Graphics accelerator chip and method

Abstract

A graphics accelerator chip which interprets instructions and data transferred from a microprocessor via an external data bus logically coupled to the microprocessor. A host logic interface buffers the information received from the microprocessor with an on-chip first-in first-out (FIFO) memory which has an address space mapped onto a contiguous sequential address space of the microprocessor. A state machine having a temporary memory receives and interprets instructions and data from the FIFO memory, and routes them to a graphics register set which performs logical graphics operations based upon the graphics instructions and data. The temporary memory stores the last primitive command received, allowing the chip to perform multiple graphics operations where a primitive command is received from the microprocessor only once. A separate data bus from the host logic interface to the graphics register set enables direct access to the graphics registers from the microprocessor.