JPH0616229B2 - Color display device - Google Patents

Description

TECHNICAL FIELD OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to a color display device capable of multicolor display.

[Technical background of the invention and its problems]

With the progress of semiconductor technology such as LSI and microprocessors, the range of applications of computers has expanded dramatically. As a result, advanced functions have been required for display devices, which play an important role as man-machine interfaces. One of the representative ones is a color palette function that realizes multicolor display in order to increase the display effect. A color pallet is a plurality of color information recorded in a plurality of registers, and selection information for selecting this register is stored in a plane memory for each pixel, which is the minimum configuration of the display screen, and the selection information stored in this memory is stored. The register is selected in accordance with, and the color of each pixel is obtained from the color information recorded in the selected register.

By the way, in a color display device used for a relatively low-priced computer such as a personal computer, the color types that can be displayed simultaneously are limited to a relatively low value, for example, 16 colors out of 256 colors are designated. This is because it is necessary to reduce the size of the plane memory in order to reduce the hardware price. That is, 128/256/512/1024
The number of colors that can be specified on the screen at the same point in time, although it is possible to specify the colors, is limited to about 8/16 colors at most.

The following methods have heretofore been known as methods for selecting the color. That is, one is a method of predefining a color number and designating the desired color number. The other one displays an appropriate color on the actual screen, and if there is a desired color, if the desired color is not specified, the next candidate is displayed. For example, in 256 colors,
With a color display device that specifies 16 colors, all colors can be displayed by issuing candidates 16 times. Therefore, the former method is not sensuous because the actual color is not seen and selected. Further, according to the latter method, although it is possible to select an actual color by seeing it, there is a drawback that the candidate colors across the screen cannot be simultaneously compared.

[Object of the Invention]

The present invention has been made in view of the above-mentioned drawbacks, and a color type that can be displayed by adding a small amount of hardware is displayed in a partial area on the display screen in the form of a full-color color bar, and this is selectively designated. An object of the present invention is to provide a color display device having a configuration and contributing to further improvement of man-machine interface.

[Outline of Invention]

From the use of a relatively low-priced computer such as a personal computer, 8 to 16 colors are sufficient as the color types used simultaneously on the display screen. Therefore, the number of colors to be used at the same time may be 8 to 16, but the selection of color types can be done by displaying all 256 colors at once in a certain area of the screen and specifying the color selection while looking at the man-machine interface. Help improve. In order to satisfy the above-mentioned matters, the present invention provides a color display device having a color pallet function with a scanning register, a cursor register, a register register, a comparator for detecting a comparison match of values set between the registers, and a cursor for color selection. A storage circuit that keeps a predetermined state until a predetermined process is completed after the designation is made, and a state in which this circuit exists, and when a comparison match output is generated by the comparison circuit, the contents set in the scan register A gate for loading a part of a pallet register was added.

That is, it is a feature of the present invention that the scan register is used instead of the pallet register that holds a constant value to display all colors.

As a result, the man-machine interface can be further improved with a low-priced structure.

Example of Invention

Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 shows a CR obtained by implementing the present invention.
The example of a display on a T screen is shown. In the figure, 1 is a CRT display screen, 2 is a display valid screen, 3 is an already displayed figure filled with a desired color, and 4 is a color bar. In the embodiment of the present invention, the display position of the color bar is set in advance before the display, and is displayed in the short form. Further, the setting position is arbitrary in the vertical direction, and the horizontal direction is the entire display effective range. According to the embodiment of the present invention, the number of colors that can be handled is 256, and the number of dots in the horizontal direction of the effective display screen is 1024 dots. Therefore, the dot width assigned to one color on the color bar is 4 dots. In the color selection, the crosshair cursor 5 is moved onto the bar 4 and stopped at the position of the desired color, and a certain key is pressed to specify the selection.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing an embodiment of the present invention. In the figure, 11 is a memory composed of a plurality of planes. The plane memory 11 stores pallet selection information for each pixel. The information taken out from the plane memory 11 (extracting one dot in the case memory plane) is supplied to the decoder 12. The decoder 12 decodes the 4-bit information obtained from the plane memory 11 into 16-bit information, and supplies it to one input terminal of an AND gate 14 located in the preceding stage of 15 pallet registers (PR _{0 to} PR ₁₄ ). To be done. To the other input terminal of the AND gate 14, a CPU (not shown) sets data indicating the mixing amount of R, G, and B which are the basic colors. According to the pallet used in the embodiment of the present invention, the gradation of the color is 8 for R and 8 for G.
There are 4 steps, B. Each output (OUT _{0 to} OUT ₁₄ ) of the pallet register 13 is passed through the OR gate 15 and C
It is supplied to the RT monitor 16.

