JPS60181792A - Color display unit - Google Patents

Abstract

(57) [Summary] This bulletin contains application data before electronic filing, so abstract data is not recorded.

Description

[Detailed description of the invention] [Technical field of invention] The present invention relates to a color display device capable of displaying multiple colors.

[Technical background of the invention and its problems]

With the advancement of semiconductor technology such as LSI and microprocessors, the range of applications for computers has expanded dramatically. Along with this, an important place as a man-machine interface [
-Commercial functions have been required for display devices. One of the representative things is to increase the display effect.
There is a color palette function that allows multicolor display.

A color palette is a color palette in which multiple pieces of color information are recorded in multiple registers, selection information for selecting these registers is stored in a plane memory for each pixel, which is the minimum configuration of the display screen, and the selections stored in this memory are The configuration is such that the register is selected based on the information, and the color of each pixel is obtained based on the color information recorded in the selected register.

By the way, in a color display device used in a relatively low-cost computer such as a personal computer, the types of colors that can be displayed simultaneously are limited to a relatively low value, such as 1G color designation among 256 colors, for example. This is because in order to reduce hardware prices, the size of plain memory also needs to be reduced. i.e. 128/2561512/1024
Although it is possible to specify colors, the number of colors that can be displayed at the same time is limited to about 8/16 colors at most.

Conventionally, the following methods have been used for the above color selection. That is, one method is to predetermine color numbers and specify all desired color numbers. The remaining option is to display an appropriate color on the actual screen, and if there is a desired color and you do not specify it, all of the next candidates are displayed. For example, out of 256 colors,
If it is a color display device that specifies 16 colors, displaying all colors is possible by presenting candidates 16 times.

Therefore, the former method is not intuitive because it does not select by looking at the actual color. Furthermore, although the latter method allows selection by looking at the actual color, it has drawbacks such as the inability to simultaneously compare candidate colors across screens.

[Purpose of the invention]

Mizumotori 4 was developed in view of the above drawbacks, and by adding a small amount of hardware, all colors f4 that can be displayed are displayed in a partial area on the display screen in the form of a color bar, and this can be selected. It is an object of the present invention to provide a color display device having a specified configuration and further improving the man-machine interface.

[Summary of the invention]

Considering the use of relatively low-cost computers such as personal computers, 8 to 16 colors are sufficient for simultaneous use on a display screen. Therefore, the number of colors to be used at the same time may be 8 to 16, but the man-machine interface would be improved if all 256 colors could be displayed in a certain area of the screen at once and the color selection could be specified while viewing. useful for. In order to satisfy the above requirements, the present invention provides a color display device having a color palette function, which includes a scan register, a cursor register, a comparator for comparing and detecting a match between values set between both registers, and color selection by a cursor. A memory circuit that maintains a predetermined state from the time a specification is made until the end of a predetermined process, and a memory circuit that indicates a certain state and is set in a scan register when a comparison match output is generated by the above self-comparison circuit. Some of the contents are here.

Added a gate to load into the let register.

In other words, a feature of the present invention is that instead of using a palette register that holds a fixed value, a scanning register is used to display the image in gold.

This makes it possible to further improve the man-machine interface with a low-cost configuration.

[Embodiments of the invention]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail using all the drawings. FIG. 1 shows the C R obtained by implementing the present invention.
The display column on the T1+ij plane is shown. In the figure, 1 is C
The RT display screen, 2 is a display effective screen, 3 is a graphic that is filled in with a desired color, and 4 is a color bar. In the embodiment of the present invention, the display position of this color bar is set in advance before display, and is displayed as a rectangle. Also, setting crying 1
The niece can be displayed in any vertical direction, and in the horizontal direction, the entire effective display range can be displayed. According to the present invention implementation ρ1j, heels of different colors ri
256 colors, and the number of horizontal dots on the effective display screen is 102.
Since there are 4 dots, the dot width allocated to the color on the color bar is 4 dots. To select a color, move the crosshair cursor 5 above the bar 4, stop it at the desired color position, and then press a certain key such as K to f8.
A selection decision is made.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing an embodiment of the present invention. In the figure, reference numeral 11 denotes a memory composed of memory brains made up of several plane boards. The plane memory 11 stores palette selection information for each pixel. One blueprint (one bit extracted from the case memory plane) taken out from the plane memory 11 is supplied to the decoder 12. The decoder 12 decodes the 4-bit 18-bit information obtained from the plain memory 11 into 16-bit information,
15 pallet registers (PRo=pR,,
) z A is supplied to one input terminal of an AND gate 14 which is connected to the previous stage of a.

C, which is not shown, is connected to the other input terminal of the AND gate 14.
Data indicating the mixing amount of RGB, which is the basic color, is set by the PU. According to the palette used in the embodiments of the present invention, the color gradation is 8 steps for R, 8 steps for G,
B has 4 stages. Each output (O
U.T.

~OUT+4) is supplied to the CRT monitor 16 via the OR gate 15.

17 is a scan register. The scan register 17 shows brightness 1'lk when the scan line is moving from left to right. 1
8 is a cursor address register. The cursor address register Z8 sequentially stores the movement position of the cursor. 19 is a comparison circuit. The comparison circuit 19 obtains all the outputs of the scan register 17 and the cursor address register 18 as inputs, and detects a comparison match.

