ELECTRONIC DISPLAY FRAME PRE-NOTIFICATION SYSTEMS AND METHODS

• US 20200082783A1
• Filed: 09/11/2018
• Published: 03/12/2020
• Est. Priority Date: 09/11/2018
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Original Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Inventors: Holland, Peter F., Spence, Arthur L., Tann, Christopher P.
• Granted Patent: US 10,643,572 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 2310/04 Partial updating of the display screen
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 2310/08 Details of timing specific for flat panels, other than clock recovery
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 2320/0247 Flicker reduction other than flicker reduction circuits used for single beam cathode-ray tubes
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 2320/0646 Modulation of illumination source brightness and image signal correlated to each other
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 2320/0666 for control of colour parameters, e.g. colour temperature
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 2330/021 Power management, e.g. power saving
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 2330/022 in absence of operation, e.g. no data being entered during a predetermined time
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 2354/00 Aspects of interface with display user
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 3/3233 with pixel circuitry controlling the current through the light-emitting element
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 3/3618 with automatic refresh of the display panel using sense/write circuits
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 5/001 Arbitration of resources in a display system, e.g. control of access to frame buffer by video controller and/or main processor
• 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
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 5/10 Intensity circuits
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 5/395 Arrangements specially adapted for transferring the contents of the bit-mapped memory to the screen G09G5/399 takes precedence

Abstract

An electronic device may include a display panel to display an image and a display pipeline to process image data for the image. The display pipeline may include a controller to determine a first potential presentation time based on a maximum refresh rate of the display panel. The controller may also determine if a second target presentation time of a second image is equal to the first potential presentation time before a pipeline configuration time, and if the second target presentation time of the second image is equal to a second potential presentation time that occurs after the first potential presentation time and before a first pre-notification time occurring before the pipeline configuration time. The controller may output a first pre-notification signal at the first pre-notification time that instructs the display panel to pause self-refreshes until after the second image is displayed.

Claims

1. An electronic device, comprising:

a display panel configured to display a first image at a first target presentation time based at least in part on first image data corresponding with the first image; and

a display pipeline coupled to the display panel, wherein the display pipeline comprises;

first image data processing circuitry programmed to perform a first operation on second image data corresponding with a second image to be displayed after the first image based at least in part on configuration data stored in a first set of registers; and

a controller programmed to;

determine a first presentation time option that occurs after the first target presentation time based at least in part on a maximum refresh rate of the display panel;

determine a second presentation time option based at least in part on the maximum refresh rate and the first presentation time option;

determine whether a second target presentation time of the second image is equal to a time between the first presentation time option and the second presentation time option; and

output a first pre-notification signal at a first time that instructs the display panel to pause self-refreshes until after the second image is displayed when the second target presentation time of the second image is equal to the time between the first presentation time option and the second presentation time option, wherein the first pre-notification signal corresponds to the second image and is configured to be issued before the second target presentation time to pause refresh operations of the display panel.

2. The electronic device of claim 1, wherein:

the display pipeline comprises a configuration buffer configured to store first configuration data associated with the second image; and

the controller is programmed to instruct the display pipeline to store the first configuration data associated with the second image in the first set of registers of the first image data processing circuitry at a first pipeline configuration time that occurs between the first target presentation time and the first presentation time option when the second target presentation time of the second image is equal to the first presentation time option.

3. The electronic device of claim 1, wherein:

the display pipeline comprises second image data processing circuitry programmed to perform a second operation on the second image data based at least in part on configuration data stored in a second set of registers to facilitate adapting display of the second image based at least in part on brightness of the display panel, temperature of the display panel, or both; and

the first image data processing circuitry is programmed to perform the first operation of the second image data based at least in part on configuration data stored in the first set of registers to facilitate adjusting display of the second image based at least in part on dimensions of the second image, dimensions of the display panel, orientation of the second image, orientation of the display panel, content of the second image, or any combination thereof.

4. The electronic device of claim 3, comprising external memory coupled to the display pipeline wherein the external memory is configured as internal to the electronic device, and wherein:

the external memory is configured to;

store first configuration data associated with a first brightness setting, a first temperature value, or both;

store second configuration data associated with a second brightness setting, a second temperature value, or both; and

store third configuration data associated with the second image; and

the controller is programmed to;

determine the brightness of the display panel, the temperature of the display panel, or both before a first pipeline configuration time that occurs between the first target presentation time and the first presentation time option; and

when the second target presentation time of the second image is equal to the first presentation time option;

instruct the display pipeline to store the third configuration data in the first set of registers of the first image data processing circuitry at the first pipeline configuration time; and

instruct the display pipeline to store the first configuration data in the second set of registers of the second image data processing circuitry at the first pipeline configuration time when the second target presentation time of the second image is equal to the first presentation time option and the brightness of the display panel is the first brightness setting, the temperature of the display panel is the first temperature value, or both.

5. The electronic device of claim 4, wherein, when the second target presentation time of the second image is equal to the first presentation time option and the first configuration data is stored in the second set of registers at the first pipeline configuration time, the controller is programmed to:

instruct the display pipeline to begin processing the second image data after the first pipeline configuration time to enable the display pipeline to generate first processed image data used by the display panel to display the second image at the second target presentation time;

determine a third presentation time option that occurs after the second target presentation time based at least in part on the maximum refresh rate of the display panel;

determine the brightness of the display panel, the temperature of the display panel, or both before a second pipeline configuration time that occurs between the second target presentation time and the third presentation time option; and

when the brightness of the display panel changes from the first brightness setting to the second brightness setting, the temperature of the display panel changes from the first temperature value to the second temperature value, or both;

instruct the display pipeline to store the third configuration data in the first set of registers of the first image data processing circuitry at the second pipeline configuration time;

instruct the display pipeline to store the second configuration data in the second set of registers of the second image data processing circuitry at the second configuration; and

instruct the display pipeline to begin processing the second image data after the second pipeline configuration time to enable the display pipeline to generate second processed image data used by the display panel to repeat display of the second image at the third presentation time option.

