Computer graphics processing and selective visual display system – Computer graphics display memory system – Frame buffer
Reexamination Certificate
1999-03-01
2004-10-19
Tung, Kee M. (Department: 2676)
Computer graphics processing and selective visual display system
Computer graphics display memory system
Frame buffer
C345S002100, C345S001100
Reexamination Certificate
active
06806885
ABSTRACT:
TECHNICAL FIELD
This invention is directed to a remote computer monitor controller and more particularly to a method and device to control multiple computer displays with only one personal computer.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The vast majority of personal computers (PCs) include a video monitor display. Monitors are used to communicate information to the operator of the PC, such as displaying the text in a word processing application or a graph or chart showing data. Computer monitors are typically cathode ray tubes but can also be flat panel displays, such as liquid crystal or field emission displays.
A functional diagram of a typical personal computer system
10
having one associated monitor is shown in
FIG. 1. A
CPU
20
, such as an Intel Pentium® processor or a K6 processor from Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. is linked to a local bus
22
. Also coupled to the local bus
22
is a memory controller
24
that controls level-2 cache memory
26
and dynamic random access memory (DRAM)
28
. Also coupled to the local bus
22
is a local bus/PCI bus bridge
30
. This bus bridge
30
links the local bus
22
with a peripheral control interface (PCI) bus
32
.
Attached to the PCI bus
32
are controllers of their own buses, such as an IDE controller
60
and a SCSI controller
62
. These controllers are used to couple devices, such as hard drives, CD-ROM drives, DVD ROM drives, scanners, and other peripheral devices to the PCI bus
32
and ultimately to the CPU
20
. The PCI bus
32
also contains PCI slots
34
,
36
,
38
which act as receptacles for “cards”. These cards provide a mechanism by which external devices can communicate directly with the PCI bus
32
of the computer system
10
. For instance as shown in
FIG. 1
, a video card
44
is installed into the PCI slot
34
. The video card
44
contains circuitry that allows the CPU
20
to communicate to a computer monitor
48
by passing electrical signals over the PCI bus
32
. The video card
44
senses these signals placed on the PCI bus
32
by the CPU
20
and converts them into analog signals for use by the monitor
48
. A video cable
68
carries signals from the video card
44
to the monitor
48
.
A network interface card (NIC)
46
is installed in the PCI slot
36
of the computer system
10
. The NIC
46
contains circuitry that allows the computer system
10
to communicate to a computer network over a network cable
50
. The network cable
50
plugs directly into the NIC
46
. The NIC
46
is chosen to be compatible with a particular type of network to which the computer system
10
is to be connected, such as Token-Ring or Ethernet.
A PCI/ISA bus bridge
70
couples the PCI bus
32
to an Industry Standard Architecture (ISA) bus
72
. Similar to the PCI bus
32
, the ISA bus
72
has a number of slots,
92
,
94
,
96
,
98
, that are used to accept cards that communicate with the computer system
10
over the ISA bus
72
. The ISA slots act as a separate physical extension to a corresponding number of XT slots,
82
,
84
,
86
, and
88
, respectively. Cards that fill one of the ISA slots also fill the corresponding XT slot. For example, the computer system
10
has an I/O adapter card
66
that sits in both XT slot
82
and ISA slot
92
. All ISA cards must utilize ISA and XT slots while XT cards may only utilize XT slots. Cards placed in either the XT or ISA slots communicate with the CPU
20
via the ISA bus
72
through the bus bridges
70
and
30
. Also coupled to the PCI/ISA bus bridge
70
are other components necessary for proper operation of the computer system
10
, such as a ROM Bios
74
, a real-time clock
76
, and a keyboard/mouse controller
78
.
In order to have more than one monitor
48
coupled to the computer system
10
, an additional or different type of video card must be plugged into one of the PCI slots. Some operating systems, such as Microsoft Windows 98®, allow more than one monitor
48
to be operational at one time. However, the number of monitors
48
is dictated by the number of available PCI slots
34
,
36
,
38
available in the computer system
10
. In the computer system
10
illustrated in
FIG. 1
, only one additional computer monitor
48
could be added, by inserting another video card (not shown) into the only open PCI slot,
38
. Some newer video cards operate on an Accelerated Graphics Port (AGP) bus, which provides a faster data path between an AGP video card (not shown) and the CPU
20
. Typically only one slot is provided to the AGP bus, thereby limiting the number of AGP video cards per system to one.
Some companies, such as Appian Graphics of Redmond, Washington, produce video cards that can display different images on multiple monitors from one video card. However, the number of monitors driven from one video card is limited to a fairly low number, such as 2 or 4. Additionally, Dexon Systems Limited of Great Britain produces hardware that allows multiple monitors to be attached to a computer system. However, in their system, the monitors are stacked on top of and next to one another in a matrix of rows and columns. The product allows this matrix of computer monitors to display only a single image, with every monitor showing a small portion of the total image.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,623,067 to Deal, Jr. teaches a master panel control unit for coordinating panels in a number of debarkation areas. However, each master panel must be uniquely associate with another panel in another area. Further, the panels of Deal, Jr. cannot contain images, but only numbers and letters in “illuminated lamps behind ground glass plates.”
What is needed, therefore, is a device that allows images to be shown on as many computer displays coupled to a computer system as desired, without being limited by the number of available open slots in a bus or the number of displays driven by one video card.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
According to one aspect of the present invention, a remote monitor controller includes an input module that receives a stream of digital data. The input module is linked to a microcontroller that converts the digital data into image display data, which is stored in a video RAM module. An output module converts the image display data stored in video RAM into analog signals that are sent to a display unit where the image is shown.
According to another aspect of the present invention, image data is provided to at least one computer display. First data representing an image is generated by a generating device, such as a personal computer. Then the data is addressed to one or more of the display units and sent along a computer network to the associate display units. At the addressed display unit, the image data is retrieved from the computer network, converted and stored as a locally-stored image. The locally-stored image is then shown on the display unit until another image is stored.
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patent: 5136695 (1992-08-01), Goldshlag et al.
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patent: 5874928 (1999-02-01), Kou
Cathey James J.
Hush Glen E.
Piper Glenn W.
Micro)n Technology, Inc.
Tung Kee M.
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