DE3241587A1 - DOT MATRIX DISPLAY - Google Patents

Description

TER MEER MÜLLER STI ^ NJVieiSTEÖ *. * I ^ '. .Sharp KK - 1913-GER-K

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DESCRIPTION

The invention relates to a dot matrix display for displaying a plurality of characters.

Conventional displays determine the starting position for a character by means of a cursor. The cursor in the Usually only a small area of the points can be moved, which is used as a whole for the representation of characters To be available. This severely restricts the display conditions. This often leads to problems when certain patterns or characters are to be displayed.

The invention is based on the object of specifying a dot matrix display with which a large number of display conditions can be achieved.

The inventive solution to this problem is briefly given in the characterizing part of the main claim. By the invention allows any vertical line from points of the display to the starting point for the display to choose a character.

According to an advantageous embodiment, it is possible display overlaid dot patterns. The invention is particularly advantageous for dot matrix displays without sections between display positions, as z. B. in liquid crystal displays, cathode ray tube displays and numeric displays available.

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The invention is explained in more detail below with reference to exemplary embodiments illustrated by figures. Show it:

Fig. 1 is a plan view of an electronic calculator,

Fig. 2 is a block diagram of the computer according to Fig. 1, Fig. 3 is a block diagram of the processor 8 of Fig. 2, FIG. 4 shows a dot matrix of the display 2 in FIG. 1, FIG. 5 shows program steps showing the starting position Determine 0 of a character,

Fig. 6 is a flow chart of program steps, which determine the Anfangspositon a representation ,, a program for character display _/ a flowchart for incremental commands for displaying a character as shown in FIG. I ₁

a flow chart for decorting step M4 in Fig. 8;

a program for setting display operations when the starting point lines depend on a function _;

Fig. 11 is a flow chart of subsequent steps for setting

of display controls,
FIG. 12 shows a front view of a display unit 2 according to FIG

Fig. 1 showing displays. 25th

The electronic computer 1 according to FIG. 1 has a liquid crystal display unit 2 and a keyboard unit 3, in which there are letter keys 4, number keys 5 and an enter key 6.

Fig. 7th Fig. 8th Fig. 9 Fig. 1

TER MEER · MÜLLER ■ STEINMElSTEfS ₁ .;. "'..'.:". Sharp KK - 1913-GER-K

The liquid crystal display unit 2 is composed of a dot matrix as shown in FIG. she has seven points in the vertical direction and 156 points per vertical line in the horizontal direction ' on. Letters and numbers are displayed field by field.

In FIG. 2, the circuit of the electronic computer according to FIG. 1 is shown in a block diagram. the Liquid crystal display unit 2 is operated by a driver circuit 7 which enables the activation of each point the display controls.

A processor 8 is connected to a data bus 9, an address bus 10 and a control bus 11 connected. These three buses are further connected to a RAM 12, a ROM 13, an input / output buffer 14 and connector parts 15 and 16 in connection. The data bus 9 and the address bus 10 are connected to the splitter circuit 7.

A key scanning signal from the input / output memory 14 is given to the keyboard unit 3 and controls the key groups 4, 5 and 6. The key return signal is fed into the processor 8.

The RAM 12 has a memory area, the programs, Stores registers and flags. The ROM 13 stores Interpretation signal that executes a plurality of programs, in particular control programs.

An external RAM can be connected via the connecting part 15 or ROM can be connected via the connector 16

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can be an external input / output device such as a tape or a printer or a memory to expand the storage capacity be connected.

The input / output memory 14 is connected to a clock circuit 17 which outputs a signal to a driver circuit, to operate a tone generator 19, such as. B. a buzzer, is used.

The processor 8 outputs a display on / off signal via a line 20 and a synchronizing signal via a line 21 to the display driver circuit 7. The display driver circuit 7 has a display memory 22 with a Memory area for each point of the display unit 2 on. Segment signals from this memory are transmitted via a Memory 23 given to the display unit 2. The processor 8 also gives a signal directly via a line 24 to the counter electrode of the display 2.

In the simplified block diagram of the processor 8 is shown with 30 denotes a program counter which is formed from a 16-bit register, which is the next instruction address specifies. As soon as the given command has been processed, the content of the register is automatically increased by 1 increased so that the next address is driven.

A stack pointer 31 is implemented as a 16-bit register. It designates a stack address that will be next in RAM 12 as either the reset stack or the advance stack is used.

