Programmable multiple texture combine circuit for a graphics processing system and method for use thereof
AssigneeMicron Technology, Inc.
InventorAaftab Munshi
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
The present invention is directed toward a texture combine circuit for generating fragment graphics data for a pixel in a graphics processing system. The texture combine circuit includes at least one texture combine unit and is coupled to receive graphics data, such as a plurality of texture graphics data, and perform user selected graphics combine operations on a set of input data selected from the plurality of texture graphics data to produce the fragment graphics data for the pixel. The texture combine circuit may include several texture combine units in a cascade connection, where each texture combine unit is coupled to receive the plurality of texture graphics data and the resultant output value of the previous texture combine units in the cascade.
Claims26
A method for combining a global set of graphics data of a plurality of textures, comprising:
- combining a first set of graphics data including graphics data from the global set of graphics data of the plurality of textures to provide first combined graphics data, providing the first combined graphics data to a downstream texture combine unit;
- combining a second set of graphics data including graphics data from the first combined graphics data and at least one of the graphics data from the global set of graphics data of the plurality of textures to provide second combined graphics data, providing the second combined graphics data to a downstream texture combine unit;
- and
- combining a third set of graphics data including graphics data from the first combined graphics data, the second combined graphics data, and at least one of the graphics data from the global set of graphics data of the plurality of textures, to provide third combined graphics data, providing the third combined graphics data to an output.
A method for combining graphics data representing a plurality of textures, comprising:
- selecting a first data set from the graphics data representing the plurality of textures and first local graphics data;
- in a first texture combine unit, performing graphics combine operations on the first data set to produce a first set of resultant graphics data;
- forwarding the first set of resultant graphics data to at least a second and third downstream texture combine unit;
- selecting a second data set from the graphics data representing the plurality of textures, second local graphics data, and the first set of resultant graphics data;
- performing graphics combine operations on the second data set to produce a second set of resultant graphics data;
- and
- forwarding the second set of resultant graphics data to a plurality of downstream texture combine units, the downstream texture combine units being other than the first texture combine unit.
A texture combine circuit for combining a global set of graphics data representing a plurality of textures and providing combined graphics data, the circuit comprising:
- at least three texture combine units, each texture combine unit having a first input to which the global set of graphics data representing the plurality of textures are provided and a second input to which a respective set of local graphics data are provided, a first one of the texture combine units having a first output, a second one of the texture combine units having a first combined data input coupled to the first output and further having a second output, a third one of the texture combine units having a second combined data input coupled to the first output, a third combined data input coupled to the second output, and further having a third output at which the combined graphics data are provided, each texture combine unit configured to generate respective combined graphics data from a respective set of graphics data including graphics data selected from the graphics data provided to the respective texture combine unit.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.