EP0145817A1 - System zur Darstellung von Daten - Google Patents

System zur Darstellung von Daten Download PDF

Info

Publication number
EP0145817A1
EP0145817A1 EP83307697A EP83307697A EP0145817A1 EP 0145817 A1 EP0145817 A1 EP 0145817A1 EP 83307697 A EP83307697 A EP 83307697A EP 83307697 A EP83307697 A EP 83307697A EP 0145817 A1 EP0145817 A1 EP 0145817A1
Authority
EP
European Patent Office
Prior art keywords
pixel
data
buffer
viewport
display screen
Prior art date
Legal status (The legal status is an assumption and is not a legal conclusion. Google has not performed a legal analysis and makes no representation as to the accuracy of the status listed.)
Granted
Application number
EP83307697A
Other languages
English (en)
French (fr)
Other versions
EP0145817B1 (de
Inventor
Alan A. Impey
Colin V. Powell
John Simmons
Colin J. Easton
Current Assignee (The listed assignees may be inaccurate. Google has not performed a legal analysis and makes no representation or warranty as to the accuracy of the list.)
International Business Machines Corp
Original Assignee
International Business Machines Corp
Priority date (The priority date is an assumption and is not a legal conclusion. Google has not performed a legal analysis and makes no representation as to the accuracy of the date listed.)
Filing date
Publication date
Application filed by International Business Machines Corp filed Critical International Business Machines Corp
Priority to EP83307697A priority Critical patent/EP0145817B1/de
Priority to DE8383307697T priority patent/DE3377683D1/de
Priority to JP59195885A priority patent/JPS60130795A/ja
Priority to CA000469784A priority patent/CA1229439A/en
Publication of EP0145817A1 publication Critical patent/EP0145817A1/de
Application granted granted Critical
Publication of EP0145817B1 publication Critical patent/EP0145817B1/de
Expired legal-status Critical Current

Links

Images

Classifications

    • G—PHYSICS
    • G09—EDUCATION; CRYPTOGRAPHY; DISPLAY; ADVERTISING; SEALS
    • G09G—ARRANGEMENTS OR CIRCUITS FOR CONTROL OF INDICATING DEVICES USING STATIC MEANS TO PRESENT VARIABLE INFORMATION
    • G09G5/00—Control arrangements or circuits for visual indicators common to cathode-ray tube indicators and other visual indicators
    • G09G5/14—Display of multiple viewports

