Patent US2024982A successfully refreshed from Google Patents.
US3848232A
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Interpretive display processor
Assignee: ANN ARBOR TEXT COMPANY A CORP OF MI
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Filing: 1973-07-12
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Granted: 1974-11-12
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Expires: 1993-07-12
Abstract
Abstract A display processor contains a random access memory which stores digital codes representative of text and display commands which define the addresses of strings of the text characters within the RAM and define the manner and position in which they are to be displayed on a cathode ray tube output device. A general purpose computer is used to load the RAM with text and display commands and to modify these in order to edit the display. A recirculating register capable of storing text characters for the generation of a single line of the CRT display is filled with portions of the text under control of the sequence of display commands. The contents of the buffer are generated on the CRT through use of a read only memory in dot matrix form.
Inventors
- 👤 M Preston
- 👤 M Weiser
- 👤 J Leibler
- 👤 C Bloch
Bibliographic Details
Application Number
—
Jurisdiction
US
Data Source
google_patents
Last Synchronized
2026-10-23 05:40
CPC Classifications
G; G09; G09G; G09G5/00; G09G5/08; G06; G06F; G06F3/00; G06F3/14; G06F3/153; G09G5/42
Claims Analysis
Total Claims: 31
Claim 1
Independent Claim
134 words
A text display processor comprising: means for storing a plurality of digital signals representative of a plurality of strings of text characters in addressable form; means for storing a plurality of digital signals representative of display commands each defining a section of said stored strings of text characters by address and the position of said characters are to occupy in the display in addressable form; a register for storing signals representative of contiguous sections of text to be displayed; means for filling said register with certain of said Digital signals representative of strings of text characters from said means for storing text character signals under control of a plurality of said stored display commands; a display means; and means for writing characters on said display means under control of the contents of said register.
Claim 2
Dependent Claim
134 words
A text display processor comprising: means for storing a plurality of digital signals representative of a plurality of strings of text characters in addressable form; means for storing a plurality of digital signals representative of display commands each defining a section of said stored strings of text characters by address and the position of said characters are to occupy in the display in addressable form; a register for storing signals representative of contiguous sections of text to be displayed; means for filling said register with certain of said Digital signals representative of strings of text characters from said means for storing text character signals under control of a plurality of said stored display commands; a display means; and means for writing characters on said display means under control of the contents of said register.
Claim 3
Dependent Claim
42 words
The text display processor of claim 1 wherein the display means operates to display a plurality of horizontal lines of alpha-numeric characters and said register operates to store sufficient signals for the generation of a single line of text of said display.
Claim 4
Dependent Claim
46 words
The text display processor of claim 1 wherein said means for writing characters on said display means under control of the contents of said register includes a matrix for converting digital signals representative of text characters into analog signals for the control of the display means.
Claim 5
Dependent Claim
36 words
The text display processor of claim 3 wherein said display means constitutes a cathode ray tube and said analog signals constitute signals capable of writing alpha-numeric characters on said cathode ray tube in dot matrix form.
Claim 6
Dependent Claim
56 words
The text display processor of claim 4 wherein each character dot matrix has a vertical dimension of N dots and a line of characters is written by N horizontal sweeps of the the cathode ray tube beam across the cathode ray tube, all N sweeps being controlled by one set of signals stored in said register.
Claim 7
Dependent Claim
39 words
The text display processor of claim 1 wherein said plurality of stored display commands utilized to fill said register are stored in consecutive storage areas within said means for storing a plurality of digital signals representative of display commands.
Claim 8
Dependent Claim
40 words
The text display processor of claim 6 wherein said means for storing a plurality of digital signals representative of display commands also stores digital signals operative to alter the normal sequence of utilization of display commands in filling said register.
Claim 9
Dependent Claim
43 words
The text display processor of claim 1 wherein said means for storing a plurality of digital signals representative of text characters and said means for storing a plurality of digital signals representative of the display commands both constitute a single random access memory.
Claim 10
Dependent Claim
79 words
The text display processor of claim 8 wherein said means for filling said register with certain of said digital signals representative of text characters under control of a plurality of said stored display commands derives display commands from sequential storage areas of said random access memory and further including a plurality of digital signals representative of commands for altering the normal sequence of utilization of said display commands, stored in said random access memory, interspersed with said display commands.
