JPS6235968A - High speed writing system for picture element data - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To speedup writing in a picture element data storage unit by fixing color information for picture constituting element of the same color, writing spacial information of relevant element and omitting color designation for each picture element. CONSTITUTION:Waste of duplicated operation in writing is eliminated utilizing the fact that in many cases segments and faces constituting a picture image are expressed in the same color. For this purpose, a picture element data storage unit 50 sets memory areas of size that can store color information in unit of picture element, and at the same time, address is given in unit of each picture element. A color storage register 60 has the same recording capacity with recording area for one picture element, and holds color information for the picture element, and sends out the held color information to recording area of picture element of designated address. For instance, the recording area of each picture element sets red series by first several bits and sets blue series by next several bits making each bit corresponds to color element. Thus, duplicated operation at the time of designating the same color is eliminated.

Description

[Detailed Description of the Invention] [Industrial Application Field] The present invention writes pixel data of an image to be expressed in bitmap format to a pixel data storage unit provided in a raster scan type general-purpose graphic display device. Regarding the writing method.

[Prior Art] Generally, a raster scan type display device is
As shown in FIG. 2, it is configured to include an image generation device 10, a pixel data storage shaft 20, an image display device 30, and a color CRT display 40.

The image generation device 10 is configured with a microcomputer, and performs a process of converting a line segment, point, area representation, etc. of an object to be represented into a pixel array of the pixel data storage unit, that is, scan conversion.

The pixel data storage unit 20 is made of a semiconductor storage element, and has a plurality of storage areas arranged corresponding to the pixel arrangement of the screen 1 of the CRT display 40, with one bit of a storage cell being one pixel. The number of storage areas provided is equal to the number of color elements making up a color image. That is,
If a plurality of cards, for example 8 cards, are assigned to each color of red, blue, and green, then the total number of cards is 24. That is, for one pixel,
It can be thought of as having a 24-bit storage area. Addresses are assigned to each of these storage areas, and 6
・Stores spatial information related to each area 1' and the corresponding color.

By doing so, the information of the screen to be expressed is written.

This storage unit 20 includes a c R,T display 40
are read out sequentially in synchronization with the scans.

The image display device 30, as shown in the figure on page 53, -1-
A rask scan generator 31 that generates addresses for rask scanning the pixel data storage unit 20;
, a pixel data register 34 that temporarily stores the pixel data of the pixel read from the pixel data storage unit 20, and a D/A that converts the pixel data from D/A.
Converter 35.

□ Conventionally, image data writing methods for displaying color images on this type of graphic display device include:
There was a method as follows.

The first method is to set a storage area for each color element in the pixel data storage unit 20, assign addresses to each of these storage areas, and store spatial information regarding the color in each area. This method writes the information on the screen that should be displayed. That is, in this method, the image generation device 10 scan-converts the spatial information of the object to be expressed into a pixel array in the middle of the color elements, and the spatial information is stored for each color element in the pixel data storage unit 20. Write to the pixel that you want to write to.

The second method is to set a storage area for each pixel in the pixel data storage unit 20, and store the XY coordinate address for each pixel in these storage areas, and the Z coordinate for the middle color element of each pixel. This method writes information about the screen to be expressed by assigning coordinate addresses to each pixel and storing color information for each color element of each pixel. That is, the image generation device 10 expresses the spatial information and color information of the object to be expressed, the former by XY coordinates, and the latter by the Z coordinate for each color element and a signal indicating the presence or absence of the color element (for example, "1"). "' or °0"')
Expressed as follows, an XYZ coordinate group is constructed for each pixel, and these coordinate groups are serially sent to the pixel data storage unit 20 to write one image information.

The third method is to set a storage area for each pixel in the pixel data storage unit 20, assign XY coordinate addresses to these storage areas for each pixel, and connect a data bus for each color element of each pixel. This bus is connected to the image generating device 10, and color information is written in parallel to each pixel. That is, by the image generation device 10,
The spatial information and color information of the object to be expressed are expressed by expressing the former by x and Y coordinates, and the latter by signals of extra color elements (for example, "i, o, o, ... 1") for each X and Y coordinate. In particular, a color element signal group is constructed for each pixel, and these are sent in parallel to the pixel data storage unit 20 to write image information.