20 is a flip-flop. flip flop 20
is set by the signal (PO8T) issued when the cursor moves on the color bar 4 shown in FIG.
After a predetermined time delay by the output of the delay circuit 22, which will be described later,
will be reset. 21 is an AND gate. The flip-flop 2 is connected to one input terminal of the AND gate 21.
The Q output of 0 is supplied to the other input terminal, and the comparison match output from the comparator circuit 19 is supplied to the other input terminal, and the result of the logical product is passed through the delay circuit 22. Furthermore, it is also supplied to one input terminal of the gate circuit 23. The other input terminal of the gate circuit 22 is supplied with the upper 8 bit data on the scan register 17, and based on the comparison match output from the comparator circuit 19, the 8 bit data is sent to the palette register (PR,...).
It has an 11°4 configuration that supplies it to J s.

In the present embodiment, the color code selected by sliding the cursor is stored in the palette register (PH
10), and the color bar is set to palette a.
No. 15 shall be used. These are not fixed and can be changed as appropriate.

Below, the operation of Hon Hikari ■'s Laugh Alms 1] will be explained in detail.

First, by the counting operation of register I7, 71t'+- register I7 determines the running time M on the CRT screen, and uses it as address information to write the corresponding dot from plain memory 11.
, @f: is read out. The information read here is a code specifying the palette number, which is decoded by the decoder 12, and one of the palette registers 13 is selected. In the palette register 13, R
-G-B each mixture t1 is set, and its contents are passed through the AND gate 14 and the OR gate 15,
The signal is supplied to the CRT monitor I6.

Now, assume that palette number 15 is selected by decoding 12. At this time, the upper eight bits of the scan register 17, which operates in synchronization with the movement of the scan line, are sent to the CRT monitor 16 via the AND gate 14 and the OR gate 15. In other words, a color bar of 256 colors is displayed in a band shape in the negative direction as shown in Figure 1.On the other hand, to move the cursor, change the value set in the cursor address register 18 that determines the cursor position. .

When the operator places the cursor on the desired color position on the desired color bar (FIG. 1, 4) and instructs selection completion, the flip-flop 20 is immediately set. Scan register 1 is set while flip-flop 20 is set.
At the moment when the value indicated by the cursor address register 18 and the value indicated by the cursor address register 18, the content of the upper 8 bits of the register 17 (this content is the state of the color at the position specified by the cursor, and has the same format as the palette register) is Palette register (PR,,) is set to 13. It will soon be reset by the flip-flop 20fJ, the AND gate 2Z, and the delay circuit 22.

The color information stored in PR, which is one of the palette registers 13, can be transferred to other palette registers by software processing if necessary.

What should be noted in the installation according to the present invention is the pallet register (P) corresponding to pallet number 15.
R, , ) actually uses the upper eight bits of the scan register 17, and the palette register PR, to store the information of the selected color.

The contents of the scan register 17 are connected to the input side of the gate circuit 23 via a gate circuit 23. This gate circuit 23
In order to operate, a comparison circuit 19 and a flip-flop 2o are used.
, and requires an anchor 21.

By the way, the scan register 17 counts up from 10'' to ``1023''.If we look only at the upper 8 bits of the scan register 17, the entire scan register Z7 changes from 0'' to ``255'' every 4 counts. , if we consider this as the palette register PR,3, the width of 4 bits from the left end to the right end of CRT u,ii is 2561jj ;',i
It is possible to display the following colors. That is, constant f:iL
The main aim of the misfiring E(+4) is to omit the palette register 13 that maintains the scan register 172 (instead of putting it into practical use).

Although the embodiment of the present invention has been described only for color/11JI, it is also applicable to the case where multiple levels of black and white gradation are provided.

[Effects of the Invention] As explained above, if the color display device is designed to be able to display one out of 256 colors at the same time, all 256 colors can be displayed simultaneously on the color bar used for color selection. This allows you to select the color from the displayed gold color. This eliminates the annoying problems that occur in conventional columns, where you are forced to use color numbers that do not give you a sense of reality, or to select colors on the screen that cannot be compared at the same time. Furthermore, since the present invention can be realized by adding a relatively small amount of hardware, it can be fully applied to low-cost personal computers.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

Figure 1 shows the CR obtained by the present invention ff:
FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing an embodiment of the present invention. 4...Color bar, 11...Plain memory, 12...
・Decoder, 13... Palette register, 17...
Scan register, 18... cursor address register,
19... Comparison circuit, 20... Flip-flop, 2
3...Gate circuit. Applicant's agent Patent attorney Takehiko Suzue Figure 1 Figure 2

Claims (1)

[Claims] In a color display device that displays the displayable colors 'a as a color bar, selects V colors by moving a cursor on this color bar, and displays desired data in color, a plurality of palette registers each having one set of color information are used. and upper part 1 of each pixel] A plurality of brain memories in which selection information of palette registers is stored, a scan register in which scan positions on the display screen are sequentially set, and the movement position of the cursor is set. A cursor address register, a comparison circuit that compares and detects a match between the values set in both of the above registers, a memory circuit that maintains a predetermined state from when color selection is designated by the cursor until the desired process is completed, and this circuit. and a gate that loads a partial content set in the scan register into any one of the plurality of palette registers when a comparison output is generated from the comparison circuit. A color display device featuring: