Inventors:
Leroy B. Keely - Portola Valley CA
Andrew J. Palay - Mountain View CA
Assignee:
Microsoft Corporation - Redmond WA
International Classification:
G09G 502
US Classification:
345600, 345589, 345597, 345605, 345545, 345547, 345549, 3483931, 3483941, 3483951, 3484031, 3484201, 382162, 382167, 382232, 382237, 382274, 382245
Abstract:
The color of a pixel is represented in a pixel storage word, wherein color coordinate data and intensity data are coded separately in two fields of the pixel storage word, the color field and the intensity field. This permits a range of colors to be represented in a relatively small number of bits. In one embodiment of the invention, each of the three color coordinates of an input color is coded separately. The coded color components are concatenated and placed in a coded color field of the pixel storage word. In another embodiment of the invention, the color coordinate data is encoded as a color index, a binary value which maps to color coordinate data according to a predefined color table. Intensity data is also encoded with a binary value. The coded intensity can represent the intensity directly, or can be an index to intensity data stored in a predetermined intensity table.