US 7,609,272 B1 · Partial texture loads

Abstract

Circuits, methods, and apparatus that provide for partial texture load instructions. Instead of one instruction that may take several shader passes to complete, several instructions are issued, where each instruction is an instruction to retrieve a part or portion of a texture. While each instruction is performed, the other shader circuits can perform other instructions, thus increasing the utilization of the shader circuits when large textures are read from memory. Since several shader passes may be required to read a texture, if a particular instruction needs the texture, one exemplary embodiment reorders instructions such that other instructions are performed before the particular instruction that needs the texture.

Claims18

Dependent claims

A method for rendering a computer generated image comprising:

receiving a first instruction, the first instruction requiring a first texture, the first texture unavailable immediately to a first circuit;
wherein the first texture is stored in a memory prior to receiving the first instruction;
receiving a second instruction, the second instruction requiring a second texture, the second texture available immediately to the first circuit;
reordering the first and second instructions;
retrieving a first portion of the first texture from the memory;
and
while retrieving the first portion of the first texture, performing the second instruction using the first circuit.

4 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Partial texture loads

Life of this patent

Partial texture loads

Life of this patent

Abstract

Claims18