Claims
- 1. A method of displaying analog video data and computer display data comprising text and graphics on a computer display comprising the steps of:
- providing analog video data to a converting means and converting said analog video data to a digital pixel stream;
- buffering said pixel stream and converting said pixel stream to a plurality of pixel packets;
- determining valid pixels of said pixel packets, said step of determining valid pixels accomplished by providing a bit mask having a number of bits, each corresponding to a pixel within a window of a multi-window system in a computer memory, assigning a first bit value for valid pixel display locations and a second bit value for invalid pixel display locations, and conditionally writing each pixel of said pixel packet to a destination location in said computer memory dependent on a corresponding bit location in said bit mask;
- storing said valid pixels of a window in a multi-window system in a computer memory at a first rate, said computer memory also storing said computer display data at a second rate; and,
- providing said valid pixels from said computer memory for display on said computer display.
- 2. The method of claim 1 wherein said step of converting said analog video data to a digital pixel stream comprises the steps of:
- determining chrominance and luminance values for said analog video data;
- converting said chrominance and luminance values to digital chrominance and luminance values;
- converting said digital chrominance and luminance values to digital red-green-blue (RGB) values.
- 3. The method of claim 1 further including the steps of:
- determining an array size A.times.B of said digital pixel stream; and
- providing said digital pixel stream to a resampling means to convert said A.times.B array to an N.times.M array where N.ltoreq.A and M.ltoreq.B.
- 4. The method of claim 1 wherein said step of buffering said pixel data stream comprises the steps of:
- writing said pixel data stream into a first of a pair of buffer memories;
- reading a pixel packet from said first memory and writing said pixel data stream into a second of said pair of buffer memories;
- reading a pixel packet from said second buffer and writing said pixel data stream into said first of said pair of buffer memories; and,
- repeating the previous two steps.
- 5. An apparatus for displaying video data and computer display data on a computer display comprising:
- converting means for receiving an analog video signal and for converting said analog video signal to a digital pixel stream;
- buffering means coupled to said converting means for receiving said digital pixel stream and converting said digital pixel stream to a plurality of pixel packets;
- control means coupled to said buffering means for determining valid pixels of said pixel packet and for providing said valid pixels and said computer display data as output; and,
- a computer memory of said computer display coupled to said control means for storing said valid pixels of a window in multi-windows on the computer display at a first rate and for providing said valid pixels to said computer display, said computer memory also storing said computer display data at a second rate; and
- a bit mask located in said computer memory and referenced by said buffering means, said bit mask having a number of bits, each corresponding to a pixel display location of an associated display window, each of said bits having a first bit value when a destination display location of a pixel packet is invalid and a second bit value when a destination display location of a pixel of a pixel packet is valid.
- 6. The apparatus of claim 5 wherein said converting means comprises:
- digital to analog converting means for converting said analog video data to digital chrominance and luminance values; and,
- matrix multiplying means for converting said digital chrominance and luminance values to digital red-green-blue (RGB) pixel values.
- 7. The apparatus of claim 5 further including resampling means for converting an A.times.B array of said digital pixel stream to an N.times.M array where N.ltoreq.A and M.ltoreq.B.
- 8. The apparatus of claim 6 wherein said buffering means comprises a pair of buffer memories and one of said pair of memories is written with said digital pixel stream while a pixel packet is read from the other of said pair of memories.
- 9. A method of displaying video data and computer display data comprising text on a computer display comprising the steps of:
- providing analog video data to a converting means at a first rate;
- converting said analog video data to a digital pixel stream;
- buffering said pixel stream and converting said pixel stream to a plurality of pixel packets;
- determining valid pixels of said pixel packets, said step of determining valid pixels being accomplished by referencing a bit mask located in a computer memory and having a number of bits, each corresponding to a pixel location of an associated display window of a plurality of display windows on the computer display, assigning a first bit value for valid pixel display locations and a second bit value for invalid pixel display locations, and conditionally writing each pixel of said pixel packet to a destination location in said computer memory dependent on a corresponding bit location in said bit mask;
- storing said valid pixels of a window in a multi-window system in a computer memory of said computer display at the first rate, said computer memory also storing said computer display data at a second rate; and
- providing said valid pixels from said computer memory to said computer display at the second rate for display on said computer display.
