Method and apparatus for displaying computer graphics data stored in a compressed format with an efficient color indexing system

摘要

A graphics controller for use in a computer system stores information from the screen memory portion of its frame buffer in a compressed form, either in a separate compressed data memory or a portion of the frame memory separate from the screen memory. Data in the compressed data memory references color data in a color dictionary. The display controller uses the color data from the compressed data memory to drive the display, thereby reducing accesses to the frame buffer by the display controller. Accordingly, other devices, such as hardware accelerators, have greater opportunities to access the frame buffer.