Patent ID: 8619866

Claim:
A method for processing digital image data comprising: compressing a block of the digital image data to generate a compressed block wherein the compression threshold is (MÃ—NÃ—nrbits)/f wherein M is a width of the block, N is a height of the block, nr bits is a number of bits in a pixel, and f is a compression factor; storing the uncompressed block in an external memory when a number of bits in the compressed block exceed a first compression threshold; and storing the compressed block in the external memory when the number of bits in the compressed block does not exceeds the first compression threshold; and wherein the first compression threshold is one of a plurality of compression thresholds, and wherein the external memory comprises a compressed data buffer corresponding to each of the plurality of compression thresholds and an uncompressed data buffer, and wherein storing the compressed block further comprises: determining that the number of bits in the compressed block does not exceed a second compression threshold of the plurality of compression thresholds, wherein the second threshold is smaller than the first compression threshold; storing the compressed block in the compressed data buffer corresponding to the second compression threshold responsive to the determining; and setting a compression flag corresponding to the block to indicate that the compressed block is stored in the compressed data buffer corresponding to the second compression threshold, and wherein storing the block further comprises: storing the block in the uncompressed data buffer; and setting the compression flag corresponding to the block to indicate that the block is stored in the uncompressed data buffer.