Definitions

  • This invention relates to a data display system and particularly to a display system which is used as an input-output terminal of a data processing system which may be used for concurrent processing of application programs.
  • Viewporting is the generic name given to the technique of defining a particular screen area as the viewport on which an application writes and displays data - graphic or alphanumeric.
  • a user is using a display terminal to interact with more than one application program then different areas of the screen will be allocated to different applications this is multiple view porting. This concept is explained in Fundamentals of Interactive Computer Graphics by Foley and Van Dam published by Addison Wesley 1982.
  • Viewporting designs for current raster displays use the concept that only the viewport which is of highest priority, i.e. on top of, or overlaying, all others can be modified at any one time. This, in effect, corresponds to a single application situation and requires the complete re-drawing of a viewport whenever it is given highest priority after it has previously been overlaid.
  • This application describes a multi-viewport system in which the writing of application data into overlapping viewports is controlled by a screen manager.
  • the screen manager maintains a series of priority flags for each pixel (bit in the screen buffer) relating to the layers of the 'viewports, and a viewport order list. Only the current, or higher priority viewport is written into by an application. There is no provision for having more than one application writing into a lower priority viewport overlapped by the current viewport other than serially, i.e. writing to one viewport is completed before processing the next one.
  • the main advantage of the present invention is that lower priority viewports may be written into requiring only a single pass over the data held in a data buffer, and it is able to handle the most complex of overlaid viewports.
  • a data display system in which a display screen may simultaneously display data relating to different applications in overlapping view ports having different priority levels characterised in that the system includes a pixel buffer (screen buffer) in which the picture data for all view ports is stored,
  • a user has only been able to use a terminal for a single, interactive session at any one time.
  • This session might be conducted with a host application, or with an application running in a stand-alone workstation.
  • the range of applications available is very broad and includes word-processing, data base operations, communications and graphics design. These applications might be commercially written, or coded by the user.
  • each application generates output to a conceptual presentation space, which is considered to be mapped onto the entire workstation screen.
  • Each viewport provides a window onto the corresponding presentation space. The contents of the presentation space, contained within this window, are displayed on the screen viewport. While the viewport remains in a fixed position on the screen, the window may be moved, or scrolled, over the presentation space, under user control, thus allowing the whole of the presentation space to be accessed and viewed. For maximum flexibility in screen layout, the user may change the size of a viewport and its position on the screen.
  • a communications application may be providing a continuous report on the movement of stocks and shares, or monitoring the status of a major power station;
  • a data base application might be searching and reporting occurrences of a subject in a world wide collection of information systems. This multi-application system allows the user to retrieve information when it is needed, rather than when the current application has terminated.
  • these viewports may overlap on the screen, just as several documents might overlap on someone's desk. They would be arranged, by the user, so that the portions of interest are visible, even if other viewports partially obscure them.
  • information, from other viewports is immediately available for reference.
  • the content of these other viewports may be dynamically changing, depending on the corresponding applications.
  • the active viewport with which the user is currently interacting, overlays the other viewports.
  • the user can chose to interact with one of the other viewports, when it will "pop" to the top so that it overlays the others.
  • the purpose of this invention is to provide a technique whereby an application, associated with an overlaid viewport, may dynamically update its entire presentation space, have this new data immediately displayed on the visible, non-overlayed, portion of the viewport, and yet not interfere with the overlaying viewports.
  • FIG. 1 shows in schematic form a data processing system in which a host data processor 10 which can be a multi-processor such as an IBM 3033 will process data relating to many application programs concurrently.
  • the processor can support many display systems such as that through a link 12.
  • the display system comprises a display terminal 14, a keyboard 16, a light pen 18 or interactive device such as a mouse or a tablet.
  • the display system may be communicating with the host processor with data relating to up to four application programs at a time.
  • a fifth application program may be running on a locally attached processor 20, such as an IBM Personal Computer.
  • data-streaming may take place to one or more viewports other than the viewport with which the operator is currently interacting.
