Method and system for dynamically allocating a frame buffer for efficient anti-aliasing
First Claim
1. A polygon rendering system for receiving geometric data defining a polygon in an image being generated and rendering said geometric data as pixel data, said pixel data defining pixels used to display said image, said system comprising:
- a first memory buffer for storing said pixel data;
a second memory buffer for storing additional pixel data used to render edge pixels at a higher resolution than pixels that are not said edge pixels, said edge pixels located on an edge of said polygon in said image; and
a display controller for outputting said pixel data in said first memory buffer to output circuitry;
wherein said polygon rendering system identifies which of said pixels are said edge pixels and said display controller updates contents of said first buffer with data based on contents of said second buffer.
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Abstract
A polygon rendering system for receiving geometric data defining a polygon in an image being generated. The polygon rendering system renders the geometric data as pixel data. The pixel data defines pixels used to display the image. The system comprises a first memory buffer for storing the pixel data. It also comprises a second memory buffer for storing additional pixel data used to render edge pixels at a higher resolution than pixels that are not the edge pixels. Edge pixels are pixels that are located on an edge of the polygon in the image. The system also comprises a display controller for outputting the pixel data in the first memory buffer to output circuitry. The polygon rendering system identifies which of the pixels are the edge pixels and the display controller updates contents of the first buffer with data based on contents of the second buffer. The additional pixel data is used to compute a color value for the edge pixels and comprises a cluster of sub-pixel data for each of the edge pixels of the image. The sub-pixel data defines a number of sub-pixels and comprises a color value for each of the sub-pixels in the cluster. The display controller computes a color value for the edge pixels based on an average of the color values for each of the sub-pixels in each cluster that corresponds to the edge pixels and stores the computed color value in a field corresponding to the edge pixels in the first buffer.
95 Citations
38 Claims
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1. A polygon rendering system for receiving geometric data defining a polygon in an image being generated and rendering said geometric data as pixel data, said pixel data defining pixels used to display said image, said system comprising:
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a first memory buffer for storing said pixel data;
a second memory buffer for storing additional pixel data used to render edge pixels at a higher resolution than pixels that are not said edge pixels, said edge pixels located on an edge of said polygon in said image; and
a display controller for outputting said pixel data in said first memory buffer to output circuitry;
wherein said polygon rendering system identifies which of said pixels are said edge pixels and said display controller updates contents of said first buffer with data based on contents of said second buffer. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26)
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27. A rasterizer unit, said rasterizer unit configured to:
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render geometric data as pixel data, said geometric data defining a polygon in an image being generated, said pixel data defining pixels used to display said image; and
identify an edge pixel located on an edge of said polygon;
wherein, when said rasterizer unit identifies said edge pixel, said rasterizer unit outputs data that signals a display controller to allocate memory to a second memory buffer for storage of additional pixel data used to render said edge pixel at a higher resolution than pixels that are not said edge pixels, said second buffer in addition to a first memory buffer for storing said pixel data. - View Dependent Claims (28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37)
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38-101. -101. (cancelled)
Specification