Note that reading data from the pixel data storage unit 20 is common to each method. That is, the color information written to each pixel corresponding to the same spatial arrangement from the pixel data storage unit 20 is stored in the X and Y address registers 32.3.
The signals are read from the addresses sequentially designated by 3 and sent to the CRT display 40 as an analog signal by the D/A converter 35, so that the target object is represented as a color image.

[Problems to be Solved by the Invention However, the image data writing method in the conventional graphic display device has the following problems.

In the first method, the storage area of the pixel data storage unit is arranged in correspondence with the color elements,
The structure is such that a different address is assigned to each of these storage areas. Therefore, information on the screen to be expressed is written by carefully writing spatial information regarding the color in each region. However, according to this method, when only spatial information changes without color information changing,
If both pieces of information change, □ all of the information must be rewritten, and there is a problem in that it takes a lot of time to rewrite.

Furthermore, in the -1-memory 2 method, the storage area of the pixel data storage unit is arranged in the middle of the pixel at the time of writing. Therefore, writing information on both sides that should be expressed is
This is done by storing color information in the middle of each pixel. According to this method, when changing the spatial arrangement or color of a part of the screen, as in the case of two series, it is only necessary to rewrite the color information for the pixels of the changed part. This can be done faster than in the case of . but,
When looking at each pixel, data is sent serially, so there is a drawback that it takes time to rewrite if the rewriting area is wide.

Furthermore, in the - storage 3 method, compared to the second method, the rewriting time is shortened by writing the color information in parallel. However, since color information is designated and written for each pixel, the more pixels there are to write, the longer it takes. By the way, in order to rewrite the image data during flyback of raster scan using each of the above methods, it is necessary to generate images at high speed, and the computer of the image generation apparatus 10 must be high speed and large. Therefore, problems arise in that the device becomes large-scale and expensive.

The present invention was made in order to solve the above problems, and it is possible to fix the color information for image generation devices of the same color and write the spatial information of the component concerned, and to write the spatial information for each pixel. Provides a high-speed pixel data writing method that speeds up writing to the pixel data storage unit by eliminating color specification, and allows image data to be written at high speed without requiring a large computer. The purpose is to

[Means for Solving the Problems] ' The present invention provides a system for transmitting pixel data of an image to be expressed in a pixel map format to a pixel data arrangement α unit provided in a raster scan type general-purpose graphic display device. The writing method is characterized by having the following configuration requirements.

(a) In the pixel data storage unit, a storage area with a capacity capable of storing color information is set for each pixel, and an address is assigned for each pixel.

(b) A color information holding means is provided that holds color information to be written and sends the held color information to a recording area of a pixel at a designated address.

(c) decomposing the image data of the image to be expressed into component elements having color information representing the color and spatial information representing the position thereof, and separating the color information and spatial information of each component; Setting the color information in the color information holding means, and
A write control means is provided for sending the spatial information to the pixel data storage unit as an address of a pixel in which the color information is to be written.

[Effect] b = 1-yl H''; 7 no 11. / 7 In general, the line segments and planes that make up an image produced by a death spray are
They are often expressed in the same color. The present invention utilizes such properties of graphic displays to eliminate wasteful redundant operations in writing and achieve high-speed writing.

Therefore, in the above configuration, the pixel data storage unit has a storage area large enough to store color information for each pixel, and is configured to assign an address to each pixel, so that image data can be stored in space. Instead of arranging the information in units of color elements as many as the number of color elements as in the past, the information is arranged in units of color information of one pixel as one piece of spatial information, and color information of one pixel is arranged in units of each pixel. Stored all at once.

That is, in the recording area of each pixel, each bit corresponds to a color element, and the first few bits (for example, 8 bits) correspond to a red color element, the next few bits correspond to a green color element, and the next few bits correspond to a green color element. A number of bits are set to represent each blue-based color element. Furthermore, within several bits of each color system, different colors can be expressed within the same white color system depending on the bit configuration. Therefore, the color of that pixel is determined by the information of all bits in one recording area.

The color information holding means has the same recording capacity as the recording area for one pixel, holds color information for one pixel, and sends the held color information to the recording area of the pixel at the designated address.

The writing control means first decomposes the image data of the image to be expressed into constituent elements such as line segments and planes. That is, assuming that an image is composed of several line segments or planes overlaid, the image is decomposed into these elements. The decomposed component has color information representing one color and spatial information representing its position.

Therefore, the write control means sequentially separates color information and spatial information for each component, sets the color information in the color information holding means, and sets the spatial information in the pixel data storage unit. and sends out the color information as the address of the pixel to be written.

Therefore, according to the present invention, when rewriting the screen, it is possible to cope with partial rewriting, and in addition, in areas of the same color, the color specification is fixed and only the spatial information of that area is used. Since the image can be written by sending the image to the pixel data storage unit, it is possible to eliminate redundant operations when specifying the same color, and it is possible to rewrite data at high speed.

[Example] An embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIG.

Note that FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an embodiment of a high-speed writing method for pixel data according to the present invention.

<Configuration of Embodiment> The basic configuration of a general-purpose graphic display device to which the high-speed pixel data writing method of this embodiment is applied is the same as that shown in FIG. 2.3 described above.

As shown in FIG. 1, the high-speed writing method of this embodiment is configured to include a pixel data storage unit 50, a color storage register Go as a color information holding means, and a writing control means 7. Ru.

The pixel data storage unit 50 is made of a semiconductor storage element, and uses multiple bits of a storage cell as a storage area for one pixel.
It is configured to correspond to the pixel arrangement of the screen of the CRT display 40. The number of storage areas provided is equal to the number of color elements making up a color image. That is, if a plurality of bits, for example 8 bits, are assigned to each color of red, blue, and green, the total will be 24 bits.

Each pixel of the pixel data storage unit 50 has four addresses, and this address is commonly assigned to each bit of the storage area of the pixel. Therefore, one address specifies one pixel, and the address of the pixel is Each bit of the storage area is connected to a corresponding data input iB1,
The configuration is such that information on corresponding color elements is stored in parallel.

The color storage register 60 has a number of bits corresponding to the number of bits of the recording area of the pixel, and is configured, for example, as a serial-in/parallel-out type register.

The input of this register 60 is connected to the write control means 70, and color information for one pixel is set therein. In Figure 1, the switches are shown isometrically, and the color information data
This indicates that each switch is selectively connected to a power source (not shown) having a level of "1" and a level of O'.

Color information is set based on this connection relationship.

Further, the output of the color storage register 60 is connected to the pixel data storage unit 50 via a data input line 61 corresponding to each bit. Connections within the pixel data storage unit 50 are made by addressing as described above.

The write control means 70 is a device that includes a microcomputer, a buffer memory, etc., and corresponds to the image generation device 1O. This writing control means 70 has the function of decomposing the image data of the image to be expressed into constituent elements having color information representing the color and spatial information representing the position thereof, and the function of dividing the image data of the image to be expressed into constituent elements having the color information and spatial information of each constituent element. The color information is set in the second color storage register 60, and the spatial information is stored in the pixel data storage unit!・It is configured to have a function of sending out the color information to 50 as the address of the pixel to be written.

<Operation of the embodiment> The operation of the embodiment configured as described in -1- will be explained. Here, in order to simplify the explanation, it is assumed that a red figure A is drawn in a blue background C, as shown in FIG.

1- In the configuration of the embodiment described above, in order to write image data into the pixel data storage unit 50, first, the write control means 7
0, the image information to be written is assigned to the image component, i.e.
It is decomposed into a blue background C and a red figure A. and,
Color information and spatial information are separated for each component.

