| 摘要 |
<p>An external source supplies command and data bytes which are decoded to control the energization of a gas discharge display panel in order to display thereon alpha-numeric characters and other symbols. Each command is decoded to determine whether it is a POSITION command or one of the following commands: WRITE CHARACTER, WRITE SLICE, ERASE DATA and ERASE PANEL. If a POSITION command is decoded, following data bytes are decoded and stored as the starting cell address of the gas panel. If the next command is a WRITE CHARACTER or WRITE SLICE command, the following data byte specifies the code of a character or the horizontal data slice, respectively, to be written or displayed in the panel beginning at the starting cell address. Corresponding individual row and column latchable drivers or bistable switching circuits are then set to select the panel drive lines which are to be energized to illuminate the gas cells designated by the character or slice data byte. If the next command had been an ERASE DATA command, the following data byte would have specified the width and height of a block of cells to be erased, and the corresponding panel line drivers would have been set to permit extinguishment or erasure of the cells in the specified block. An ERASE PANEL command causes all the cells of the panel to be simultaneously erased. At an appropriate time after the selected drivers are latched, an analog power circuit causes the set drivers to apply appropriate sustain, write or erase voltages to the selected panel lines.</p> |
