inverting said result.
1 more element
A graphics pipeline, comprising:
- a rasterizing stage producing color values and texture coordinates for pixels defining a surface to be displayed;
- a plurality of texture stages responding to the texture coordinates to generate texture values each defining a particular texture for pixels defining a surface to be displayed;
- and
- a combiner stage for combining a plurality of selectable input values to provide a result equivalent to a sum of products of sets of the input values, in which the combiner stage includes a plurality of registers for storing selected ones of the input values, and in which the combiner stage includes means for selecting a portion of said result.
1 more element
A graphics pipeline, comprising:
- a rasterizing stage producing color values and texture coordinates for pixels defining a surface to be displayed;
- a plurality of texture stages responding to the texture coordinates to generate texture values each defining a particular texture for pixels defining a surface to be displayed;
- and
- a combiner stage for combining a plurality of selectable input values to provide a result equivalent to a sum of products of sets of the input values, in which the combiner stage includes a plurality of registers for storing selected ones of the input values, and in which the combiner stage includes means for shifting a portion of said result.
1 more element
A combiner stage for a computer graphics pipeline comprising a rasterizing stage producing color values and texture coordinates for pixels defining a surface to be displayed, and a plurality of texture stages configured to generate texture values in response to the texture coordinates, each of the texture values defining a particular texture for at least one of the pixels, said combiner stage comprising:
- a plurality of input stages for selecting input values,
- a plurality of multiplier stages for multiplying values selected by the input stages, and
- an adder stage for combining results produced by the multiplier stages to provide an output value, wherein the input values to the input stages include said output value and at least a subset of the color values and the texture values.
A combiner stage for a computer graphics pipeline, comprising a plurality of input stages for selecting input values, a plurality of multiplier stages for multiplying the input values selected by the input stages, and an adder stage for combining results produced by multiplier stages to provide an output value, in which the input values include diffuse color values, texture values furnished by a plurality of texture stages, proportions for combination of the input values, and an output value provided by the combiner stage.
A graphics pipeline, comprising:
- a rasterizing stage configured to generate pixel coordinates, color values and texture coordinates for each of at least two pixels during each clock interval of the pipeline in response to data indicative of a single polygonal primitive, wherein the pixels define at least part of a surface to be displayed;
- a plurality of texture stages configured to generate, in response to the texture coordinates, texture values each defining a particular texture for at least one of the pixels;
- and
- a combiner stage, coupled to the rasterizing stage and the texture stages and configured to produce output values for at least two textured pixels during each clock interval of the pipeline, by combining a plurality of selectable input values to provide a result equivalent to a sum of products of sets of the input values, wherein the input values include at least a subset of the color values from the rasterizing stage and the texture values from the texture stages, and wherein at least one of the input values is a result provided by the combiner stage.
1 more element
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.