TER MEER - MÜLLER ■ STBNMBSTEß '.Il Sharp KK - 1913-GER-K

Further 16-bit registers are data registers 32, 33 and 34, which can also be used as a data pointer »

A status register 35 is designed as a 5-bit register. It stores a number of arithmetic operating states z. B. for counting digit positions, for Borge signals, zero signals and overflow signals as a result arithmetic operations occur.

An accumulator 36 is composed of an 8-bit system which is used to store the results of the arithmetic operation and is also used to transfer data to an external memory.

An address buffer 37 is connected to the address bus 10. A composite line of the address bus 10 is identified by reference characters ADO to AD15 in FIG.

A circuit 38 for arithmetic and logical operations is connected to a bus 40 via either an arithmetic Buffer 39 or connected directly.

An external oscillator 41 is connected to an oscillator circuit 42. The output of the oscillator circuit is halved by the subcircuit 4 3 and then as a clock signal 0OS and, under certain circumstances, a clock control circuit 44 and an 11-bit divider circuit 44 are given.

For a waiting signal WAIT, the clock control circuit generates' an internal clock signal and also stops it.

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The divider circuit outputs a synchronizing signal HA and also outputs a signal to a timer control circuit 4 6 from. The timer control circuit 46 controls the counting operation performed by a 9-bit timer 47 and also controls the interruption of the timer. The timer 47 is a polynomial counter that keeps the time counts for the timer interrupt operation.

The interrupt control circuit 48 controls the interrupt operation open-interrupt signals NM1 and M1 and another signal from the timer control circuit 46 is delivered.

A counter 49 is used to output the signal for the counter electrode of the display unit 2. Usually one agrees Signal HIN, which is fed to the counter 49, corresponds to the synchronizing signal HA.

A display control circuit 50 outputs counter electrode signals HO to H7. This circuit is using voltages VDIS, VA, VB and VM of one not shown in FIG Voltage source supplied.

0 The reference symbols PUF and PVF denote general-purpose flip-flops and the reference symbol DISPF denotes a flip-flop, that controls the on / off switching of the display.

When signals 1N0 to 1N7 are supplied from the keyboard unit they are stored in the internal accumulator as 8-bit data. A data bus control circuit 51 then receives 8-bit signals DO to D7 and outputs control signals to bus 40. Reference numeral 52 denotes a command decoder and denotes a process control circuit. The reference symbols R / W denote read and write signals for the memory 52, while MEO and ME1 denote memory release signals,

TER SEA. MÜLLER

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In Figure 4, three displays of the display unit are shown. The display unit is constructed so that it Has columns with 7 points each. In each row crossing the columns there are 156 points which are indicated horizontally from Ö to 155 in Figure 4 (1). The total number of all points forms the display field.

Let us now assume that the letter "A" is displayed with the 59th vertical line as the starting position target. A program such as that of FIG. 5 is used to achieve such a display.

An instruction "GCURSOR 59" as shown in Figure 5 (1) indicates that the 59th point should be the display home position. After executing this statement is, a display instruction is issued which results in the letter shown on the right in Fig. 4 (1) "A" is displayed starting from the points of the 59th column.

When the subsequent display commands are executed, letters and / or numbers to be displayed can be displayed on the right 0 can be represented by the letter "A".

In order to be able to represent any character properly, a pattern of seven points and six horizontal points is used used in every field. The following column on the right remains free without a display point being operated so that the width of a whole point between adjacent characters remains free, so that these are easier to remove from can be distinguished from one another.

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TER MEER · MÜLLER · STEJNSvia ^ TEFS ^ ·. * · .. · .: ". Sharp K.K. - 1913-GER-K

In the preferred embodiment according to FIG. 5 (1), the numerical value 59 in decimal notation denotes the Display start position.

According to a further embodiment of the invention, the starting position can also be determined by a special formula as shown in FIG. The starting position can also be in hexadecimal notation or by any previously set numeric variable.

When the dot display starting position is set in hexadecimal notation, an instruction as shown in Fig. 5 (3) can be used. In this display, the "&" character indicates that the hexadecimal notation is used and "bB" is the value of the hexadecimal notation. to which the decimal value 59 corresponds to the display of the start position.

In FIG. 6, successive steps are also shown, as they occur when an instruction according to Figure 5 (1) is executed. The "GCURSOR" instruction becomes read out during step n1. In a next step n2, a pointer P, which indicates the point position, is reset to zero and deletes the specified Position.

