Raster display generating system

Hickin

[45] Dec. 28, 1982

[54] RASTER DISPLAY GENERATING SYSTEM

[75] Inventor: Charles W. R. Hickin, Binghamton, N.Y.

[73] Assignee: General Electric Company, Binghamton, N.Y.

[21] Appl. No.: 165,804

[22] Filed: Jul. 3, 1980

[51] Int. CI.1 G09G 1/16

[52] U.S. CI 340/747; 340/701;

340/721

[58] Field of Search 340/744, 747, 749, 751,

340/701, 793, 727

[56] References Cited

U.S. PATENT DOCUMENTS

3,675,232 7/1972 Stroul ., 340/744 X

3,792,464 2/1974 Hamada et al 340/747

3,996,585 12/1976 Hogan et al 340/747

4,070,662 1/1978 Narveson .

4,149,164 4/1979 Reins et al 340/701

4,241,341 12/1980 Thorson 340/747 X

OTHER PUBLICATIONS Bantz and Kreitzer, "Intermixed Update of Memory

Refreshed Raster Displays", IBM Tech. Disci. Bui., vol. 18, No. 8, Jan. 1976, pp. 2705, 2706.

Primary Examiner—David L. Trafton

Attorney, Agent, or Firm—Arthur E. Bahr; I. David

Blumenfeld; Stephen A. Young

[57] ABSTRACT

A visual display system and method for use in converting calligraphic symbology information into raster scanned symbology. The system simultaneously generates and displays calligraphic and raster matrix imagery utilizing the same set of software instructions. The imagery is displayed upon a single, hybrid calligraphic/raster matrix display or separate raster matrix and calligraphic displays. A programmable calligraphic symbology generator utilizes digital stroking techniques that successively generates addressing for a matrix arrayed memory and determines the attributes of both the raster matrix generated and calligraphic generated symbology. The information is stored in a single or a plurality of matrix arrayed memories according to desired symbol attributes and system performance.

43 Claims, 12 Drawing Figures