Patent ID: 7310100

Claim:
A method for processing graphics data in a graphics pipeline of a computer system, said graphics data comprising color data, stencil z-buffer data, and texture data, said graphics pipeline comprising a color pipeline for processing the color data, the stencil z-buffer pipeline for processing the stencil z-buffer data, and the texture pipeline for processing the texture data, said method comprising the steps of: a) storing said graphics data within a memory sub-system of said computer system, said memory sub-system having an inherent memory latency; b) traversing graphics primitives of said graphics data to generate pixel coordinates for pixels corresponding to said graphics primitives; c) generating cache addresses for said pixels based on said pixel coordinates; d) pre-fetching said graphics data such that said graphics data is retrieved from said memory sub-system before said graphics data is needed; and e) storing said graphics data at said cache addresses within a color cache coupled to the color pipeline and dedicated for use by the color pipeline, a stencil z-buffer cache coupled to the stencil z-buffer pipeline and dedicated for use by the stencil z-buffer pipeline, and a texture cache coupled to the texture pipeline and dedicated for use by the texture pipeline such that said graphics data is immediately available when needed despite said inherent memory latency of said memory sub-system.