1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a data access method for a timing controller of a flat panel display and a related device, and more particularly, to a data access method and a related device for reducing memory cells of a line buffer in the timing controller, for saving memory cost for displaying images.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The advantages of a liquid crystal display (LCD) include lighter weight, less electrical consumption, and less radiation contamination. LCD monitors have been widely applied to various portable information products, such as notebooks, mobile phones, PDAs (Personal Digital Assistants), etc. In an LCD monitor, incident light produces different polarization or refraction effects when the alignment of liquid crystal molecules is altered. The transmission of the incident light is affected by the liquid crystal molecules, and thus magnitude of the light emitted from the liquid crystal molecules varies. The LCD monitor utilizes the characteristics of the liquid crystal molecules to control the corresponding light transmittance and produces gorgeous images according to different magnitudes of red, blue, and green light.
Please refer to
In fact, the original 2N pixel data P1-P2N does not line up according to a displaying order of P1, PN+1, P2, PN+2 . . . , PN, and P2N. A line buffer 110 located in the timing controller 102 is utilized for transforming an original order of P1, P2 . . . , PN−1, and PN to the displaying order of P1, PN+1, P2, PN+2 . . . , PN, and P2N, and outputting to the two port data-line-signal output circuit 104. Please refer to
However, each memory cell of the line buffer 110 is used for being written and read only once, which cannot enhance the efficiency of memory cells.
It is therefore a primary objective of the claimed invention to provide a data access method for a timing controller of a flat panel display and a related device, for saving memory cost for displaying images.
The present invention discloses a data access method for a timing controller of a flat panel display, which comprises forming a line buffer including a plurality of memory cells in the timing controller, dividing the plurality of memory cells into a first section and a second section, wherein the number of memory cells in the first section is greater than the number of memory cells in the second section, writing a first number of pixel data into the first section, wherein the first number of pixel data is included in a plurality of pixel data corresponding to a row of a frame, writing a second number of pixel data into the second section, wherein the second number of pixel data is included in the plurality of pixel data corresponding to the row of the frame, and the first number is equal to the second number, and reading the plurality of pixel data from the plurality of memory cells according to an order.
The present invention further discloses a flat panel display for saving memory cells for displaying images. The flat panel display comprises a panel, a data-line-signal output circuit, a scan-line-signal output circuit, and a timing controller. The data-line-signal output circuit is coupled to the panel and is utilized for outputting pixel data of images. The scan-line-signal output circuit is coupled to the panel and is utilized for driving the panel to display the images. The timing controller is coupled to the data-line-signal output circuit and the scan-line-signal output circuit and comprises a line buffer, a control unit and a data packing unit. The line buffer includes a plurality of memory cells, wherein the plurality of memory cells is divided into a first section and a second section, and the number of memory cells in the first section is greater than the number of memory cells in the second section. The control unit is coupled to the line buffer and is utilized for writing a first number of pixel data into the first section and writing a second number of pixel data into the second section, wherein the first number of pixel data and the second number of pixel data are included in a plurality of pixel data corresponding to a row of a frame. The data packing unit is coupled to the control unit and is utilized for reading the plurality of pixel data from the plurality of memory cells according to an order and outputting the plurality of pixel data to the data-line-signal output circuit.
These and other objectives of the present invention will no doubt become obvious to those of ordinary skill in the art after reading the following detailed description of the preferred embodiment that is illustrated in the various figures and drawings.
Please refer to
Step 300: Start.
Step 302: Form a line buffer including K memory cells, K>1.
Step 304: Divide the K memory cells into a first section and a second section, wherein the number of memory cells in the first section is greater than the number of memory cells in the second section.
Step 306: Write former N pixel data P1-PN in 2N pixel data into the first section and write latter N pixel data PN+1-P2N in the 2N pixel data into the second section, wherein the 2N pixel data corresponds to a row of a frame and N>1.
Step 308: Read the 2N pixel data from the K memory cells according to an order.
