This application is based upon claims the benefit of priority from the prior Japanese Patent Application No. 2007-105698, filed on Apr. 13, 2007, the entire contents of which are incorporated herein by reference.
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a display control circuit for driving a display panel and a display device having this display control circuit.
2. Related Art
A vertically long liquid crystal panel has been conventionally used in a mobile telephone. A liquid crystal display driver with an embedded RAM (hereinafter, an LCD driver) is disposed in the vicinity of the upper or lower end of the liquid crystal panel of this kind. The conventional LCD driver has been designed to perform vertically long display in the liquid crystal panel, but has not intended to perform horizontally long display such as a TV screen (refer to JP-A 2006-208998 (Kokai)).
The following three methods are conceived as ways to perform the horizontally long display in the liquid crystal panel:
(1) The liquid crystal panel is horizontally disposed without changing the arrangement of the LCD driver, and the direction in which data is written into a display memory is changed from the horizontal direction to the vertical direction.
(2) The short sides of the liquid crystal panel are used as long sides for the horizontally long display, so that the horizontally long display is performed using a portion of the display area of the vertically long liquid crystal panel.
(3) An LCD driver for driving a liquid crystal panel for the horizontally long display is newly developed.
However, in the case of (1), it is not easy to write a plurality of pixel data collectively into the display memory. In the case of (2), the whole display area of the screen can not be used in the horizontally long display, thereby degrading display resolution. In the case of (3), the development cost increases, and it takes too much time to develop the liquid display, thereby increasing demerit.
According to one aspect of the present invention, a display control circuit, comprising:
a memory configured to store three-colors pixel data;
a first selector configured to select one color pixel data for m pixels in order among the three-colors pixel data for the m pixels read out from the memory when performing vertically long display in a display panel, where m is an integer of 1 or more, and to select one color pixel data for n pixels in order among the three-colors pixel data for the n pixels read out from the memory when performing horizontally long display in a display panel, where n is an integer of 1 or more, and different from m;
a second selector configured to select pixel data for one pixel in order among the pixel data for m pixels selected by the first selector when performing the vertically long display, and to select pixel data for one pixel in order among the pixel data for n pixels selected by the first selector when performing the horizontally long display;
a D/A converter configured to convert the pixel data selected by the second selector into an analog pixel voltage; and
a write controller configured to perform control for storing three-colors pixel data having the number of bits different between the vertically long display and the horizontally long display into the memory.
According to one aspect of the present invention, a display apparatus, comprising:
a display panel having a plurality of pixel switches which are provided to correspond to each cross point of signal lines and scanning lines arranged in matrix form; and
a display control circuit configured to generate analog pixel voltages supplied to the plurality of pixel switches,
wherein the display control circuit includes:
a memory configured to store three-colors pixel data;
a first selector configured to select one color pixel data for m pixels in order among the three-colors pixel data for the m pixels read out from the memory when performing vertically long display in a display panel, where m is an integer of 1 or more, and to select one color pixel data for n pixels in order among the three-colors pixel data for the n pixels read out from the memory when performing horizontally long display in a display panel, where n is an integer of 1 or more, and different from m;
a second selector configured to select pixel data for one pixel in order among the pixel data for m pixels selected by the first selector when performing the vertically long display, and to select pixel data for one pixel in order among the pixel data for n pixels selected by the first selector when performing the horizontally long display;
a D/A converter configured to convert the pixel data selected by the second selector into an analog pixel voltage; and
a write controller configured to perform control for storing three-colors pixel data having the number of bits different between the vertically long display and the horizontally long display into the memory.
Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.
(Fundamental Principle of the Present Invention)
The present invention is characterized in that a common display control circuit can be used to drive a display panel for vertically long display and a display panel for horizontally long display.
The total number of bits for three pixels in
When display control of the display panel is performed, pixel data for one horizontal line is generally stored in the memory, and the pixel data is then read from the memory per horizontal line and supplied to the display panel.
