First of all, as always, a well written in depth article.
Found one typo: "it will tale more time" ('tale' instead of 'take') on page 17.
Regarding multitexturing loop-back (on the same page), I believe it was first introduced in the Rage Pro (the first graphics chip capable of multitexturing). The Savage4 definitely used loop-back. The Voodoo Banshee didn't support multitexturing, AFAICR, so naturally didn't have loopback.
Found one typo: "it will tale more time" ('tale' instead of 'take') on page 17.
Regarding multitexturing loop-back (on the same page), I believe it was first introduced in the Rage Pro (the first graphics chip capable of multitexturing). The Savage4 definitely used loop-back. The Voodoo Banshee didn't support multitexturing, AFAICR, so naturally didn't have loopback.