6. The electronic device of claim 3, comprising external memory coupled to the display pipeline, wherein the external memory is configured as internal to the electronic device, and wherein:

the external memory is configured to;

store first configuration data associated with a first brightness setting, a first temperature value, or both;

store second configuration data associated with a second brightness setting, a second temperature value, or both;

store third configuration data associated with the first image; and

store fourth configuration data associated with the second image; and

the display pipeline comprises a time stamp queue configured to stored one or more entries that each indicates target presentation time of an associated image and identifies associated configuration data;

the display pipeline is configured to process the first image data based at least in part on the first configuration data and the third configuration data to generate first processed image data to be used by the display panel to display the first image at the first target presentation time; and

the controller is programmed to;

detect that the brightness of the display panel changes from the first brightness setting to the second brightness setting, the temperature of the display panel changes from the first temperature value to the second temperature value or both;

instruct the display pipeline to store the second configuration data in the second set of registers of the second image data processing circuitry at a first pipeline configuration time that occurs between the first target presentation time and the first presentation time option;

instruct the display pipeline to store the fourth configuration data in the first set of registers of the first image data processing circuitry at the first pipeline configuration time when an entry that indicates the first presentation time option as the second target presentation time of the second image is stored in the time stamp queue before a panel configuration time that occurs between the first pipeline configuration time and the first presentation time option; and

instruct the display pipeline to store the third configuration data in the first set of registers of the first image data processing circuitry at the first pipeline configuration time when the entry is not stored in the time stamp queue before the panel configuration time to enable display of the first image to be updated based at least in part on the second brightness setting, the second temperature value, or both.

7. The electronic device of claim 1, wherein the display panel is configured to:

determine display duration of the first image while the first image is being displayed; and

refresh display of the first image at the second presentation time option when the display duration of the first image at the second presentation time option is greater than a duration threshold and the first pre-notification signal is not received before the first presentation time option.

8. The electronic device of claim 1, wherein the controller is programmed to:

determine whether the second target presentation time of the second image is equal to a third presentation time option that occurs after the second presentation time option before a second time that occurs between the first time and a first pipeline configuration time that occurs between the first target presentation time and the first presentation time option when the second target presentation time of the second image is not equal to the second presentation time option; and

output a second pre-notification signal at the second time that instructs the display panel to pause self-refreshes until after the second image is displayed when the second target presentation time of the second image is equal to the third presentation time option.

9. The electronic device of claim 8, wherein the controller is programmed to:

determine whether the second target presentation time of the second image is equal to a fourth presentation time option that occurs after the third presentation time option before a third time that occurs between the second time and the first pipeline configuration time; and

output a third pre-notification signal at the third time that instructs the display panel to pause self-refreshes until after the second image is displayed when the second target presentation time of the second image is equal to the fourth presentation time option.

10. The electronic device of claim 1, wherein:

the maximum refresh rate of the display panel is 60 Hz;

the first presentation time option occurs a 60 Hz frame duration after the first target presentation time; and

the second presentation time option occurs one quarter of the 60 Hz frame duration after the first presentation time option.

11. The electronic device of claim 1, wherein the electronic device comprises a portable phone, a media player, a personal data organizer, a handheld game platform, a tablet device, a computer, an electronic watch device, or any combination thereof.

12. A method for operating processing circuitry to manage a refresh operation of a display, comprising:

determining a next presentation time option;

determining if an indication of a first image having a first target presentation time that is equal to the next presentation time option is received before a first time;

in response to the indication of the first image not being received, determining if an indication of a second image having a second target presentation time occurring within a duration after the next presentation time option is received before a second time; and

in response to the indication of the second image being received, enabling a frame pre-notification configured to pause a display self-refresh of the display.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein the next presentation time option is determined based on a minimum display duration corresponding to a maximum refresh rate, an additional minimum display duration, or any combination thereof.

14. The method of claim 12, comprising:

retrieving a pipeline configuration;

configuring a display pipeline with the pipeline configuration;

processing image data of the second image; and

transmitting the image data of the second image for display at the second target presentation time.

15. The method of claim 12, comprising:

popping a time stamp queue comprising the first target presentation time and a pointer to configuration data;

referencing the pointer to the configuration data to retrieve the configuration data; and

in response to the indication of the first image being received, preparing image data of the first image for display based on the configuration data.

16. The method of claim 12, comprising:

in response to the indication of the second image not being received, determining an additional next presentation time option based on a maximum refresh rate; and

receiving the second image having the second target presentation time before a third time, wherein the third time is based on a pipeline configuration time and the second target presentation time.

17. A method of operating processing circuitry to manage a refresh operation of a display, comprising:

displaying an image based on received image data;

determining if a display duration corresponding to the image displayed is greater than a threshold;

in response to the display duration being greater than the threshold, determining if a frame pre-notification signal is received, wherein the frame pre-notification signal corresponds to a subsequent image for presentation and is configured to be issued prior to a processing of image data corresponding to the subsequent image; and

in response to the frame pre-notification signal being received, pausing the refresh operation of the display.

18. The method of claim 17, comprising:

receiving second image data corresponding to the frame pre-notification signal;

displaying a second image based on the second image data; and

resetting the display duration.

19. The method of claim 17, comprising:

in response to the display duration not being greater than the threshold, continuing to display the image displayed; and

incrementing the display duration.

20. The method of claim 17, comprising:

in response to the frame pre-notification signal not being received, refreshing the image displayed by repeating the received image data to refresh one or more electrical signals used to display the image displayed; and

resetting the display duration.