The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Mar. 04, 2008
Filed:
Sep. 02, 2004
Jeffrey B. Moskal, Austin, TX (US);
David C. Tannenbaum, Austin, TX (US);
Andrew D. Bowen, Austin, TX (US);
Jakob Nebeker, San Jose, CA (US);
Jeffrey B. Moskal, Austin, TX (US);
David C. Tannenbaum, Austin, TX (US);
Andrew D. Bowen, Austin, TX (US);
Jakob Nebeker, San Jose, CA (US);
NVIDIA Corporation, Santa Clara, CA (US);
Abstract
A graphics processing subsystem includes a vertex processing unit that allows vertex shader programs to arbitrarily access data stored in vertex texture maps. The vertex processing unit includes a vertex texture fetch unit and vertex processing engines. The vertex processing engines operate in parallel to execute vertex shader programs that specify operations to be performed on vertices. In response to a vertex texture load instruction, a vertex processing engine dispatches a vertex texture request to the vertex texture fetch unit. The vertex texture fetch unit retrieves the corresponding vertex texture map data. While the vertex texture fetch unit is processing a vertex texture request, the requesting vertex processing engine is adapted to evaluate whether instructions that follow the vertex texture load instruction are dependent on the vertex texture map data, and if the instructions are not dependent on the vertex texture map data, to execute the additional instructions.