Claim 11
Dependent Claim
42 words
The text display processor of claim 1 including means for storing signals relating to the sequence of utilization of said display commands in filling said register, and means for utilizing the last said signals to control said means for filling the register.
Claim 12
Dependent Claim
71 words
The text display processor of claim 1 wherein said means for filling said register with certain of said digital signals representative of strings of text characters under control of a plurality of said stored display commands includes means operative to utilize said plurality of display commands sequentially and at least certain of said display commands contain signals indicating they constitute the last display commands to be utilized in filling said register.
Claim 13
Dependent Claim
53 words
The text display processor of claim 1 wherein said register is operative to store signals representative of a line of text to be displayed and each display command includes a signal defining the position that the section of stored text characters which that display command defines is to occupy within said display line.
Claim 14
Dependent Claim
51 words
The text display processor of claim 1 including means for altering the digital signals representative of strings of text characters and the digital signals representative of display commands connected to said means fOr storing said digital signals representative of strings of text characters and the digital signals representative of display commands.
Claim 15
Dependent Claim
126 words
A text display processor comprising: a random access memory for storing digital signals representative of strings of text characters, digital signals representative of display commands each defining a section of said stored text characters strings by address within the memory and further defining the position said characters are to occupy in the display, and digital signals relating to the sequence of utilization of said display commands; a register for storing signals representative of contiguous sections of text to be displayed; means for filling said register with certain of said digital signals representative of strings of text characters from said random access memory under control of a sequence of said stored display commands, said sequence being determined by said digital signals relating to the sequence of utilization.
Claim 16
Dependent Claim
126 words
A text display processor comprising: a random access memory for storing digital signals representative of strings of text characters, digital signals representative of display commands each defining a section of said stored text characters strings by address within the memory and further defining the position said characters are to occupy in the display, and digital signals relating to the sequence of utilization of said display commands; a register for storing signals representative of contiguous sections of text to be displayed; means for filling said register with certain of said digital signals representative of strings of text characters from said random access memory under control of a sequence of said stored display commands, said sequence being determined by said digital signals relating to the sequence of utilization.
Claim 17
Dependent Claim
82 words
The text display processor of claim 14 wherein said display means constitutes a cathode ray tube, and further including means for deflecting the beam of the cathode ray tube vertically and horizontally so as to generate a sequence of rasters; means for digitally storing the instantaneous position of said beam; and connections between said means for digitally storing the instantaneous position of said beam, and said means for writing characters on said display means under control of the contents of said register.
Claim 18
Dependent Claim
92 words
The text display processor of claim 14 wherein said means for filling said register with certain of said digital signals representative of strings of text characters under control of a sequence of said stored display commands includes means for examining sequential signals stored within said memory, using such signals which are representative of display commands to fill the register with the strings of text characters defined by said display commands and utilizing said digital signals relating to the sequence utilization of said display commands to locate successive display commands in said sequence.
Claim 19
Dependent Claim
84 words
The text display processor of claim 14 wherein said digital signals representative of display commands each define a section of said stored strings of text characters by address within the memory, further define the position said characters occupy in the display and further include signals representative of the manner of display of each of said text characters; and said register is filled with both of said aforesaid signals relating to the manner of display of the text characters as well as the text characters.
Claim 20
Dependent Claim
87 words
The text display processor of claim 15 further including a plurality of digital signals stored in said random access memory relating to the display of material other than alphanumeric characters on the display, and the position said material is to occupy on the display; and means for comparing such signals representative of the positions with the contents of said means for digitally storing the instantaneous position of said beam within said raster; and means for generating said material on said display means under control of said comparator.
Claim 21
Dependent Claim
44 words
The text display processor of claim 18 wherein said means for generating said material on said display means under control of said comparator includes a digital-analog convertor connected to the output of the comparator and connections between said digital-analog convertor and said display means.
