Patent Document ID: 9262797
Application ID: 13844095
Patent Status: 1

Claim One:
1. A method, comprising: receiving multi-sample pixel data; determining an encoding state associated with the multi-sample pixel data, wherein a first encoding state indicates that a single sample represents all samples of a multi-sample pixel, a second encoding state indicates that the single sample represents one sample of the multi-sample pixel, and a third encoding state indicates that the single sample represents a plurality of samples of the multi-sample pixel, wherein a number of samples in the plurality of samples is less than a total number of samples of the multi-sample pixel; providing data for the single sample to a processing unit; providing the encoding state to the processing unit; processing the single sample of the multi-sample pixel by the processing unit to generate processed data for the single sample, wherein a sample mask is associated with the multi-sample pixel that indicates which samples of the multi-sample pixel are represented by the processed multi-sample pixel data; determining whether a second single sample is stored in a buffer for a tile that includes the multi-sample pixel and at least one additional multi-sample pixel; determining that the second single sample corresponds to the single sample; and merging the sample mask with a stored sample mask associated with the second single sample.