Separation is first performed on the background C, and color information regarding the blue color of the background C is extracted and set in the color storage register 60. Then, the spatial information about the background C (in this case, the XY coordinates of the entire screen) is extracted and the address bus 6
2 to the pixel data storage unit 50.

In response to this, in the pixel data storage unit 5o, each bit of the storage area of the pixel specified by using the above-mentioned XY coordinates as an address is connected to the corresponding data input line 61, and the color set in the color storage register 6o is Digital information of l'' and o'' of each color element of information is stored in parallel in each bit of the storage area of the pixel. This is performed sequentially for the pixels on the entire screen while keeping the color information fixed.

Next, the same operation as above is performed for the red figure A.

However, in this case, writing is not performed on pixels on all sides, but only on pixels at the coordinates where the figure A is drawn. In addition, since the information of figure A to be written later has priority in the overlapped part with background C, the color information of background C is
It is automatically rewritten using the color information of figure A.

In this way, the data of the desired image is written into the pixel data storage unit 50. Although an example of a simple image is shown here, even more complex images can be easily written by simply repeating the same operations.

In addition, the color information of each pixel is expressed by multiple bints,
Each bit corresponds to an element of color. That is, the first few pitches
- (for example, 8 bits) is set so that it represents a red-based color element, the next few bits represent a green-based color element, and the next several bits represent a blue-based color element. Furthermore, within several bits of each color system, different colors within the same color system are expressed depending on the bit configuration. Therefore, the color of the pixel is determined by the information of all the bits in the storage area of the pixel.

By the way, if all the bits are 1'', the pixel is ``white'', and if all the bits are 0'', the pixel is ``black''.
becomes.

In this way, when color information is stored in each pixel in sequence,
In the pixel data storage unit 50, image data such as figures to be expressed are spatially arranged in units of color information. This data is read out by sequentially scanning pixel by pixel by the image display device 30 described in -1-, and CR
It is displayed on the T display 40.

Next, a case will be described in which a region of a specific color in the currently displayed image is moved to another region on the screen. Here, for example, as shown in Figure 4, a case where figure A in background C is moved to position B indicated by a broken line in the same figure, and its color is changed to another color (for example, green). think about.

In this case, it is sufficient to rewrite the color information at the current position of figure A and the color information at position B after the movement. That is, it is sufficient to write the blue color information at the current position of the figure A and the green color information at the position of the figure B. This writing can be performed by fixing the blue and green color information and specifying an address based on the spatial information to be written by performing two consecutive operations.

Therefore, according to this embodiment, data can be rewritten at high speed.

[Effects of the Invention] As explained above, the present invention has a configuration in which color information is fixed for image constituent elements of the same color and spatial information of the element is written, thereby omitting color specification for each pixel. According to
This has the effect of speeding up writing to the pixel data storage unit and writing image data at high speed without requiring a high-speed, large-sized computer.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an embodiment of the pixel data high-speed writing method of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing the configuration of a general graphic display device, and FIG. 3 is -1-
FIG. 4 is a block diagram showing the configuration of the image display device of the graphic display device described above, and FIG. 4 is an explanatory diagram showing writing and rewriting of image data by the writing method of the present invention. 10... Image generation device 20... Pixel data storage unit 30... Image display device 40... CRT display 50... Pixel data storage unit 60... Color storage register 70... Write control means

Claims (1)

[Claims] In a writing method in which pixel data of an image to be expressed is written in a bitmap format to a pixel data storage unit provided in a raster scan type general-purpose graphic display device, the pixel data storage unit includes: A storage area with a capacity that can store color information is set in pixel units, and an address is attached to each pixel unit, and it holds the color information to be written and stores the color information to be stored at the specified address. color information holding means for transmitting image data of an image to be expressed to a recording area of pixels; color information representing a color;
The color information and spatial information of each component are separated, the color information is set in the color information holding means, and the spatial information is 1. A high-speed writing method for pixel data, comprising write control means for sending the color information to a pixel data storage unit as an address of a pixel to be written.