Step 310: End.
In the process 30, the pixel data P1-PN correspond to a former half of the row of the frame and are written into the first section; and the pixel data PN+1-P2N correspond to a latter half of the row into the second section and are written into the second section. The number of memory cells in the first section is greater than the number of memory cells in the second section. Therefore, the memory cells in the second section are used for being written and read at least twice for outputting the pixel data PN+1-P2N. Note that, the word “former” or “latter” used as above means the output timing of the pixel data.
In the step 306, the step of writing the pixel data P1-PN into the first section involves writing every pair of the pixel data P1-PN into a corresponding memory cell in the first section. Similarly, the step of writing the pixel data PN+1-P2N into the second section involves writing every pair of the pixel data PN+1-P2N into a corresponding memory cell in the second section. Note that, the pixel data P1-P2N is outputted to a two port data-line-signal output circuit of the flat panel display. Next, in the step 308, the step of reading the 2N pixel data from the K memory cells according to an order is reading the pixel data P1 and PN+1 from a corresponding memory cell at the same time, and then reading the pixel data P2 and PN+2 from a corresponding memory cell at the same time, and so on.
Preferably, as a result of the number of memory cells in the first section being greater than the number of memory cells in the second section, the pixel data PN+1-P2N is further divided into two portions with the same number of pixel data, a former portion PN+1-P3N/2 and a latter portion P(3N/2)+1-P2N. The pixel data PN+1-P3N/2 are written into the memory cells in the second section by every pair of the pixel data, and the pixel data P(3N/2)+1-P2N are also written into the memory cells in the second section by every pair of the pixel data. From the above, it is derived that a number of the memory cells of the first section is N/2; a number of the memory cells of the second section is N/4; and the number K of the memory cells of the line buffer is equal to N/2+N/4=3N/4.
In the prior art, the 2N pixel data corresponding to a row of a frame are stored in N memory cells. In comparison, the process 30 makes the 2N pixel data corresponding to a row of a frame being stored in 3N/4 memory cells. That is, the embodiment of the present invention saves ¼ number of memory cells. Note that, the embodiment of the present invention is utilized for writing and reading pixel data corresponding to a row of a frame. The embodiment of the present invention can be used for writing and reading pixel data for displaying a frame.
As to the order for writing the 2N pixel data into the line buffer and reading the 2N pixel data from the line buffer, please refer to
W1→W2→W3→W4→R1→W5→R2→W6→R3→W7→R4→W8→R5→R6→R7→R8. Moreover, the process 30 is further utilized for displaying a frame. The writing and reading order of the pixel data for a present row, a previous row and a next row is:
. . . R5′→W1→R6′→W2→R7′→W3→R8′→W4→R1→W5→R2→W6→R3→W7→R4→W8→R5→W1″→R6→W2″→R7→W3″→R8→W4″→ . . . , wherein R5′-R8′ represent the reading order of the pixel data corresponding to the previous row, and W1″-W4″ represent the writing order the pixel data corresponding to the next row.
Please refer to
Please note that, the number of the pixel data P1-PN is equal to the number of the pixel data PN+1-P2N, and the number of memory cells in the second section is less than the number of memory cells in the first section, so that the memory cells in the second section are used for being written and read at least twice for outputting the pixel data PN+1-P2N. Preferably, the number of memory cells in the first section is twice the number of memory cells in the second section. The detailed operations of the timing controller 506 are described in the process 30 shown in
In conclusion, the embodiment of the present invention divides the latter half of the 2N pixel data corresponding to a row of a frame into two equal portions, and performs writing and reading actions of the latter half of the 2N pixel data in the second section of memory cells. Therefore, the embodiment of the present invention uses 3N/4 memory cells for writing and reading the 2N pixel data, which is more efficient than the prior art using N memory cells, so as to save memory cost for displaying images.
Those skilled in the art will readily observe that numerous modifications and alterations of the device and method may be made while retaining the teachings of the invention.
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