Appeal No. 2001-0529 Page 2
Application No. 08/846,600
shape thereby making the three-dimensional shape look more complex and realistic
than the underlying geometry. (Spec. at 1-2.) The appellants opine, however, "a need
still exists for a high-quality and economical three-dimensional graphics processor." (Id.
at 2.)
By utilizing a floating point set-up engine with an edgewalker circuit, a texel1
address generator, a texel fetch circuit, and a texel processor, the appellants assert,
"an economical and high-quality video graphics processor may be achieved." (Id.
at 26.) More specifically, the set-up engine receives vertex parameters and generates
derivatives and Bresenham parameters therefrom. The derivatives and Bresenham
parameters are provided to the edgewalker circuit, which produces a plurality of spans
therefrom. The texel address generator, in turn, converts the spans into a set of texel
addresses. Next, the texel fetch circuit receives the set of texel addresses and uses the
addresses to retrieve a set of texels. The texel processor subsequently processes the
set of texels to produce a filtered pixel. (Id. at 5.)
1"A 'texel' is used to represent the coloration values of a corresponding texture
plane area {R,G,B}t and it may also represent a corresponding blend factor {A}t. for that
area." U.S. Patent No. 5,798,762, col. 13, ll. 37-40.
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