Thus, when a display panel for horizontally long display of vertical 240×horizontal 320 dots is driven, the number of bits in the pixel data is changed from 24 bits to 18 bits, so that pixel data for one horizontal line (for 320 pixels) of the display panel can be stored in one row of the memory. In this case, as shown in
Thus, the number of bits in the pixel data to be stored in the memory is changed in accordance with the aspect ratios of the display panel for the vertically long display and the display panel for the horizontally long display, such that the same memory and display control circuit can be used to drive both the display panels for the vertically long display and the horizontally long display without changing the order of being written into the memory.
The present invention is directed its attention to this point, and the number of bits in the pixel data to be stored in the memory is changed in accordance with the aspect ratio of the display panel depending on whether the display panel for the vertically long display is driven or the display panel for the horizontally long display is driven, such that the display panel is driven with the same order of writing/reading the pixel data into/from the memory regardless of which display panel is to be driven.
Hereinafter, specific embodiments of the present invention will be described.
This display device performs vertically long display, and has a liquid crystal panel 1, and an LCD driver 2 for supplying the liquid crystal panel 1 with an analog pixel voltage.
The liquid crystal panel 1 has a plurality of pixel switches 3 provided to correspond to intersections of signal lines and scan lines vertically and horizontally provided in rows, a gate driving circuit 4 for driving the scan lines, and a plurality of analog switches 5 for switching on or off the supply of the analog pixel voltage to the signal lines.
Although the display resolution of the liquid crystal panel 1 is not limited in particular, an example described below uses a liquid crystal panel 1 for vertically long display having a display resolution of vertical 320×horizontal 240 dots.
While the LCD driver 2 can drive both a liquid crystal panel 1 for vertically long display and a liquid crystal panel 1 for horizontally long display, the first embodiment shows an example of driving the liquid crystal panel 1 for the vertically long display.
The LCD driver 2 has a RAM (memory) 6 for storing RGB pixel data, a write control circuit 7 for controlling write into the RAM 6, an interface circuit 9 for receiving the RGB pixel data and so on from a host computer (CPU) 8, and a plurality of pixel voltage supply units 10.
RGB pixel data of, for example, 24-bit colors (each color having 8 bits) is stored in the RAM 6. A plurality of pixel voltage supply units 10 are provided, for example, in a ratio of one unit to three pixels. Each of the plurality of pixel voltage supply units 10 has a first selector (first selector) 11, a second selector (second selector) 12, a D/A converter (DAC) 13, and an amplifier (AMP) 14.
RGB pixel data for three pixels read from the RAM 6 is supplied to the first selector 11. The first selector 11 sequentially selects pixel data for one color of RGB out of the input RGB pixel data for three pixels (24×3=72 bits).
The second selector 12 sequentially selects pixel data for one pixel out of the pixel data of the particular color among three pixels selected by the first selector 11.
The D/A converter 13 converts the pixel data selected by the second selector 12 into an analog pixel voltage and supplies the selected analog pixel voltage to the amplifier 14. The amplifier 14 adjusts the gain of the analog pixel voltage and then supplies the analog pixel voltage to the liquid crystal panel 1.
The analog pixel voltage supplied from the LCD driver 2 to the liquid crystal panel 1 is supplied to a corresponding signal line via the analog switch 5.
Nine analog switches 5 are provided for each of the pixel voltage supply units 10. Each of these analog switches 5 is connected to the pixel switches 3 for three pixels of three colors (nine pixels in total). The analog switches 5 are switched on/off by control signals ASW1 to ASW9 supplied from the LCD driver 2.
As each of the pixel voltage supply units 10 supplies analog pixel voltages for three pixels of three colors (nine pixels in total), a total of 80 pixel voltage supply units 10 are necessary if the number of pixels in the vertical direction is 240. The RGB pixel data is supplied to each of the pixel voltage supply units 10 from the RAM 6.
The first selector 11 selects the pixel data of a particular color in accordance with the logic of control signals SELR, SELG, SELB. Parallel data in which the RGB pixel data including 8 bits in each color are alternately arranged in order bit by bit is supplied from the RAM 6 to the first selector 11. The first selector 11 selects one of three most significant bits R23, G23, B23 of the RGB pixel data in accordance with the logic of the control signals SELR, SELG, SELB. Similar selecting operation is carried out for each bit of RGB. Such selecting operation for each bit is carried out in parallel.
