Computer graphics processing and selective visual display system – Computer graphics processing – Graphic manipulation
Reexamination Certificate
1998-06-19
2001-12-25
Hjerpe, Richard (Department: 2674)
Computer graphics processing and selective visual display system
Computer graphics processing
Graphic manipulation
C345S001100, C345S003100, C345S213000, C345S545000, C345S543000, C345S536000, C348S014070, C348S014040, C348S584000, C348S716000, C725S082000, C725S109000, C725S114000, C725S119000, C725S117000, C725S098000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06333750
ABSTRACT:
STATEMENT REGARDING FEDERALLY SPONSORED RESEARCH OR DEVELOPMENT
Not Applicable
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
Modern trading floors seek to maximize their productivity by increasing utilization of floor space. This means that floor designers must squeeze as many traders as possible onto the floor, while providing these traders with large amounts of visual data. This data comes in the form of computer-generated text and graphical data, video feeds, and analog text feeds. While the increasing need for data drives up the number and size of these data displays, a clear line-of-sight between traders is often needed to facilitate communications between them.
The historical technology of choice for displaying the data on trading floors has been the CRT. As information needs have grown, so has the size of the CRT necessary to display that data. At the present time, CRT displays with a twenty-one inch diagonal (nineteen inches usable diagonal) is the largest display commonly used, while the seventeen inch CRT (fifteen inches usable diagonal) is the most prevalent display. Multiple monitors are frequently connected to a single host computer to allow large amounts of data be displayed, while requiring only one set of user interaction devices (such as keyboard and mouse) and a single computer.
Recently, flat panel monitors have begun to make inroads into the desktop trading market. Primarily based on Liquid Crystal Displays (LCDs), these monitors typically consume 70% less power, have smaller bezels, and are only three to six inches in depth. Because of their relatively small size, these displays allow trading desks to be made much smaller, and they can be mounted in ways which are difficult and costly with CRTs. Unfortunately, LCD monitors are still quite expensive.
As mentioned earlier, multi-head displays are quite common in the desktop trading market. Typically, multiple graphics cards are inserted into the host PC, each driving one monitor. Alternatively, specialized multi-head graphics cards are available which can drive two or four heads simultaneously. Both of these methods have substantial drawbacks. The first suffers in that the limited number of computer bus slots (usually only three PCI-style) available in a typical PC are squandered by the graphics cards. The limited number of bus slots means that only three heads may be connected to a single PC using this method. The second method suffers because the specialized multi-head graphics cards are quite expensive, and tend to lack features present in leading-edge single-head cards. One such multi-head card actually provides on a single card the circuitry normally found on two graphics card in order to drive two displays.
In addition to the need to selectively and independently provide a large quantity of video data on several video display terminals, it is desirable to merge plural video data sources of varying formats into a single video data stream, and to make that integrated data stream selectively and independently available to a variety of video display devices, including devices having varying requirements for input video data format.
BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention enables the provision of a multi-head virtual monitor from the perspective of a host computer via the use of one or more video distribution hubs. Each hub receives a video signal from a standard graphics card in a PC and generates output signals appropriate for driving a plurality of video displays such as flat panel or Cathode Ray Tube (CRT) video displays. The video displays may be oriented either horizontally, in landscape mode, or vertically, in portrait mode, or in a combination of landscape and portrait arrangements. Additionally, a single hub can drive displays of differing resolutions as well as head orientations. The hub, in combination with host software, can be automatically reconfigured when a display is swapped out to accommodate the newly substituted display. In a preferred embodiment, the hub is particularly adapted for driving a plurality of flat panel displays such as active matrix flat panel displays, dual scan passive flat panel displays, or a combination of such displays.
More particularly, in a preferred embodiment, a video graphics system in accordance with the present invention includes a video graphics adapter having a host interface for coupling the video graphics adapter to a host computer such as a personal computer, workstation, microcomputer, minicomputer, mainframe or the like, and an output for driving a video data signal, such as an RGB analog video signal. The video graphics adapter includes an “oversize” display buffer which has a buffer capacity greater than that necessary to drive a single video display. The video graphics system further includes a video distribution hub which has a video input interface for receiving a video signal, such as the RGB analog video signal from the video graphics adapter, and a plurality of output ports for driving associated displays.
The video distribution hub receives the video signal from the video graphics adapter at the video input interface of the video distribution hub and, in the case where the received signal is an analog signal, applies the signal to an analog to digital converter (ADC) to generate digital signals corresponding to red, green and blue data signals. The digital video is applied to a bus which feeds a plurality of frame buffer logic sections within the video distribution hub. Each frame buffer logic portion within the video distribution hub includes a frame buffer which is employed to drive a display coupled to an output of the respective frame buffer logic portion.
In an alternative embodiment of the present invention, the hub is configured to accept a digital input prior to selectively storing data in associated frame buffers. A further alternative embodiment of the present invention provides an analog output suitable, for instance, for driving conventional CRTs.
A further aspect of the presently disclosed invention is based upon the foregoing video graphics system wherein a large quantity of video data is independently and selectively made available to plural video display devices. Here, however, the large quantity of video data can be contributed to by plural sources of video data of differing formats. Further, the display devices can also be of varying types, each requiring a different input data format.
A multi-sourced video distribution element, also referred to as a hub, serves as an interface between one or more sources of video display data and one or more video display devices. The video display data can be provided in a variety of formats. One source of data can be identified as a base image, and other sources of data can be utilized for overlay images integrated into the base image. The base image and any integrated overlay images are provided on a pixel bus internal to the hub. The hub can then be configured as an interface to one or more of various types of video display devices, and/or to another hub. A desired portion of the base image or the entire base image, and/or an integrated overlay image(s), if any, is then provided for display on the video display device(s) and/or to the interconnected hub.
Video data input to the hub can be either digital or analog. Digital input can be via a standard PANELLINK™ electrical interface such as the DFP standard defined by the Digital Flat Panel Initiative, via some derivative of that standard, via a custom PANELLINK™ format, or via the VESA-standard plug-in display format. Further, digital input can be presented as a digitized version of the output of a standard graphics adapter board commonly found in personal computers, which normally provides an RGB, or red, green, blue analog signal, along with one of various synchronization signal formats. Buffered digital video data can also be provided as an input, for instance from another hub. Additionally, the digital input can be a serialized digital input which provides graphics commands for the generation of an image, as opposed to the provision of the
DesMarais Mark A.
Gilgen Robert L.
Odryna Victor
Cybex Computer Products Corporation
Hjerpe Richard
Nguyen Francis
Nixon & Vanderhye PC
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