Techniques for updating light-emitting diodes in synchrony with liquid-crystal display pixel refresh

• US 10,726,797 B2
• Filed: 02/08/2019
• Issued: 07/28/2020
• Est. Priority Date: 02/27/2018
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: NVIDIA Corporation
• Original Assignee: NVIDIA Corporation
• Inventors: Verbeure, Tom J.
• Primary Examiner(s): Balaoing, Ariel A
• Application Number:
  US16/271,744
• Publication Number:
  US 20190266963A1
• Time in Patent Office: 536 Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 13/10 Program control for peripheral devices G06F13/14 - G06F13/42 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 13/4282 on a serial bus, e.g. I2C bus, SPI bus on daisy chain buses G06F13/4247
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2213/0002 Serial port, e.g. RS232C
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 2320/0626 for control of overall brightness
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 2320/0646 Modulation of illumination source brightness and image signal correlated to each other
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 2360/18 Use of a frame buffer in a display terminal, inclusive of the display panel
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 3/2096 Details of the interface to the display terminal specific for a flat panel suitable for both CRT and flat panel G09G5/006; specific for a CRT G09G1/167
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 3/3426 the different display panel areas being distributed in two dimensions, e.g. matrix
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 3/36 using liquid crystals
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 3/3611 Control of matrices with row and column drivers
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 5/006 Details of the interface to the display terminal specific for a display terminal using a CRT G09G1/167; using a flat panel G09G3/2096; circuits for interfacing with colour displays G09G5/04

Abstract

A display controller within a display device includes a serial peripheral interface (SPI) that coordinates the updating of current settings for groups of light-emitting diodes (LEDs). The SPI controller operates in synchrony with a liquid-crystal display (LCD) vertical scan position in order to update the current settings for rows of LEDs in parallel with the updating of nearby rows of LCD pixels. When updating a row of LEDs, the SPI controller executes one or more SPI transactions included in an SPI program to write current settings for multiple LEDs nearly simultaneously. A compiler generates the SPI program based on the topology of LEDs included in the display device.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method for causing a display device to display an image, the method comprising:

determining a first portion of a topology based on a first vertical scan position of the display device, wherein the first portion of the topology includes a first set of wiring configurations and indicates a first set of light sources included in the display device that are related to the first set of wiring configurations;

determining a first subset of the wiring configurations based on one or more topological criteria associated with the display device, wherein the first subset of the wiring configurations corresponds to a first subset of the light sources; and

generating at least one instruction based on the first subset of the wiring configurations, wherein the display device executes the at least one instruction upon reaching the first vertical scan position to update the first subset of the light sources in order to display at least a portion of the image.

2. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein determining the first subset of the wiring configurations comprises:

determining a first serial peripheral interface included in the display device based on the first set of wiring configurations;

determining a first chain of driver chips coupled to the first serial peripheral interface based on the first set of wiring configurations;

determining a first driver chip included in the first chain of driver chips based on the first set of wiring configurations; and

determining one or more sequentially occurring pins of the first driver chip based on the first set of wiring configurations,

wherein the first subset of the light sources is coupled to the one or more sequentially occurring pins, and wherein the one or more topological criteria is met by any wiring configuration that corresponds to a light source coupled to a sequentially occurring pin of a given driver chip that is included in a given chain of driver chips coupled to a given serial peripheral interface.

3. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein determining the first subset of the wiring configurations based on the one or more topological criteria comprises identifying any wiring configuration that corresponds to a light source included in the display device that is coupled to a specific serial peripheral interface included in the display device.

4. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein determining the first subset of the wiring configurations based on the one or more topological criteria comprises identifying any wiring configuration that corresponds to a light source included in the display device that is coupled to a specific driver chip included in the display device, wherein the specific driver chip resides within a chain of driver chips that is coupled to a specific serial peripheral interface included in the display device.

5. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein determining the first subset of the wiring configurations based on the one or more topological criteria comprises identifying any wiring configuration that corresponds to a light source included in the display device that is coupled to sequentially occurring pins of a specific driver chip included in the display device, wherein the specific driver chip resides within a chain of driver chips that is coupled to a specific serial peripheral interface included in the display device.

6. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the topology includes a plurality of rows corresponding to a plurality of rows of light sources included in the display device and a plurality of columns corresponding to a plurality of columns of light sources included in the display device, and wherein determining the first portion of the topology comprises automatically mapping the first vertical scan position to a first row included in the plurality of rows included in the topology.

7. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising generating the first portion of the topology by automatically mapping each screen coordinate associated with the first set of light sources to a different wiring configuration included in the first set of wiring configurations.

8. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein a first wiring configuration included in the first set of wiring configurations indicates at least one of a first serial peripheral interface coupled to a first light source included in the first set of light sources, a first driver chip coupled to the first light source, and a first pin coupled to the first light source, and wherein the first serial peripheral interface is coupled to a first chain of driver chips that includes the first driver chip, and the first driver chip includes the first pin.

9. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the first set of instructions comprises a burst transaction that is executed by a first serial peripheral interface included in the display device during a single clock cycle.

10. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the display device updates a first subset of screen pixels at least partially in parallel with updating the first subset of light sources upon reaching the first vertical scan position.

11. A non-transitory computer-readable medium storing program instructions that, when executed by a processor, causes the processor to generate instructions for causing a display device to display an image by performing the steps of:

determining a first portion of a topology based on a first vertical scan position of the display device, wherein the first portion of the topology includes a first set of wiring configurations and indicates a first set of light sources included in the display device that are related to the first set of wiring configurations;

determining a first subset of the wiring configurations based on one or more topological criteria associated with the display device, wherein the first subset of the wiring configurations corresponds to a first subset of the light sources; and

generating at least one instruction based on the first subset of the wiring configurations, wherein the display device executes the at least one instruction upon reaching the first vertical scan position to update the first subset of the light sources in order to display at least a portion of the image.

12. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 11, wherein the step of determining the first subset of the wiring configurations comprises:

determining a first serial peripheral interface included in the display device based on the first set of wiring configurations;

determining a first chain of driver chips coupled to the first serial peripheral interface based on the first set of wiring configurations;

determining a first driver chip included in the first chain of driver chips based on the first set of wiring configurations; and

determining one or more sequentially occurring pins of the first driver chip based on the first set of wiring configurations,

wherein the first subset of the light sources is coupled to the one or more sequentially occurring pins, and wherein the one or more topological criteria is met by any wiring configuration that corresponds to a light source coupled to a sequentially occurring pin of a given driver chip that is included in a given chain of driver chips coupled to a given serial peripheral interface.

13. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 11, wherein the step of determining the first subset of the wiring configurations based on the one or more topological criteria comprises identifying any wiring configuration that corresponds to a light source included in the display device that is coupled to a specific serial peripheral interface included in the display device.

14. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 11, wherein the step of determining the first subset of the wiring configurations based on the one or more topological criteria comprises identifying any wiring configuration that corresponds to a light source included in the display device that is coupled to a specific driver chip included in the display device, wherein the specific driver chip resides within a chain of driver chips that is coupled to a specific serial peripheral interface included in the display device.

15. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 11, wherein the step of determining the first subset of the wiring configurations based on the one or more topological criteria comprises identifying any wiring configuration that corresponds to a light source included in the display device that is coupled to sequentially occurring pins of a specific driver chip included in the display device, wherein the specific driver chip resides within a chain of driver chips that is coupled to a specific serial peripheral interface included in the display device.

16. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 11, wherein the topology includes a plurality of rows corresponding to a plurality of rows of light sources included in the display device and a plurality of columns corresponding to a plurality of columns of light sources included in the display device, and wherein the step of determining the first portion of the topology comprises automatically mapping the first vertical scan position to a first row included in the plurality of rows included in the topology.

17. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 11, wherein the first set of instructions comprises a burst transaction that is executed by a first serial peripheral interface included in the display device during a single clock cycle.

18. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 11, further comprising the step of generating one or more additional instructions based on a second subset of the wiring configurations, wherein the display device executes the one or more additional instructions upon reaching the second vertical scan position to update a second subset of the light sources, thereby displaying at least another portion of the image.

19. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 18, wherein the second subset of the wiring configurations is generated by:

determining a second serial peripheral interface included in the display device based on the second set of wiring configurations;

determining a second chain of driver chips coupled to the second serial peripheral interface based on the second set of wiring configurations;

determining a second driver chip included in the second chain of driver chips based on the second set of wiring configurations; and

determining one or more additional sequentially occurring pins of the second driver chip based on the second set of wiring configurations,

wherein the second subset of the light sources is coupled to the one or more additional sequentially occurring pins, and wherein the one or more topological criteria is met by any wiring configuration that corresponds to a light source coupled to a sequentially occurring pin of a given driver chip that is included in a given chain of driver chips coupled to a given serial peripheral interface.

20. A system, comprising:

a memory storing a compiler; and

a processor that, when executing the compiler, is configured to perform the steps of;

determining a first portion of a topology based on a first vertical scan position of the display device, wherein the first portion of the topology includes a first set of wiring configurations and indicates a first set of light sources included in the display device that are related to the first set of wiring configurations,

determining a first subset of the wiring configurations based on one or more topological criteria associated with the display device, wherein the first subset of the wiring configurations corresponds to a first subset of the light sources, and

generating at least one instruction based on the first subset of the wiring configurations, wherein the display device executes the at least one instruction upon reaching the first vertical scan position to update the first subset of the light sources in order to display at least a portion of an image.