Thus, the first selector 11 sorts the RGB pixel data bit by bit to select a color, so that it is desirable that the RGB pixel data for three pixels including 8 bits in each color be stored in the RAM 6 in the order of R23, G23, B23, . . . , R0, G0, B0.
The second selector 12 selects pixel data of a particular pixel from the pixel data selected by the first selector 11, in accordance with the logic of control signals p0 to p2. More specifically, when the signal LS is low (in the case of the vertically long display), the second selector 12 selects pixel data of a particular pixel from three pixels in accordance with the logic of the control signals p0 to p2, and when the signal LS is high (in the case of the horizontally long display), the second selector 12 selects pixel data of a particular pixel from four pixels in accordance with the logic of control signals P0 to P3.
The control signals SELR, SEG, SELB for controlling the selecting operation of the first selector 11 repeat three times the operation of changing in three patterns between times t1 and t2, as shown in
The control signals p0 to p2 for controlling the selecting operation of the second selector 12 change in three patterns between times t1 and t2, as shown in
Between times t1 and t2, the pixel voltage supply unit 10 at the left end in
Since control signals ASW1 to ASW9 for controlling the turning on/off of the analog switches 5 sequentially become high during the period between times t1 and t2, each of the analog switches 5 is sequentially turned on one time between times t1 and t2. Thus, between times t1 and t2, signal lines S1 to S9 are sequentially supplied with a total of nine analog pixel voltages R1_1, G1_1, B1_1, R2_1, G2_1, B2_1, R31, G3_1, B3_1 for three pixels.
Although the driving waveforms of the signal lines S1 to S9 driven by the pixel voltage supply unit 10 at the left end are only shown in
Then, between times t2 and t3, operation similar to that for the first line is performed for the RGB pixel data of the second line.
As described above, in the first embodiment, the second selector 12 is provided, which can switch the selecting operations at a time of driving the liquid crystal display for the vertically long display and at a time of driving the liquid crystal display for horizontally long display. The number of bits of the RGB pixel data stored in the RAM 6 is also switched at a time of driving the liquid crystal display for the vertically long display and at a time of driving the liquid crystal display for the horizontally long display. Therefore, the same LCD driver 2 can be used to drive the liquid crystal panels 1 of both types without changing the order of writing into the RAM 6 or reading from the RAM 6. Therefore, it is unnecessary to provide an LCD driver 2 special to the vertically long display or the horizontally long display, so that component costs can be reduced owing to shared components.
In a second embodiment, the same LCD driver 2 as that in the first embodiment is used to drive a liquid crystal panel 1 for horizontally long display.
In the example described in the first embodiment, RGB pixel data including 8 bits in each color is stored in the RAM 6 to drive the liquid crystal panel 1 for the vertically long display having a display resolution of vertical 320×horizontal 240 dots. In the present embodiment, however, RGB pixel data including 6 bits in each color is stored in the RAM 6 to drive the liquid crystal panel 1 of horizontal 320×vertical 240 dots.
The second selector 12 in
In accordance with the logic of a signal LS, the second selector 12 switches to select one pixel from three pixels for the vertically long display or to select one pixel from four pixels for the horizontally long display.
While nine analog switches 5 are connected to each of the pixel voltage supply units 10 in the LCD driver 2 in the liquid crystal panel 1 in
Thus, even when the liquid crystal panel 1 for horizontally long display is driven, the same LCD driver 2 as that in the first embodiment can be used. In this case, it is required only to change the number of bits in the pixel data to be stored in the RAM 6 and the logic of the signal LS to be input to the second selector 12.
While the analog pixel voltages for three pixels or four pixels are supplied from one pixel voltage supply unit 10 in the examples described in the first and second embodiments, the number of analog pixel voltages supplied by each pixel voltage supply unit 10 is not specifically limited. Moreover, the display resolution and horizontal to vertical pixel ratio of the liquid crystal panel 1 are not specifically limited either, but the present invention is effective when the horizontal to vertical pixel ratio is not 1:1.
Number | Date | Country | Kind |
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2007-105698 | Apr 2007 | JP | national |