Abstract: A method and apparatus for rendering an object using texture variant information begins by determining at least one object invariant parameter based on at least one object parameter (i.e., the parameters used to render the object). The object invariant parameter may include at least one light vector, and/or invariant portion(s) of a texture map. Having obtained the object invariant parameter(s), a plurality of rendering elements are computed based on the object invariant parameter(s), texture coordinates of the object being rendered, and texture variant information. The plurality of rendering elements is calculated by encoding at least one of a plurality of texture parameters to obtain a texture map. Next, uniformed portions of the texture map are encoded into a corresponding texture variant table to produce a plurality of texture variants. Having produced the texture variants, at least one of them is selected based on texture coordinates of the object to produce at least one selected texture variant.

Abstract: A method and apparatus for rendering an object using texture variant information begins by determining at least one object invariant parameter based on at least one object parameter (i.e., the parameters used to render the object). The object invariant parameter may include at least one light vector, and/or invariant portion(s) of a texture map. Having obtained the object invariant parameter(s), a plurality of rendering elements are computed based on the object invariant parameter(s), texture coordinates of the object being rendered, and texture variant information. The plurality of rendering elements is calculated by encoding at least one of a plurality of texture parameters to obtain a texture map. Next, uniformed portions of the texture map are encoded into a corresponding texture variant table to produce a plurality of texture variants. Having produced the texture variants, at least one of them is selected based on texture coordinates of the object to produce at least one selected texture variant.

Abstract: A page based memory address translation table update method and apparatus uses a first processor, such as a host processor or other processor, to notify a second processor to update its own page table. In one embodiment, the first processor generates an execution order driven page table maintenance command for the second processor. The second processor updates its own page table in sequence with received embedded commands. The second processor also updates its own translation look aside buffer in response to the page table maintenance data generated by the first processor. The page table maintenance data may be, for example, a page table maintenance command that is queued by the first processor so that the table update for the second processor is deferred from the first processors point of view since the second processor performs its own page table edits based on the order in which the page table maintenance command appears in a command queue for the second processor.

Abstract: A method and apparatus for improved concurrency within a video graphics process by generating culling information from geometry information. The geometry information corresponds to an image to be rendered, and the culling information indicates the triangles of the objects of the image that are in a front-facing or back-facing position. Having generated the culling information, set-up information is generated therefrom. The set-up information provides rendering data for the triangles of the object of the image being rendered. Next, pixel data is generated for a triangle based on the set-up information. To improve the concurrency, the queuing and the retrieval of the culling information and the set-up information from non-local memory are controlled such that the generating of the culling information, the set-up information, and the pixel data is done with improved concurrency.

Abstract: A method and apparatus for anti-aliasing a rendered scene begins processing by rendering a plurality of objects of an image to a buffer to produce a rendered image. For example, the image corresponds to a particular frame of data to be displayed on a computer monitor, television, etc. Each of the objects corresponds to portions of the image and is comprised of object-elements (e.g., triangles). While the plurality of objects is being rendered, edge information of the objects that are in a most foreground position is maintained. The edge information includes a pixel offset value, which indicates the offset of an edge from a pixel center, and gradient information of the object edge. After the image has been rendered and the edge information has been collected for a particular frame of data, the rendered image is filtered based on the edge information. In particular, a two-dimensional spatial filter that derives its filtering parameters from the edge information is applied to the rendered image.