A raster display refresh system includes a charge coupled device (CCD) circulating refresh memory for maintaining a display of information on a cathode ray tube (CRT) screen. The X and Y address of picture elements to be changed are stored in raster scan sequence in a small random access memory (RAM). Whenever a picture element address in the data register of the RAM equals the X and Y screen address of the scanning beam of the CRT, a corresponding new picture element signal stored in the RAM is...

A video generator having means for selectively reading out one of many patterns recorded on a first track of a magnetic disc and repeatedly writing this pattern on a second track. The pattern at a desired position on the second track is solely read out to be written on a third track of the magnetic disc, and the video signal thus recorded on the third track is displayed on a CRT display.

A symbol generator for drawing alphanumeric characters and simple geometric figures by a dot method. According to the invention, the format and the size of the symbols may be modified. The generator 60 operates under the control of a data bus MPDB and includes: a writing unit 61 comprising counters 62 and 63 and a logic writing means 64; a read-only character memory (ROM) 65 and a writing pointer 66 comprising two registers 67 and 68. A symbol generator according to the invention may be used in ...

Actuators are positioned over the rows of keys in a keyboard to drive the keys in response to coded information from a computer or other source of digital signals. The mechanical driving force is transferred from solenoids positioned at one end of each row simultaneously to all of the actuators of that row. Additional solenoids positioned across the bottom of the keyboard sequentially unlatch selected actuators allowing them to drive their associated keys in response to the driving force. Additi...

An apparatus for displaying characters on a picture screen of a display unit has an image point memory interconnected between an image generator and a display unit. The image generator controls the display of the characters on a picture screen of the display unit and contains a character generator in which data words corresponding to the shape of the characters to be displayed are stored. The image point memory serves as an image repetition memory and contains an allocated memory having memory e...

A method and apparatus for compactly describing an image made up of concatenated lines or filled polygons. The drawing of lines for the image begins at an initial drawing point determined in a coordinate system defined by a unit screen and proceeds from point to point with the relative coordinates of each successive point specified as a positive or negative step in the horizontal and/or the vertical direction from the previous point. The step size parameters which separately define both the amou...

A rasterizer, particularly suited for generating patterns for semiconductor masks and the like is described. An 8.times.8 array uses RAS, CAS and WE signals in addition to the memory address for accessing the array. A state machine is used to convert the pattern data (e.g., type of object orientation, etc.) into accessing data with the WE generator being driven through a ROM.

A method for drawing graphics is carried out in a graphics processing and display system. The system has a display unit, a host for generating graphics data defining graphics images to be displayed on the display, a graphics controller for receiving information from the host and controlling graphics to be displayed, a frame buffer memory for storing graphics data, an index register for receiving an index value from the host and a coordinate register for storing a coordinate value which is obtain...

A system and method accommodate several image orientation modes in a single software driver. The driver utilizes the same software instructions for each orientation mode in order to transfer image information to display memory. The driver instructions which transfer the image information to display memory utilize parameters to determine where each successive pixel of information goes in the display memory. These parameters are set at the time an orientation mode is selected, and the use of these...

The present invention relates to a programmable retargeter memory device which receives data being sent to addresses designated by the data and which retargets the data by replacing the addresses designated by the data with new addresses. The retargeter memory device of the present invention comprises an address memory and a data memory. The address memory comprises a plurality of address memory locations for storing retargeted addresses. The address memory is capable of being written to and rea...