Patent ID: 7791612

Claim:
A method for reading data representing texels of a texture map in a graphics processing system, the method comprising: receiving a texel coordinate for a requested texel; translating the texel coordinate to a memory address at which the data representing the requested texel is stored in a system memory of a system in which the graphics processing system is located; comparing at least a portion of the memory address to a plurality of tag values stored in a corresponding plurality of tag locations of a content addressable memory (CAM), each tag location associated with a corresponding buffer location; in response to the portion of the memory address matching one of the stored tag values, generating at the CAM one active match signal identifying a buffer location in a memory buffer that corresponds to the tag location storing the matching tag value; in response to the active match signal, accessing the corresponding buffer location in the memory buffer; retrieving data stored in the corresponding buffer location; and providing the data retrieved from the corresponding location as data representing the requested texel; and in response to the portion of the memory address not matching one of the tag values, retrieving the data for the requested texel from the memory; storing the data in a buffer location in the memory buffer; storing a tag value associated with the memory address in the content addressable memory, the value stored in a tag location corresponding to the buffer location in the memory buffer at which the data is stored; and providing the data retrieved from the memory as data representing the requested texel.