Patent ID: 8547382

Claim:
A graphics processor comprising: logic grouping binary data of a block of pixels into a plurality of bit-planes, each bit-plane corresponding to a different bit position in the binary data of the block of pixels and including a bit value from each pixel in the block at that corresponding bit position; an encoding, associated with the block of pixels, that represents which one or more of the bit-planes is a constant-value bit-plane having binary data comprised of a same bit value from every pixel in the block and which one or more of the bit-planes is a mixed-value bit-plane, wherein the encoding includes: an indicator mask having one bit for each bit-plane of the block of pixels, each bit of the indicator mask having a bit value that indicates whether the corresponding bit-plane is a constant-value bit-plane; and a value mask having a bit for each constant-value bit-plane of the block, each bit of the value mask having a bit value that represents the bit value of each bit of the corresponding constant-value bit-plane, the bit value of each bit of the corresponding constant-value bit-plane being a zero value when the bit value of the value mask is a first value, the bit value of each bit of the corresponding constant-value bit-plane being a one value when the bit value of the value mask is a second value, wherein the bit value is established as irrelevant in response to the indicator mask failing to identify that the bit-plane is a constant-value bit-plane; and logic accessing memory storing the block of pixels to process the binary data of each mixed-value bit-plane and accessing memory storing the encoding to process the binary data of each constant-value bit-plane when a processing operation is performed on the block of pixels.