Computer graphics system with texture mapping

United States Patent m

Kawase et al.

US005767858A [ii] Patent Number: [45] Date of Patent:

5,767,858 Jun. 16, 1998

[54] COMPUTER GRAPHICS SYSTEM WITH TEXTURE MAPPING

[75] Inventors: Kei Kawase. Sagamihara; Nobuyoshi Tanaka. Yamato. both of Japan

[73] Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation, Armonk, N.Y.

[21] Appl. No.: 566,244

[22] Filed: Dec 1, 1995

[30] Foreign Application Priority Data

Dec. 1, 1994 [JP] Japan 6-298618

[51] Int CI.6 G09B 9/08

[52] U.S. CI 345/430

[58] Field of Search 395/125. 126.

395/128. 129. 130. 131. 132

[56] References Cited

U.S. PATENT DOCUMENTS

5,490,240 2/1996 Foran et al 395/130

5,537,224 7/1996 Suzuoki et al 395/130 X

5,553,208 9/1996 Murataetal 395/130 X

Primary Examiner—Phu K. Nguyen

Assistant Examiner—Cliff N. Vo

Attorney, Agent, or Firm—Martin J. McKinley

[57] ABSTRACT

Provided are a plurality of texture memory clusters for storing interleaved texture image data composed of a plurality of texels in each memory so as to avoid duplication, each having a collecting circuit for computing, from the coordinates of a texture image for one pixel, texels for calculating a texture value corresponding to the coordinates, and for collecting the texel values from the plurality of texture memory clusters, and circuitry for calculating the texture value for the above one pixel from the collected texel values, a bus for interconnecting the plurality of memory clusters, and a plurality of texture generators each connected to one of the plurality of memory clusters for calculating the coordinates of the texture image for the above one pixel. Texel values can efficiently exchanged between each memory cluster without redundantly holding texels in memories.

9 Claims, 8 Drawing Sheets