Patent ID: 7173727

Claim:
A computer implemented method of rasterizing a page in a page description language in a multiprocessor integrated circuit comprising the steps of: interpreting said page in said page description language with a first processor of said multiprocessor integrated circuit; spawning a subtask from said first processor to another of said processors for sorting polygon edges in increasing minimum Y coordinate, wherein each of said other processors is a digital signal processor having an integer multiplier unit; and spawning a subtask from said first processor to another of said processors for detecting a Y coordinate of edge intersection determined to occur between Y coordinates Ytop and Ybottom via successive midpoint approximation by repeatedly calculating a difference in the X coordinates of the respective edges at Ytop and Ybottom are computed by x 1step= X 1âˆ’ x 1 x 2step= X 2âˆ’ x 2 where: x 1 and x 2 are respective X coordinates of two edges at Ybottom; and X 1 and X 2 are respective X coordinates of said two edges at Ytop, calculating the X coordinates of the respective edges at Y coordinate Y=(y 1 +y 2 )/2 by X 1=( x 1+ x 1step)/2 X 2=( x 2+ x 2step)/2 setting Ybottom as (Y+Ybottom)/2 if X 2 >X 1 at Y, and setting Ytop as (Y+Ytop)/2 if X 2 <X 1 , and until a Y coordinate of the intersection point is obtained with a desired accuracy.