Patent ID: 7119809

Claim:
A system for identifying pixels inside a graphics primitive of a: raster image, the system comprising: a memory for storing a raster image; and a graphics engine coupled to the memory and comprising a pipeline structure including: a sequential logic block comprising a plurality of identical sequential logic circuits coupled in series and including a first sequential logic circuit and a last sequential logic circuit, the first sequential logic circuit configured to receive a polygonal portion of the raster image from the memory and to either disregard the polygonal portion if the polygonal portion is outside of the graphics primitive or, if the polygonal portion is at least partly inside the graphics primitive, to subdivide the polygonal portion into equal polygonal subportions and output the polygonal subportions, and the last sequential logic circuit configured to receive polygonal subportions, disregard any polygonal subportions thereof that are outside of the graphics primitive, and subdivide a remaining polygonal subportion into further equal polygonal subportions and output those further polygonal subportions; and a parallel logic block comprising a plurality of identical parallel logic circuits including: a first parallel logic circuit configured to receive the further polygonal subportions output from the last sequential logic circuit, disregard any further polygonal subportions thereof that are outside of the graphics primitive, and subdivide a remaining further polygonal subportion into still further equal polygonal subportions and output those still further polygonal subportions to two next parallel logic circuits operating in parallel.