Method and system for efficient interfacing to frame sequential display devices

• US 20030231191A1
• Filed: 06/12/2002
• Published: 12/18/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 06/12/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: ATI Technologies Incorporated (Advanced Micro Devices, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: ATI Technologies Incorporated (Advanced Micro Devices, Inc.)
• Inventors: Glen, David I.J.
• Granted Patent: US 7,307,644 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 345/690
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/14 Digital output to display device ; Cooperation and interconnection of the display device with other functional units
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 2310/0235 Field-sequential colour display
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 2352/00 Parallel handling of streams of display data
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 2360/02 Graphics controller able to handle multiple formats, e.g. input or output formats
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 2370/047 using display data channel standard [DDC] communication
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 5/346 for systems having a bit-mapped display memory
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 5/363 Graphics controllers
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 9/30 using solid-state colour display devices
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 9/312 Driving therefor driving of electronic spatial light modulators in displays other than projection devices G09G3/34, G09G3/36; control of liquid crystal elements G02F1/133; control of micromechanical modulators G02B26/08

Abstract

A method and a system for frame data to a frame sequential display device without using a frame buffer at the display device and while still maintaining the ability to use a standard interface capable of running at standard bandwidths is disclosed herein. A display system may be used to convert a multiple color frame to a plurality of single color component frames for sequential display on a display device. The display system includes a data system, a display controller, and a display device. The data system provides graphics data to the display controller. The display controller converts the graphics data into single color component frames and then transmits the single color component frames sequentially in sets of parallel data to the display device for display. The display device receives the sets of parallel data and converts the parallel data into sequential data. The sequential data is then output to a frame sequential display. In at least one embodiment, the display controller and the display device are connected using a standard interface transmitting data at a standard rate.

Claims

1. A method including the steps of:

determining a first color component for a first pixel at a first rate;

determining a first color component for a second pixel at the first rate;

providing the first color component for the first pixel and the first color component for the second pixel in parallel during a first time for output to a display device, wherein only first color components are provided during the first time.

2. The method as in claim 1, wherein the step of determining the first color component for the second pixel occurs after the step of determining the first color component for the first pixel.

3. The method as in claim 1, further including the step of:

determining a second color component for the first pixel simultaneous with the step of determining the first color component for the first pixel.

4. The method as in claim 3, further including the step of:

determining a second color component for the second pixel simultaneous with the step of determining the first color component for the second pixel

5. The method as in claim 1 further including the step of providing synchronization data, wherein synchronization data includes a common clock for the first color component of the first and second pixels.

6. The method as in claim 1, wherein the step of providing occurs at a second rate, where the first rate is n times faster than the second rate and n is a natural number.

7. The method as in claim 6, wherein n has a value of at least 2.

8. The method as in claim 1, wherein the steps of determining and providing are associated with a first mode of operation.

9. The method as in claim 8, wherein the first mode of operation includes the steps of:

determining a common color component for the first and second pixel; and

providing the common color component for the first and second pixel in parallel for output.

10. The method as in claim 8, further including a second mode of operation including the steps of:

determining the first color component for the first pixel at the first rate;

determining a second color component for the first pixel at the first rate; and

providing the first color component and the second color component for the first pixel in parallel for output.

11. The method as in claim 1, further including the steps of:

determining a second color component for the first pixel at the first rate;

determining a second color component for the second pixel at the first rate; and

providing the second color component for the first and second pixels in parallel for output at the second rate.

12. The method as in claim 1, wherein the step of providing the second color components occurs after the step of providing the first color components.

13. A method including the steps of:

processing an image having a plurality of color components; and

transmitting a first color component data in parallel for a plurality of pixels, wherein each of the plurality of pixels are associated with a different pixel location and are to be displayed serially.

14. The method as in claim 18, further including the step of:

transmitting a second color component data in parallel for the plurality of pixels after the step of transmitting the first color components.

15. The method as in claim 14, wherein the step of:

transmitting data for a plurality of pixels occurs for the number of pixels in a horizontal line of a display occurs for a sequence of n pixels for each color component in a predefined output order based on a color sequence, where n is an integer.

16. The method as in claim 14, wherein the step of:

transmitting data for a plurality of pixels occurs for the number of pixels in a horizontal line of a display occurs for one or more display lines for each color component in a predefined output order based on a color sequence.

17. The method as in claim 13, wherein the step of transmitting data includes transmitting data over a VGA compliant connector.

18. The method as in claim 13, wherein the step of transmitting data includes transmitting data over a DVI compliant connector

19. A graphics controller including:

a graphics engine having an output to provide a plurality of pixel sets at a first rate, where each pixel set includes a plurality of color components; and

a demultiplexor, having an input coupled to the output of the graphics engine, and a plurality of outputs to provide simultaneously only a common color component data for a plurality of pixels.

20. The controller as in claim 19, further including:

a transmitter having an input coupled to the output of said demultiplexor and an output to provide the at least a portion of each pixel set in parallel.

21. The controller as in claim 19, wherein said graphics engine is to receive and process graphics commands.