OSD Generator Operation (Continued)
CHARACTER CELL
Each character is defined as a 12 column by 18 row matrix of
picture elements, or “pixels”. The character font is shown in
ters defined in the character ROM:
1.
Two-color: There are a total of 384 two-color characters
in 6 banks (banks 0, 1, 2, 4, 5 and 6). Each pixel of these
characters is defined by a single bit value. If the bit value
is 0, then the color is defined as “Color 0” or the “back-
ground” color. If the bit value is 1, then the color is
defined as “Color 1”, or the “foreground” color. An ex-
ample of a character is shown in
Figure 15. The grid
lines are shown for clarity to delineate individual pixels
and are not part of the actual displayed character.
2.
Four-color: There are a total of 128 four-color charac-
ters, in two banks of 64 (banks 3 and 7). Each pixel of
the four-color character is defined by two bits of infor-
mation, and thus can define four different colors, Color
0, Color 1, Color 2 and Color 3. Color 0 is defined as the
“background” color. All other colors are considered “fore-
ground” colors, although for most purposes, any of the
four colors may be used in any way. Because each
four-color character has two bits, the LM1247 internally
has a matrix of two planes of ROM as shown in
Figure16. In that figure, dark pixels indicate a logic “1” and light
pixels which indicate a logic “0”. The left side shows
plane 0 which is the least significant bit and the middle
figure shows plane 1 which is the most significant bit.
The right side composite character formed when each
pixel is represented by its two bits formed from the two
planes. The color palette used in this example is “00” for
white, “01” for black, “10” for blue and “11” for red.
3.
By appropriately selecting the color attributes, it is pos-
sible to have two 2-color characters in one four color
ROM location. If the required number of four color char-
acters is less than 128, the remaining characters can be
used to increase the number of two color characters
from 384 to 384 + 2*N, where N is the number of unused
four color characters. This is explained in the next
section.
20048429
FIGURE 14. Block Diagram of OSD DACs
20048430
FIGURE 15. Two-Color Character
LM1247
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