Patent ID: 8704838

Claim:
A method for allocating a workload in a pixel sequential rendering system comprising a plurality of processors, said workload comprising a plurality of spans in each scanline of a raster pixel image comprising a plurality of graphical objects, said method comprising, for each scan line of said raster pixel image, the steps of: identifying, in a predetermined order, edges of said plurality of graphical objects that intersect with a current scan line of said raster pixel image; determining if a span of pixel locations on the current scan line defined by an adjacent pair of edges of the identified edges is complex based on whether pixels for the span have varying values; if the span is determined to be complex, dividing the span into a plurality of segments and allocating, independently of existing workloads of said plurality of processors, the plurality of segments among respective ones of the plurality of processors for rendering; and if the span is not determined to be complex, allocating the span into one of said plurality of processors without dividing the span for rendering, wherein spans which are not determined to be complex are allocated into one of said plurality of processors in a round robin manner.