Sound generation and display control apparatus for personal digital assistant

• US 5,774,131 A
• Filed: 10/24/1995
• Issued: 06/30/1998
• Est. Priority Date: 10/26/1994
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: LG Electronics, Inc. (LG Corporation)
• Original Assignee: LG Electronics, Inc. (LG Corporation)
• Inventors: Kim, Hong Joo
• Primary Examiner(s): Kim, Matthew M.
• Assistant Examiner(s): CHAUHAN, ULKA J
• Application Number:
  US08/547,226
• Time in Patent Office: 980 Days
• Field of Search: 395/501-526, 395/762, 395/807, 395/2.09, 395/2.79, 345/113, 345/115, 345/185-187, 345/189, 345/203, 345/112, 345/154, 345/501-503, 345/507, 345/509, 345/512, 345/521, 364/514 A, 364/400.01, 704/200, 704/270, 704/272
• US Class Current: 345/503
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/162 Interface to dedicated audio devices, e.g. audio drivers, interface to CODECs
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 5/363 Graphics controllers

Abstract

An improved sound generation and display control apparatus for a personal digital assistant capable of improving the system thereof and a transmission performance for various kinds of display apparatuses and capable of editing an externally supplied video source and providing an overlay function, which includes a central processing unit for controlling the entire system so as to display stored data and to generate sound; a graphic and sound co-processor for processing graphic and sound data in accordance with a control of the central processing unit; a memory for storing the graphic and sound data processed by the graphic and sound co-processor and for storing system data; a direct memory access (DMA) controller for accessing the data stored in the memory in accordance with a DMA request; a bus arbitrator and memory controller for arbitrating an allocation of a system bus and for controlling an access to the memory and a refreshment of the memory; a sound generator for receiving the sound data outputted from the memory through the DMA controller and for generating a sound corresponding to the sound data applied thereto; and a display timing controller for receiving the display data outputted from the memory through the DMA controller and for processing the display data so as to display the data on a display member, thus providing a video overlay function and the capability of editing an externally applied video data, providing a single memory system, and enhancing the system operation performance.

Claims

1. A sound generation and display control apparatus for a personal digital assistant, comprising:

a central processing unit for controlling operations of a system;

a graphic and sound co-processor for processing graphic and sound data in accordance with a control of said central processing unit;

a memory for storing the graphic and sound data processed by said graphic and sound co-processor and for storing system data;

a direct memory access (DMA) controller for accessing the graphic data, the sound data and the system data stored in said memory;

a bus arbitrator and memory controller for arbitrating an allocation of a system bus and for controlling an access to the memory;

a sound generator for receiving the sound data outputted from the memory through said DMA controller and for generating a sound corresponding to the sound data; and

a display timing controller for receiving display data from the memory through the DMA controller and for processing the display data so as to display the display data on a display unit,

wherein said graphic and sound co-processor includes,

a graphic engine for generating the graphic data;

an arithmetic logic operator for executing an operation so as to generate the graphic data; and

a sound engine for generating the sound data, and

wherein the display timing controller overlays the graphic data of the memory and video data externally input thereto.

2. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein said graphic and sound co-processor further includes:

a control logic for interfacing between the central processing unit and the bus arbitrator and memory controller, and for controlling the graphic engine, the arithmetic logic operator, and the sound engine;

an address generator for generating an address of an apparatus on which the graphic data are to be displayed in accordance with the control logic and said graphic engine; and

an address circuit for storing and outputting the address generated from said address generator in accordance with a control of the control logic.

3. The apparatus of claim 2, wherein said sound engine outputs an address corresponding to the sound data to said address circuit.

4. The apparatus of claim 2, wherein said graphic and sound co-processor further includes:

a data circuit for storing the graphic and sound data in a predetermined form under control of the control logic.

5. The apparatus of claim 4, wherein the predetermined form is a FIFO (first-in-first-out) form.

6. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein said memory includes a system memory for storing the system data, and a display memory for storing the graphic data processed by the graphic and sound co-processor.

7. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein said display unit is one of a liquid crystal display (LCD), a cathode ray tube(CRT), and a television set of an NTSC/PAL.

8. The apparatus of claim 1, further comprising:

a video decoder for decoding the externally applied video data; and

a video memory for storing data decoded by said video decoder.

9. The apparatus of claim 8, wherein the display timing controller includes a mixer for mixing the graphic data of the memory and the data of the video memory.

10. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein said graphic engine includes at least one of a line drawing processor, a circle drawing processor, and a rectangle drawing processor.

11. The apparatus of claim 10, wherein said sound engine includes an echo and synthesizing circuit and a text/speech converting circuit.

12. A sound generation and display control apparatus for a personal digital assistant, comprising:

a central processing unit for controlling operations of a system;

a graphic co-processor for processing graphic data in accordance with a control of said central processing unit;

a memory for storing the graphic data processed by said graphic co-processor and storing system data;

a bus arbitrator and memory controller for arbitrating an allocation of a system bus and for controlling an access to the memory;

a video decoder for decoding an externally applied video source into a format suitable for a display unit;

a video memory for storing data decoded by said video decoder;

a display timing controller for processing the graphic data of said memory through a system bus and for overlaying the graphic data of the memory and the data outputted from said video memory and for displaying the overlayed data on said display unit; and

a direct memory access (DMA) controller for accessing the graphic data stored in the memory under control of said display timing controller.

13. The apparatus of claim 12, wherein said display timing controller includes a mixer for mixing the data outputted from the video memory and the graphic data of the memory.

14. The apparatus of claim 12, wherein the direct memory access controller transmits the graphic data to said display timing controller, and stores the data of the video memory in the memory.

15. The apparatus of claim 12, wherein the display unit is one of a liquid crystal display, a cathode ray tube, and an NTSC/PAL television set.

16. The apparatus of claim 15, wherein said graphic co-processor includes means for processing sound data under control of said central processing unit.

17. The apparatus of claim 16, wherein said graphic co-processor includes a graphic engine for generating the graphic data, and a sound engine for generating the sound data.

18. The apparatus of claim 17, wherein said graphic engine includes at least one of a line drawing processor, a circle drawing processor, and a rectangle drawing processor.

19. The apparatus of claim 17, wherein said sound engine includes an echo and synthesizing circuit and a text/speech converting circuit.