Patent · US Expired

Method and apparatus for generating texture

US7164426B1 · kind B1 · utility

10Cited by

139References

4Claims

0Family size

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	Nov 28, 2000
Grant date	Jan 16, 2007
Priority date	—
Expiry date	Jan 24, 2023

Classification

Technology area (CPC G)Physics
CPC primaryG06T15/87
WIPO fieldComputer technology
WIPO sectorElectrical 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.

Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.