Method and apparatus for generating texture

US6288730A · kind A · utility

Assignee

• Apple Computer Inc. · US

Inventors

• Jerome F. Duluk, Jr. · Palo Alto, US
• Richard E. Hessel · Pleasanton, US
• Joseph P. Grass · Menlo Park, US
• Abbas Rashid · Fremont, US
• Bo Hong · Mountain View, US
• Abraham Mammen · Pleasanton, US

Key dates

• Filing date: Aug 20, 1999
• Grant date: Sep 11, 2001
• Expiry date: Aug 20, 2019

Classification

• Technology area (CPC G): Physics
• CPC primary: G06T15/87
• WIPO field: Computer technology
• WIPO sector: Electrical engineering

Abstract

A deferred graphics pipeline processor comprising a texture unit and a texture memory associated with the texture unit. The texture unit applies texture maps stored in the texture memory, to pixel fragments. The textures are MIP-mapped and comprise a series of texture maps at different levels of detail, each map representing the appearance of the texture at a given distance from an eye point. The texture unit performs tri-linear interpolation from the texture maps to produce a texture value for a given pixel fragment that approximates the correct level of detail. The texture memory has texture data stored and accessed in a manner which reduces memory access conflicts and thus improves throughput of said texture unit.