Timing generator for driving LCDs

Details Timing generator for driving LCDs Timing generator for driving LCDs

1996-07-25

2001-04-03

Cuchlinski, Jr., William A. (Department: 3661)

Computer graphics processing and selective visual display system

Plural physical display element control system

Display elements arranged in matrix

C345S099000, C345S098000, C345S211000, C345S213000

Reexamination Certificate

active

06211850

ABSTRACT:

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a timing generator for driving LCDs. To put it in detail, the present invention relates to a timing generator for driving LCDs which timing generator allows the frequency and the timing of pulses output thereby to be controlled by an external signal.
2. Description of Related Art
A driver and a timing generator are used for driving an LCD (Liquid Crystal Display) panel.
Therefore, in order to drive an LCD panel of a specific type, a timing generator specially intended for the type needs to be developed.
As a result, a timing generator can only be used specially for an LCD panel of a type for which the timing generator is designed and the timing of pulses output thereby is fixed.
In addition, with respect to the system configuration, a special system is also required for the same reasons.
As described above, in the conventional timing generator, the timing of pulses output thereby is fixed so that only images having signal specifications matching the timing can be displayed on the LCD panel, giving rise to a problem that an image having different signal specifications from the timing of the output pulses can not be displayed correctly.
In addition, as has already been described, the frequency of pulses output by the timing generator and the timing thereof are fixed.
Accordingly, only an LCD panel of a specific type can be driven by the timing generator.
For this reason, timing generators of various types need to be made available for LCD panels of different types.
As described above, the timing of pulses output by the conventional timing generator is fixed, giving rise to a problem that the frequency and timing of a timing generator of a particular type can not be controlled when used for driving an LCD panel of a different type.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention provides a timing generator with several functions. That is to say, the timing generator of a particular type provided by the present invention can be used for driving LCD panels of a plurality of different types.
In accordance with one aspect of the present invention, there is provided a timing generator for supplying timing control pulses to a display panel, which comprises: internal pulse generating means for generating internal pulses; an external data input unit for receiving external data; a data table for holding said external data received by the external data input unit; control means for controlling the output frequency and output timing of the internal pulses in accordance with the external data stored in the data table; and timing control pulse generating means for generating timing control pulses in accordance with the internal pulses controlled by the control means.
Preferably, the internal pulse generating means comprises a basic pulse generating unit for generating basic pulses and a counter for generating a pulse for each predetermined number of basic pulses generated by the basic pulse generating unit.
The external data may be a value to be set in the counter and when the number of pulses output by the counter becomes equal to the external data, the timing control pulse is generated.
The timing generator may further comprise a processing means for calculating the frequency of the timing control pulses and determining output timing of the timing control pulses.
The internal pulse generating means may comprise a PLL circuit and a frequency dividing counter.
The external data may be a frequency divisor of the frequency dividing counter.
In accordance with another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a display apparatus which comprises: a decoder/driver for receiving a video signal, extracting a synchronization signal from the video signal and generating an image signal from the video signal; a timing generator for generating timing control pulses in accordance with the synchronization signal; and a display panel for writing the image signal sequentially into picture elements in accordance with the timing control pulses, wherein the timing generator comprises: internal pulse generating means for generating internal pulses; an external data input unit for receiving external data; a data table for holding the external data received by the external data input unit; control means for controlling the output frequency and output timing of the internal pulses in accordance with the external data stored in the data table; and timing control pulse generating means for generating the timing control pulses in accordance with the internal pulses controlled by the control means.
Preferably, the internal pulse generating means comprises a basic pulse generating unit for generating basic pulses and a counter for generating a pulse for each predetermined number of basic pulses generated by the basic pulse generating unit.
The external data may be a value to be set in the counter and when the number of pulses output by the counter becomes equal to the external data, the timing control pulse is generated.
According to the present invention, by providing the timing generator for driving LCDs with a communication function for allowing communication with the external world to take place, the timing of pulses output by the timing generator can be controlled by using an external signal.
To put it in concrete terms, by controlling a set value (or decode value) of an internal counter provided inside the timing generator using an external signal, control to vary the frequency and the output timing of LCD driving pulses and internal pulses can be implemented.
By enabling the control to vary the timing of output pulses using an external signal as described above, a timing generator of only a particular type can be used for driving LCD panels having a variety of types.
In addition, by providing a processing circuit embedded in the timing generator, the amount of control data supplied by an external source can be reduced and the decode data of the counter can be controlled into a variety of values, allowing the configuration of the timing generator to be simplified.


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