What happened to "pixel pipelines"??

[Maximilian]

I remember back in 2003 people were on about the 9800 PRO having 8 pixel pipelines and the SE version having only 4 so its crap, noone talks about pipelines anymore. What happened to them? Its all vertex shaders or pixel shaders or shader processors, are these the same thing as pipelines? Someone explain this please.

 

[Slugbait]

It's a bit out of date...text

 

[Matt2]

The days of the traditional pipe are gone as texture power has become less important.