  • these lower priority viewports may be overlaid by the active viewport and possibly by one or more other viewports.
  • a simple scheme would be to sub-divide viewport A into two rectangles Al and A2 as shown in Figure 3.
  • the alphanumeric and graphic data would be written twice, first clipping to the boundary of area Al and then a second time, clipping to the boundary of area A2. This involves two passes over the data which can be time consuming.
  • viewport D in Figure 4 In a more complex situation for example viewport D in Figure 4, the viewport would need to be split into five rectangular areas for the purposes of clipping requiring five passes over the data. In addition there is the complexity of determining the clipping boundaries in the optimum way for a general set of overlapping viewports.
  • FIG. 5 shows schematically the component parts of the display unit including a drawing order store 50 which receives data from up to four applications from the host processor 10 and one from the local processor 20 on lines 51.
  • Graphic and alphanumeric data is received in the form of orders which may include a vector list.
  • a formatter 52 transforms the order list to a form suitable for a raster scan and passes the rastered data to a bit plane logic device 54.
  • a pixel buffer 56 includes bit positions one associated with each pixel on the display screen and is read out for each refresh cycle of the display unit.
  • a mask buffer 58 is connected to the bit plane logic device 54 and together control the writing of raster formatted information into the pixel buffer.
  • the display unit components are controlled by a control unit 60 which contains a microprocessor and its associated ROM and RAM stores with the microcode for controlling the operation of the unit.
  • the actual picture data for all viewports is stored in the pixel buffer 56.
  • this buffer is made up of one or more bit planes.
  • the mask buffer 58 comprises a single bit corresponding to each pixel of the main pixel buffer 56.
  • the mask buffer comprises an additional bit plane to those used for the pixel buffer.
  • the logic of the bit plane logic 54 uses the content of the mask buffer 58 to determine whether a pixel should be written in the pixel buffer during character or vector drawing.
  • the control unit 60 enables or disables the mask buffer so that when the mask buffer is disabled all pixels, including the mask buffer bit of the pixel may be written regardless of the current mask content. However, when in the enable mode a mask bit having a '1' value inhibits the writing into the associated pixel in the pixel buffer planes.
  • Pixel data is written to the bit planes of the pixel and mask buffers under the control of the control unit 60.
  • the bit plane logic device 54 includes a bit plane enable register which selects the bit planes that are to be updated. If a bit of the register is set, then the corresponding bit plane may be written. A bit for the mask buffer is included in the register.
  • a single control bit enables the use of the mask buffer as an overall control of whether a particular pixel is actually updated.
  • data from the mask buffer is read by the update logic and used to determine whether the corresponding pixel is to be updated.
  • control unit 60 of the embodiment The operation under the control of the control unit 60 of the embodiment is as follows.
  • the area of the mask buffer corresponding to the viewport to be written is reset to zero. This allows pixel drawing anywhere within the viewport. This reset operation is implemented using normal 'area fill' methods simplified for speed by taking account of the rectangular viewport shape.
  • control unit enables the use of the mask buffer to control the writing of pixel data.
  • the Bit Plane Write Enable register is set to allow writing to the pixel buffer, but not the mask buffer.
  • the data is then written into the low priority viewport, but only into these pixels whose corresponding mask bit is zero.
  • the operation is concluded by the disabling of the mask buffer to allow normal writing operations to the higher priority viewport.
  • FIG. 6 illustrates the content of the mask buffer just before the start of writing data to viewport D of FIG. 4. It shows how the overlaid areas of viewport D are indicated by the mask of '1's in the mask buffer and consequently inhibit the further moditications of pixels in these areas.
  • Each '1' in the mask buffer inhibits pixel modification while viewport D data is being written. Normal clipping operation for the whole of viewport D will prevent pixels outside of the viewport being modified.
  • the hardware implementation of the invention described above may be simulated in software.
  • This second embodiment is applicable for display systems where the additional bit plane is not available, or where existing hardware cannot be modified to allow one of the existing bit planes to be used for the "mask" buffer.
  • the algorithm used is similar to that described above for the hardware solution, except that no hardware assist is used. It is entirely a software solution. In this case, it is assumed that the system processor, or possible a second slave processor, is used to draw the vectors in a set of bit planes. A pseudo "mask" buffer is built-up in normal processor storage. It is used during drawing operations to determine whether a particular pixel is to be drawn in the bit planes as described for the hardware implementation. If a second processor is used to draw the actual vectors, storage within its own address space might be used to contain the "mask" buffer.

