Method and apparatus for anti-aliasing using floating point subpixel color values and compression of same

An apparatus comprising:

• a logic operative to:
• represent each sub-pixel of each pixel of a plurality of pixels of a display with a pointer corresponding to an attribute of the sub-pixel, the attribute being a floating point binary number;
• and
• determine an overall attribute of each pixel by any one of:
• assigning the attribute of the sub-pixels to the overall attribute of the pixel when the sub-pixels are represented by an identical pointer;
• and
• resolving the overall attribute of the pixel by the attributes of the sub-pixels when the sub-pixels are represented by non-identical pointers of the pixel.

A method of data compression comprising:

• storing sub-pixels values for a plurality of pixels;
• and
• selecting from one of at least the following compression levels:
• a clear state that utilizes a single floating point color value per tile;
• an uncompressed state that utilizes a floating point color value stored for each sub-pixel of each pixel in a tile;
• a partial compression state that utilize a pointer for each subpixel in a tile that selects a floating point color value for each subpixel;
• and
• full compression that utilizes a single floating point color value for each pixel, to compress the plurality of sub-pixel values.