Abstract: A scalable shader architecture is disclosed. In accord with that architecture, a shader includes multiple shader pipelines, each of which can perform processing operations on rasterized pixel data. Shader pipelines can be functionally removed as required, thus preventing a defective shader pipeline from causing a chip rejection. The shader includes a shader distributor that processes rasterized pixel data and then selectively distributes the processed rasterized pixel data to the various shader pipelines, beneficially in a manner that balances workloads. A shader collector formats the outputs of the various shader pipelines into proper order to form shaded pixel data. A shader instruction processor (scheduler) programs the individual shader pipelines to perform their intended tasks.

Abstract: A scalable shader architecture is disclosed. In accord with that architecture, a shader includes multiple shader pipelines, each of which can perform processing operations on rasterized pixel data. Shader pipelines can be functionally removed as required, thus preventing a defective shader pipeline from causing a chip rejection. The shader includes a shader distributor that processes rasterized pixel data and then selectively distributes the processed rasterized pixel data to the various shader pipelines, beneficially in a manner that balances workloads. A shader collector formats the outputs of the various shader pipelines into proper order to form shaded pixel data. A shader instruction processor (scheduler) programs the individual shader pipelines to perform their intended tasks.

Abstract: A geometry compression method for sort middle, screen space, graphics of the standard graphics pipeline. The pipeline processes a 3D database having geometric objects such as triangles and textures into a display image which may be shown to the user on a display monitor. Lossless compression is achieved through redundancy elimination. Triangles are processed following their transformation to screen space, so that the vertex world 3D locations are determined in their projection to the screen 2D locations. Triangles may also be processed by back projecting the screen space scanlines to test locations against the world space triangles. The general technique is to identify the portions of the data that have little or no effect on the rendered output and remove them during compression. Specific examples disclosed include full packing, constant color, delta coding, edge sharing, slope coding, and color quantization.