Landscapes

  • Engineering & Computer Science (AREA)
  • Physics & Mathematics (AREA)
  • Computer Hardware Design (AREA)
  • General Physics & Mathematics (AREA)
  • Theoretical Computer Science (AREA)
  • Controls And Circuits For Display Device (AREA)
  • Digital Computer Display Output (AREA)
  • Image Input (AREA)
EP83307697A 1983-12-19 1983-12-19 System zur Darstellung von Daten Expired EP0145817B1 (de)

Priority Applications (4)

Application Number Priority Date Filing Date Title
EP83307697A EP0145817B1 (de) 1983-12-19 1983-12-19 System zur Darstellung von Daten
DE8383307697T DE3377683D1 (en) 1983-12-19 1983-12-19 A data display system
JP59195885A JPS60130795A (ja) 1983-12-19 1984-09-20 デ−タ表示装置
CA000469784A CA1229439A (en) 1983-12-19 1984-12-11 Data display system

Applications Claiming Priority (1)

Application Number Priority Date Filing Date Title
EP83307697A EP0145817B1 (de) 1983-12-19 1983-12-19 System zur Darstellung von Daten

Publications (2)

Publication Number Publication Date
EP0145817A1 true EP0145817A1 (de) 1985-06-26
EP0145817B1 EP0145817B1 (de) 1988-08-10

Family

ID=8191367

Family Applications (1)

Application Number Title Priority Date Filing Date
EP83307697A Expired EP0145817B1 (de) 1983-12-19 1983-12-19 System zur Darstellung von Daten

Country Status (4)

Country Link
EP (1) EP0145817B1 (de)
JP (1) JPS60130795A (de)
CA (1) CA1229439A (de)
DE (1) DE3377683D1 (de)

Cited By (5)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
EP0240989A2 (de) * 1986-04-09 1987-10-14 Hitachi, Ltd. Verfahren und System zur Steuerung einer Multibildschirmanzeige
EP0256838A2 (de) * 1986-08-11 1988-02-24 Tektronix, Inc. System zur Verbesserung der Funktion von Zwei-Farben-Anzeigen
EP0613117A2 (de) * 1986-09-12 1994-08-31 Wang Laboratories Inc. Vorrichtung zur Anzeigebestimmung in einer Anzeigeeinrichtung eines Computerterminals
WO2003067569A1 (fr) * 2002-02-07 2003-08-14 Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd. Dispositif et procede de composition d'image
CN101707055A (zh) * 2009-10-30 2010-05-12 深圳创维数字技术股份有限公司 一种数字电视机顶盒窗口图像处理方法和系统

Families Citing this family (1)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
JP3169848B2 (ja) * 1997-02-12 2001-05-28 日本電気アイシーマイコンシステム株式会社 図形表示装置および図形表示方法

Family Cites Families (2)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
JPS5846026B2 (ja) * 1978-07-25 1983-10-13 セイコーインスツルメンツ株式会社 デイスプレイ装置における隠線消去方式
JPS58211185A (ja) * 1982-06-02 1983-12-08 富士通株式会社 分割画面表示制御方式

Non-Patent Citations (1)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Title
IBM TECHNICAL DISCLOSURE BULLETIN, vol. 20, no. 10, March 1978, pages 4161-4162, New York, USA; D.P. ATTWOOD: "Graphic display protect scheme" *

Cited By (9)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
EP0240989A2 (de) * 1986-04-09 1987-10-14 Hitachi, Ltd. Verfahren und System zur Steuerung einer Multibildschirmanzeige
EP0240989A3 (en) * 1986-04-09 1990-01-17 Hitachi, Ltd. Multi-screen display control system and its method
EP0256838A2 (de) * 1986-08-11 1988-02-24 Tektronix, Inc. System zur Verbesserung der Funktion von Zwei-Farben-Anzeigen
EP0256838A3 (en) * 1986-08-11 1989-08-09 Tektronix, Inc. System for improving two-color display operations
EP0613117A2 (de) * 1986-09-12 1994-08-31 Wang Laboratories Inc. Vorrichtung zur Anzeigebestimmung in einer Anzeigeeinrichtung eines Computerterminals
EP0613117A3 (de) * 1986-09-12 1994-10-19 Wang Laboratories Vorrichtung zur Anzeigebestimmung in einer Anzeigeeinrichtung eines Computerterminals.
WO2003067569A1 (fr) * 2002-02-07 2003-08-14 Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd. Dispositif et procede de composition d'image
CN101707055A (zh) * 2009-10-30 2010-05-12 深圳创维数字技术股份有限公司 一种数字电视机顶盒窗口图像处理方法和系统
CN101707055B (zh) * 2009-10-30 2013-01-09 深圳市创维软件有限公司 一种数字电视机顶盒窗口图像处理方法和系统