- 10. The method of claim 9 wherein said second rate is higher than said first rate.
- 11. The method of claim 9 wherein said step of converting said analog video data to a digital pixel stream comprises the steps of:
- determining chrominance and luminance values for said analog video data;
- converting said chrominance and luminance values to digital chrominance and luminance values;
- converting said digital chrominance and luminance values to digital red-green-blue (RGB) values.
- 12. The method of claim 9 further including the steps of:
- determining an array size of A.times.B of said digital pixel stream; and,
- providing said digital pixel stream to a resampling means to convert said A.times.B array to an N.times.M array where N.ltoreq.A and M.ltoreq.B.
- 13. The method of claim 9 wherein said step of buffering said pixel data stream comprises the steps of:
- writing said pixel data stream into a first of a pair of buffer memories;
- reading a pixel packet from said first memory and writing said pixel data stream into a second of said pair of buffer memories;
- reading a pixel packet from said second buffer and writing said pixel data stream into said first of said pair of buffer memories; and,
- repeating the previous two steps.
- 14. An apparatus for displaying video data and computer display data comprising text and graphics on a computer display comprising:
- converting means for receiving an analog video signal at a first rate and for converting said analog video signal to a digital pixel stream;
- buffering means coupled to said converting means for receiving said digital pixel stream and converting said digital pixel stream to a plurality of pixel packets;
- control means coupled to said buffering means for determining valid pixels of said pixel packet and for providing said valid pixels and said computer display data as output; and,
- a computer memory of said computer display coupled to said control means for storing said valid pixels of a window in multi-windows on said computer display and for providing said valid pixels at second rate to said computer display, said computer memory also storing said computer display data at a third rate; and,
- a bit mask located in said computer memory and referenced by said buffering means, said bit mask having a number of bits, each corresponding to a pixel display location in a display window, each of said bits having a first bit value when a destination display location of a pixel packet is invalid and a second bit value when a destination display location of a pixel is valid.
- 15. The apparatus of claim 14 wherein said second rate is higher than said first rate.
- 16. The apparatus of claim 14 wherein said converting means comprises:
- digital to analog converting means for converting said analog video data to digital chrominance and luminance values; and,
- matrix multiplying means for converting said digital chrominance and luminance values to digital red-green-blue (RGB) pixel values.
- 17. The apparatus of claim 14 further including resampling means for converting an A.times.B of said digital pixel stream to an N.times.M array where N.ltoreq.A and M.ltoreq.B.
- 18. The apparatus of claim 14 wherein said buffering means comprises a pair of buffer memories and one of said pair of memories is written with said digital pixel stream while a pixel packet is read from the other of said pair of memories.
- 19. The apparatus of claim 14 further including means for generating computer display data, said computer display data stored in said computer memory with said pixel data.
- 20. A method for displaying video data generated from an analog source mixed together in a windowing display system with non-video data generated by a computer, said method comprising the steps of:
- storing the non-video data in a video memory, each location of the video main memory being provided in correspondence with a pixel on a display monitor, wherein the non-video data is stored in at least one first window;
- defining in a bitmask for at least one second window for the video data, wherein bits in the bitmask are selectively set ON in a case where the bit lies within the second window and OFF in a case where the bit lies outside the second window or in a case where the bit is overlapped by any of said at least one first window;
- providing analog video data to an A/D converting means and converting said analog video data to a digital pixel stream;
- buffering said digital pixel stream and converting said digital pixel stream to a plurality of pixel packets at a first rate;
- writing selected ones of pixels from the plurality of pixel packets to the video memory, pixels being selected for writing to the video memory in accordance with whether a corresponding bit in the bitmask is ON; and
- reading data, comprising both non-video data in the first window and video data in the second window, from the video memory to the display monitor, wherein reading from the video memory is at a second rate which is higher than the first rate.
Parent Case Info
This application is a continuation of application Ser. No. 08/004,637 filed Jan. 12, 1993, now abandoned, which was a continuation of application Ser. No. 07/580,275 filed Sep. 10, 1990, now abandoned.
US Referenced Citations (8)
Continuations (3)
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Number |
Date |
Country |
Parent |
272908 |
Jul 1994 |
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Parent |
04637 |
Jan 1993 |
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Parent |
580275 |
Sep 1990 |
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