Patent ID: 6614449
Filing Date: 2003-09-02
Classification: G06T

Abstract:
A method for storing antialiasing pixel data, the method comprising:determining if a pixel sample set can be reduced to a compressed sample set, wherein the pixel sample set contains information describing a corresponding pixel, wherein the compressed sample set includes a color value, a Z value, and a first flag; when the pixel sample set can be reduced to the compressed sample set, storing the compressed sample set in a first memory at a first memory location, wherein the first flag of the compressed sample set indicates that the color value and the Z value for the corresponding pixel in the first memory are valid values; and when the pixel sample set cannot be reduced to the compressed sample set: determining a selected address in a second memory; storing the pixel sample set in the second memory at the selected address; and storing pointer information in the first memory location, wherein the pointer information includes a pointer and a second flag, wherein the pointer points to the selected address in the second memory, wherein the second flag indicates that pointer information is stored at the first memory location.