High Performance Texture Mapping Architectures

Logic-embedded memories are part of a rapidly emerging technology and offer enormous transfer rates and computing power. This is shown with the example of the TEXRAM, a result of the MONOGRAPH ESPRIT project. We analyze the benefits of new memory technologies in the context of the current market. We show how their use and integration to high-performance graphics systems meet price and performance requirements and determine future market chances. The application of highly integrated memories and image compression enables high-performance texture mapping. The size of the texture memory is considerably reduced and the bandwidth between the memory and texturing unit is lowered. We present alternative solutions ranging from low-cost hardware macrocells to high-end texture mapping architectures integrating logic-enhanced memories.