If a predetermined formula for determining the initial position in a step n3, as shown in Figure 5 (2) is used, the formula is executed in a step n4 and the calculated result in one Register saved during next step n5.

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If the content stored in the Reg register remains in a range between 0 and 155, the result will be during of a step n7 is given to the pointer P and then the dot display start position in a next Step n8 set.

If the point display start position is set by any numerical variable, step n10 is proceeded to while the content of the variable is stored in register 10 and from there to step n6 will.

When a command about the point display starting position is given either by a special formula or by a numeric variable is given, e.g. B. if the command is only given by special characters or character variables , step n9 proceeds directly to step n11, in which error correction processing is performed will.

The pointer P determines the lower 8 bits of the address which are in the display memory 22 in the display driver circuit 7 are stored. The pointer P thus defines the address in the display memory 22. Of the 8 bits only correspond 7 bits each to one of the 7 vertical dots in the display unit 2.

If a particular pattern, e.g. If, for example, an upward-pointing arrow ( f) is shown, as shown on the left edge of FIG. 4 (1), a program according to FIG. 7 is carried out.

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The character line in the operand provides a pattern, while the character line in heximal notation is determined by specifying each point in the 7-point column.

The top of the 7-point column corresponds to the lowest bit, while the lowest position corresponds to the

7th bit corresponds to. The leftmost 7-point column, the next column and the next but one column are in hexadecimal notation designated "04", "02" and "7F", respectively.

The program according to FIG. 7 is composed of an arrangement of characters which are intended to define display patterns. According to another embodiment, a display brought about by a character variable that contains a character line.

In the flow chart according to FIG. 8, the display mode step m1 continues to step m2, which then determines whether the Operand is represented by the character variable or not.

When the operand represents the character variable, its content is read out from the RAM 12 during step m3 and then given to the register Reg. If the operand supplies a character line, step m2 becomes step m6 passed over and this line of characters is then stored in register Reg during the next step m7. In step m4 the content of the register Reg is decoded and the result is written into the display memory 22. As a result of this step, in step m5 a special pattern is created either on a drawing line

TER SEA MÖLLER STSNlMSISTE-ft. - '" * .-" - Sharp KK - 1913-GER-K

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or a given character variable. If the operand does not have such a character line or a Corresponds to a character variable, an error correcting process is performed in step m8.

FIG. 9 shows a further detail of the step-by-step processing during the representation of digits. From command mode step r1 there is a transition to step r2, so that the pointer C of the register Reg is reset will. Then the content of the character line stored in the register Reg is decoded sequentially, with

is started with the beginning of the storage sequence, so that the decoded data through the display memory 22 get saved.

The reference symbol Reg (c) represents the character that appears in the position specified by the pointer C exists. The reference character D1 (P) represents an address of the display memory 22 indicated by the pointer P.

The content stored in register Reg is decoded for every 0 character, while the 4-bit code that follows from it Signals are then written into the display memory 22 in the order of the upper 4 bits and then the lower 4 bits will. The symbol D1 denotes the address of the upper 4 bits and the symbol D2 the address of the lower 4 bit. It should be noted that only 3 bits of the upper 4 bits can be represented. So in the In steps r4 to r8, the data arranged in each bit line are sequentially displayed.

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In a step r9 it is then determined whether the pointer P has exceeded the maximum value of 155 or not. If it has exceeded 155, complete the next step r10 the display flow. On the other hand, if the observed value is less than 155, the command mode returns to step r3, in which it is then determined whether or not the display data corresponds to the last character to be displayed. If it is that is the last character to be displayed, the display process is ended.

With this display device, any desired figure can be displayed correctly.

A superimposed display can be achieved by freely selecting the dot matrix display position. If z. B., as shown in Figure 4 (3) a display is to be achieved, which is achieved by superimposing the letter "X" according to Figure 4 (2) with an upward pointing arrow ( f) according to Figure 4 (.1) on the left is to be achieved, the intended superimposed display can be achieved by simply writing the new pattern in addition to that already displayed without deleting the latter in the display memory 22 and stored there.

According to a preferred embodiment of the invention, it is thereby possible to display characters that are superimposed on one another. It is z. B. also possible to superimpose letters and numbers.

TER MEER -MÜLLER · STEjNylEjSTEß ^ _# · _# * ·., ·.;!. Sharp KK - 1913-GER-K

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With the superimposed display of letters and numbers, it is also possible with the present invention to display a plurality of information at the same time, although only a single-line display, as in the Embodiments shown in Figure 4 is possible.

