Method and apparatus for hardware acceleration of clipping and graphical fill in display systems

A display system comprising:

• a display memory, the display memory containing a plurality of display memory locations wherein each of the plurality of display memory locations contain color information for a corresponding pixel in an array of pixels to be displayed;
• a feature memory, the feature memory containing a plurality of feature memory locations wherein each of the plurality of feature memory locations contain a bit code for a corresponding one of the display memory locations;
• a graphics processor in communication with the display memory and the feature memory, the graphics processor configured to read from an identified location in the display memory in response to receiving a read command and write to an identified location in the display memory in response to receiving a write command, wherein:
• when the graphics processor receives a write command, the graphics processor is prevented from writing to the identified location in the display memory when the bit code in a corresponding location in the feature memory is allocated to a context that does not match a context of the write command, the context of the write command being one of a plurality of contexts;
• and
• when the graphics processor receives a read command, the graphics processor reads a value from the identified location in the display memory when the bit code stored in a corresponding location in the feature memory is not associated with any fill register and reads a value from an associated fill register when the bit code in the corresponding location in the feature memory is associated with the associated fill register;
• and
• wherein the display system dynamically allocates a plurality of bit codes to one of the plurality of contexts, wherein one of the plurality of bit codes is not associated with any fill register and at least one other of the plurality of bit codes is associated with a corresponding fill register.