Patent ID: 6972769

Claim:
A graphics processing subsystem comprising: a vertex texture fetch unit adapted to receive a series of vertex texture requests from at least one vertex processing engine, each vertex texture request including a vertex texture ID specifying a vertex texture map and at least one index value specifying a location of vertex texture map data within the vertex texture map, the vertex texture fetch unit comprising: a sample unit adapted to compute a memory address for each vertex texture request, the memory address corresponding to the location of the vertex texture map data within a graphics memory; and a vertex texture cache unit including a vertex texture cache memory adapted to store a copy of at least a portion of at least one vertex texture map, the vertex texture cache unit adapted to request the vertex texture map data specified by a first one of the series of vertex texture requests from the location in the graphics memory corresponding with the memory address in response to a determination by the vertex texture cache unit that a vertex texture cache memory is not storing a copy of the vertex texture map data; wherein, while the request for vertex texture map data specified by a first one of the series of vertex texture requests from the graphics memory is pending, the vertex texture cache unit is adapted to output a vertex texture map data corresponding with a second one of the series of vertex texture requests.