According to a preferred embodiment, a current display can be achieved in that the display contents are shifted by that by a command each vertical dotted line one after the other as the starting position is determined. This can be achieved in that first the display content in a predetermined Memory area of the RAM 12 is stored. If then the stored content by executing an operand like "PRINT" or "GPRINT" is done, this display can be done either by adding or subtracting one or more dotted lines at fixed intervals.

However, the starting position of the dot matrix display can also be determined by a function. A typical program for such an embodiment is shown in Figure 10 (1) shown. The display content of a 7-point column, which is referred to as the first point column, i.e. h., the one Column denoted by reference symbol 1 in Figure 4 (1) is substituted into a variable X = 2. in the In the case of a display as shown in Fig. 10 (2), a numerical value X = 127 is put into a variable X substituted.

TER MEER -MÜLLER · STEINMEISTgI? * .. *. ·. .!. * siiarp £ ° .K.K. - 1913-GER-K

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The respective display status of a 7-point column can can be determined by the numerical value obtained. Although the operand in Figure 10 is characterized by its numeric Value is represented, the operand can be given either by a formula or a numeric variable.

Figure 11 is a flow chart showing sequential Describes steps used to access the dot matrix display state in a desired location to obtain. From step S1 to step S2 passed, in which it is determined whether the operand is set as a formula or not. If the operand is is given as a formula, the flow goes to step S3, in which the arithmetic operation is carried out. In a subsequent step S4 is the result in Register reg saved.

When the operand is given as a numeric variable, the instruction sequence goes from a step S10 to a step S11 over. Then the contents of the variables in the register Reg and it goes to step S5.

The display content as stored in the register Reg during steps S4 to S11 is sent to step S5 given, in which it is then determined whether the stored content is within a range between 0 and 155 lies or not. If the content is in the range is passed to step S6, while the content of the Register Reg is given to the pointer P so that a certain address in the display memory 22 can be displayed can.

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In step 7, both the data for the upper 3 bits and the lower 7 bits that are stored in the display memory 22 are stored in the register Reg. During a step S8, this data is given in decimal notation converted and substituted by variables before the result is possibly given to step 9. Consequently the dot matrix display state can be determined in a desired position.

If neither the memory content, which is stored in a certain position of the register Reg is within the range between 0 and 155 in step S5 / still the operand according to the specified formula or the numerical variable is given, the flow goes to step S12, in which an error processing is carried out will.

In Figure 12 are two views of displays of the display unit 2 shown. As shown in Figure 12 (1), the time and related data can be displayed. The digital seconds display during a period 0 between 0 and 30 seconds is shown opaque, while the background appears transparent during this time. The digital seconds display is reversed during the time between the 31st and 59th second is shown transparent, while the background is then opaque is.

To achieve these special displays, the digital seconds display position is first represented by a dotted line unit then the NOT function of the

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associated numerical value, which is then in turn in the display memory 22 by an operand "GPRINT" is written and thereby reverses the display.

The digital seconds display can be according to another Embodiment can also be illuminated in very short intervals.

As shown in Figure 12 (2), a bar graph can also be used be done by individually defining special dotted lines.

ORIGINAL BATHROOM

Claims (2)

TER MEER-MULLER-STEINNEiSTE PATENTANWÄLTE - EUROPEAN PATENT ATTORNEYS Dipl.-Chem. Dr. N. ter Meer Dipl -Ing. H, stone master Dipl.-Ing. FE. Müller Artur-Ladebeck-Strasse 51 Triftstrasse 4, D-8OOO MÖNCHEN 22 D-48OO BIELEFELD 1 Case: .1913-GER-K November 10, 1982 Mü / gö SHARP KABUSHIKI KAISHA 22-22, ',. Nagaike-cho, Abeno -kuf Osaka 545, Japan Dot Matrix Display Priority: November 10, 1981, Japan, Ser. No. 56-180112 PATENT CLAIMS 1. J dot matrix display device with a display which has dots arranged in vertical and horizontal rows of dots, with a control circuit for controlling the display and with a keyboard for influencing the control circuit, characterized in that over the Control circuit for a value that can be entered via the keyboard, the vertical row of dots from which a display takes place, can be selected at will. 2. Dot matrix display according to claim 1, characterized in that several Display contents can be displayed superimposed.