Reference numeral 17 is a scan register. The scan register 17 indicates the brightness when the scan line is moving from left to right. Reference numeral 18 is a cursor address register. The cursor address register 18 sequentially stores the moving position of the cursor.
Reference numeral 19 is a comparison circuit. The comparison circuit 19 receives the output of the scan register 17 and the output of the cursor address register 18 as inputs, and detects a comparison match. 20 is a flip-flop. The flip-flop 20 is set on the desired color position by moving the cursor on the color bar 4 shown in FIG. 1, and is set by a signal (POST) issued when the operator gives an instruction to complete the selection. Two
It is reset after a predetermined time delay due to two outputs. Two
1 is an AND gate. The Q output of the flip-flop 20 is supplied to one input terminal of the AND gate 21, and the comparison match output by the comparison circuit 19 is supplied to the other input terminal. Here, the result of the logical product condition is the delay circuit. The Q output of the flip-flop 20 is further supplied to one input terminal of the gate circuit 23 via 22. The scan register 1 is connected to the other input terminal of the gate circuit 22.
The upper 8 bit data on 7 is supplied, and the 8 bit data is supplied to the pallet register (RP ₁₄ ) 13 based on the comparison and coincidence output from the comparison circuit 19.

In the embodiment of the present invention, the color card selected by sliding the cursor is the palette register (PR
₁₄ ) and the color bar uses pallet number 15. These are not fixed and can be changed appropriately.

The operation of the embodiment of the present invention will be described in detail below. First, the scanning position of the CRT screen is determined by the counting operation of the scanning register 17, and the pixel information for each corresponding dot position is read from the plane memory 11 by using the scanning position as the address information. The information read out here is a code designating the pallet number and is decoded by the decoder 12 to select one of the pallet registers 13. The pallet register 13 is set with the respective mixed amounts of R, G and B, and the contents thereof are supplied to the CRT monitor 16 via the AND gate 14 and the OR gate 15.

Now, it is assumed that the pallet number 15 is selected by the decoder 12. At this time, the upper 8 bits of the scanning register 17 which operates in synchronization with the movement of the scanning line are sent to the CRT monitor 16 via the AND gate 14 and the OR gate 15. That is, the color bar of 256 colors is displayed in a horizontal strip shape as shown in FIG. On the other hand, to move the cursor, the value set in the cursor address register 18 which determines the cursor position is changed. When the operator puts the cursor on a desired color position on the desired color bar (FIG. 1) and gives a selection completion instruction, the flip-flop 20 immediately sets. At the moment when the scan register 17 coincides with the value indicated by the cursor address register 18 while the flip-flop 20 is set, the contents of the upper 8 bits of the scan register 17 (the contents are the state of the color at the position designated by the cursor). Then, the same format as the palette register is set in the palette register (PR ₁₄ ) 13. Flip flop 20 is AND gate 2
1. The delay circuit 22 will soon reset.

The color information stored in PR ₁₄ , which is one of the palette registers 13, can be transferred to other palette registers by software processing, if necessary.

It should be noted that in the device configuration according to the present invention, the pallet register (PR ₁₅ ) corresponding to the pallet number 15 actually uses the upper 8 bits of the scan register 17, and the information of the selected color. The content of the scan register 17 is connected through the gate circuit 23 to the input side of the pallet register PR ₁₄ for storage. To operate the gate circuit 23, the comparison circuit 19, flip-flop 20 and AND gate 21 are required.

By the way, the scan register 17 counts up from "0" to "1023". Therefore, if only the upper 8 bits of the scan register 17 are viewed, the entire scan register 17 changes from "0" to "255" every 4 counts, and if this is regarded as the palette register PR _13, it is from the left end of the CRT screen. It is possible to display 256 kinds of colors with a width of 4 dots by the right end. That is, the maximum aim of the present invention is to use the scan register 17 to display all colors instead of using the pallet register 13 which maintains a constant value.

Although the embodiment of the present invention has been described only with respect to the color type, it can be applied to the case where a multi-step gradation of black and white is provided.

〔The invention's effect〕

As described above, for example, in the case of a color display device having a specification capable of simultaneously displaying 14 colors out of 256 colors, all 256 colors can be simultaneously displayed with respect to the color bar used for color selection. You can select colors from all colors with a sense of reality. As in the conventional example, it is possible to solve such a problem that a color number that does not have a sense of realism is handled, and a color selection on the screen that cannot be compared at the same time is forced. Further, since the present invention can be realized by adding a relatively small amount of hardware, it can be sufficiently applied to a low-priced personal computer.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a display example on a CRT screen obtained by carrying out the present invention, and FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing an embodiment of the present invention. 4 ... color bar, 11 ... plane memory, 12 ... decoder, 13 ... palette register, 17 ... scan register, 18 ... cursor address register, 19 ... comparison circuit, 20 ... flip-flop, 23 ... ... gate circuit.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A color display device in which displayable color types are displayed as color bars, and a color is selected on the color bar by moving a cursor to display desired data in color. A plurality of plane memories for storing the selection information of the palette register in each pixel and the scan register, the scan register for sequentially setting the scanning position on the display screen, and the cursor for setting the moving position of the cursor. The address register, a comparison circuit for detecting a comparison match between the values set in both the registers, a storage circuit for keeping a predetermined state until the desired processing is completed after the color selection is designated by the cursor, and this circuit In a certain state, and when a comparison match output is generated from the comparison circuit, a part of the contents set in the scan register is changed to the plurality of palettes. Color display device characterized by comprising a gate for loading any to one of the registers.