Inexpensive world wide web terminal appliance using disk synchronized with raster refresh for storage of displayed pages
First Claim
1. A terminal appliance for receiving and displaying information in page form from a network, the appliance comprising:
- a communication interface for coupling to the network to receive the information therefrom;
a display interface for coupling to a display device having a predetermined display image refresh time interval;
means for rendering information received through the communication interface;
a disk storage device for storing rendered pages of information received through the communication interface and rendered by the means for rendering, the disk storage device having a period of revolution substantially synchronized with the predetermined display image refresh time interval; and
means for reading a rendered page of information in synchronization with the period of revolution of the disk storage device, and for directly providing the page of information to the display interface for display on the display device in synchronization with the display device'"'"'s predetermined display image refresh time interval.
1 Assignment
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Accused Products
Abstract
A World Wide Web terminal appliance utilizes a disk drive for local storage of Web pages previously downloaded and rendered for display during the course of a Web surfing session. The disk drive rotates at a rate substantially in synchronization with a display refresh time interval of a display device, preferably a raster refresh cycle time of a video monitor. Therefore, the image being displayed need not occupy random-access memory, but rather is sent directly from the disk to a display interface for coupling to the display device. Little or no RAM buffering is required, so the appliance need not include a large quantity of video RAM storage. A relatively inexpensive disk is used instead, thereby bringing about advantageous cost savings.
69 Citations
16 Claims
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1. A terminal appliance for receiving and displaying information in page form from a network, the appliance comprising:
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a communication interface for coupling to the network to receive the information therefrom; a display interface for coupling to a display device having a predetermined display image refresh time interval; means for rendering information received through the communication interface; a disk storage device for storing rendered pages of information received through the communication interface and rendered by the means for rendering, the disk storage device having a period of revolution substantially synchronized with the predetermined display image refresh time interval; and means for reading a rendered page of information in synchronization with the period of revolution of the disk storage device, and for directly providing the page of information to the display interface for display on the display device in synchronization with the display device'"'"'s predetermined display image refresh time interval. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8)
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9. A method for receiving and displaying information in page form from a network and for storing he information on a disk storage device having period of revolution, the method comprising the steps of:
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coupling to the network to receive the information therefrom; coupling to a display device having a predetermined display image refresh time interval which is substantially synchronized with the period of revolution of the disk storage device; rendering information received from the network; storing received and rendered pages of information in the disk storage device; and reading a rendered page of information in synchronization with the period of revolution of the disk storage device, and directly providing the page of information to the display device in synchronization with the display device'"'"'s predetermined display image refresh time interval. - View Dependent Claims (10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16)
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Specification