Programmable pixel shading architecture

Abstract From the Canadian patent

A system and associated method are provided for processing pixel data in a graphics pipeline. Included is a triangle module coupled to a rasterizer for calculating a plurality of equations using pixel data received from the rasterizer. Also provided is a shader core module coupled to the rasterizer for receiving the pixel data therefrom. The shader core module is further coupled to the triangle module for receiving the equations therefrom. The shader core module functions to execute floating point calculations and generating texture coordinates using the pixel data. Coupled to the shader core module is a texture module. The texture module is capable of looking up texture values …