Also Published As

Publication number Publication date
CA1229439A (en) 1987-11-17
DE3377683D1 (en) 1988-09-15
JPS60130795A (ja) 1985-07-12
EP0145817B1 (de) 1988-08-10
JPH0510680B2 (de) 1993-02-10

Similar Documents

Publication Publication Date Title
EP0329892B1 (de) Anzeigesystem mit einem Fenstermechanismus
US5241656A (en) Depth buffer clipping for window management
US4491836A (en) Graphics display system and method including two-dimensional cache
US5430841A (en) Context management in a graphics system
CA1213085A (en) Method and apparatus for image compression and manipulation
EP0249696B1 (de) Mehrfensteranzeigesystem
US4642790A (en) Presentation space management and viewporting on a multifunction virtual terminal
US4496944A (en) Graphics display system and method including associative addressing
CA1216368A (en) Display of multiple data windows in a multi-tasking system
US4492956A (en) Graphics display system and method including preclipping circuit
US5321807A (en) Accelerated graphics display method
US4730261A (en) Solids modelling generator
US4670841A (en) Composite character generator
US4566000A (en) Image display apparatus and method having virtual cursor
EP0279225B1 (de) Zähler mit veränderbarer Verschaltung zur Adressierung in graphischen Anzeigesystemen
JPH0456316B2 (de)
EP0147542B1 (de) Anzeigesystem mit vielfachen Bildfenstern
EP0145817B1 (de) System zur Darstellung von Daten
EP0381892B1 (de) Rechner-Anzeigesysteme mit Fenstern
Bechtolsheim et al. High-performance raster graphics for microcomputer systems
EP0026269A1 (de) Anzeigesystem für digitale Farbdaten
EP0121070A2 (de) System zur Steuerung von Plasmabildschirmen
EP0212016A1 (de) System zur graphischen Manipulation in einem Anzeigegerät mit Möglichkeit zur Anzeige von Fenstern
US6256042B1 (en) Graphic display method and apparatus
CN112233206B (zh) 字符图像生成方法、装置、设备及存储介质

Legal Events

Date Code Title Description
PUAI Public reference made under article 153(3) epc to a published international application that has entered the european phase

Free format text: ORIGINAL CODE: 0009012

17P Request for examination filed

Effective date: 19841214

AK Designated contracting states

Designated state(s): DE FR GB IT

17Q First examination report despatched

Effective date: 19870430

GRAA (expected) grant

Free format text: ORIGINAL CODE: 0009210

AK Designated contracting states

Kind code of ref document: B1

Designated state(s): DE FR GB IT

REF Corresponds to:

Ref document number: 3377683

Country of ref document: DE

Date of ref document: 19880915

ET Fr: translation filed
ITF It: translation for a ep patent filed
PLBE No opposition filed within time limit

Free format text: ORIGINAL CODE: 0009261

STAA Information on the status of an ep patent application or granted ep patent

Free format text: STATUS: NO OPPOSITION FILED WITHIN TIME LIMIT

26N No opposition filed
ITTA It: last paid annual fee
PGFP Annual fee paid to national office [announced via postgrant information from national office to epo]

Ref country code: GB

Payment date: 19931124

Year of fee payment: 11

PGFP Annual fee paid to national office [announced via postgrant information from national office to epo]

Ref country code: FR

Payment date: 19931129

Year of fee payment: 11

PG25 Lapsed in a contracting state [announced via postgrant information from national office to epo]

Ref country code: GB

Effective date: 19941219

PGFP Annual fee paid to national office [announced via postgrant information from national office to epo]

Ref country code: DE

Payment date: 19941220

Year of fee payment: 12

GBPC Gb: european patent ceased through non-payment of renewal fee

Effective date: 19941219

PG25 Lapsed in a contracting state [announced via postgrant information from national office to epo]

Ref country code: FR

Effective date: 19950831

REG Reference to a national code

Ref country code: FR

Ref legal event code: ST

PG25 Lapsed in a contracting state [announced via postgrant information from national office to epo]

Ref country code: DE

Effective date: 19960903