Claim 22
Independent Claim
116 words
A system for editing data comprising: a keyboard, a random access memory adapted to receive signals generated by said keyboard; a register; means for writing in said register the contents of a plurality of positions in said random access memory containing digital codes representative of alpha-numeric characters under the control of digital codes stored in other sections of the memory, each of which code specifies a memory address and the position which the contents of that memory address is to occupy in the register; dispLay means; and means for controlling the display means so as to write the alpha-numeric characters representative of the signals stored in the register under control of the contents of the register.
Claim 23
Independent Claim
116 words
A system for editing data comprising: a keyboard, a random access memory adapted to receive signals generated by said keyboard; a register; means for writing in said register the contents of a plurality of positions in said random access memory containing digital codes representative of alpha-numeric characters under the control of digital codes stored in other sections of the memory, each of which code specifies a memory address and the position which the contents of that memory address is to occupy in the register; dispLay means; and means for controlling the display means so as to write the alpha-numeric characters representative of the signals stored in the register under control of the contents of the register.
Claim 24
Dependent Claim
43 words
The data editing system of claim 20 wherein the display means constitutes a cathode ray tube, the register constitutes a recirculating register, and including means for recirculating said register in timed relation to the generation of the raster on the cathode ray tube.
Claim 25
Dependent Claim
65 words
The data editing system of claim 21 wherein each line of alphanumeric characters on display is generated by a plurality of horizontal scans of the cathode ray tube beam across the cathode ray tube and the contents of the register are modified under control signals stored in the random access memory between the generation of display of two consecutive lines on the cathode ray tube.
Claim 26
Dependent Claim
76 words
A text display processor including: means for storing a plurality of first digital signals representative of text characters; a display means; means for writing certain text characters defined by certain of said stored first digital signals on said display means; means for storing second digital signals defining the position and length of lines to be drawn on said display means; and means for drawing lines on said display means under the control of said second signals.
Claim 27
Dependent Claim
76 words
A text display processor including: means for storing a plurality of first digital signals representative of text characters; a display means; means for writing certain text characters defined by certain of said stored first digital signals on said display means; means for storing second digital signals defining the position and length of lines to be drawn on said display means; and means for drawing lines on said display means under the control of said second signals.
Claim 28
Dependent Claim
109 words
The text display processor of claim 23 wherein the display means constitutes a cathode ray tube and means for controlling the beam of the cathode ray tube to cause it to generate a raster consisting of a plurality of horizontal lines vertically spaced from one another, and further including: comparator means for comparing the position of the cathode ray beam in said raster with the contents of said means for storing second digital signals relating to the position and length of lines to be drawn on said display means; and means for modulating the intensity of the cathode ray beam in accordance with the output of said comparator means.
Claim 29
Dependent Claim
96 words
In a text display processor including means for storing a plurality of first digital signals representative of text characters, display means, and means for writing text characters by certain of said stored first digital signals on said display means at a first intensity level, means for storing second digital signals defining the character position of a cursor to be drawn on said display means; and means, under control of said second digital signals, for causing a cursor to be displayed at a second lower intensity level in the character position defined by said second digital signals.
Claim 30
Dependent Claim
96 words
In a text display processor including means for storing a plurality of first digital signals representative of text characters, display means, and means for writing text characters by certain of said stored first digital signals on said display means at a first intensity level, means for storing second digital signals defining the character position of a cursor to be drawn on said display means; and means, under control of said second digital signals, for causing a cursor to be displayed at a second lower intensity level in the character position defined by said second digital signals.
Claim 31
Dependent Claim
47 words
In the text display processor of claim 25 means for storing third digital signals defining the beginning and end of an underline component to be associated with said cursor, and means for drawing said underlined component on said display means under the control of said third signals.
References Cited (Backward Citations)
US3553676A
Cited
US3631455A
Cited
USPTO Annuity & Maintenance Windows
| Annuity Stage | Window Opens | Payment Deadline | Surcharge Period Until | Estimated Fee | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3.5 Years (Year 4) | 1977-11-11 | 1978-05-13 | 1978-11-12 | $2000.00 | Window Closed / Lapsed |
| 7.5 Years (Year 8) | 1981-11-11 | 1982-05-13 | 1982-11-12 | $3760.00 | Window Closed / Lapsed |
| 11.5 Years (Year 12) | 1985-11-11 | 1986-05-13 | 1986-11-12 | $7700.00 | Window Closed / Lapsed |