Patent ID: 7339590

Claim:
A graphics processing subsystem including: a vertex texture fetch unit adapted to receive a vertex texture request from a vertex processing engine, the vertex texture request including at least one index value specifying a location of vertex texture map data within a vertex texture map, the vertex texture fetch unit further comprising: a sample unit adapted to compute a memory address corresponding to the location of the vertex texture map data within a vertex texture map specified by the at least one index value of the vertex texture request; and a vertex texture cache unit adapted to output the vertex texture map data, the 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, wherein the vertex texture cache unit is adapted to request the vertex texture map data specified by the vertex texture request from a location in a graphics memory corresponding with the memory address in response to a determination by the vertex texture cache unit that the vertex texture cache memory is not storing a copy of the vertex texture map data; and a vertex processing engine adapted to execute a vertex shader program specifying a series of operations to be performed on a vertex and, in response to an instruction of the vertex shader program, to dispatch a vertex texture request to the vertex texture fetch unit; wherein in response to the vertex texture request, the vertex texture fetch unit is adapted to retrieve the vertex texture map data from the location within the vertex texture map specified by the at least one index value of the vertex texture request and to return the vertex texture map data to the vertex processing engine.