Raster Scan Systems

Raster Scan Systems

In addition to the central processing unit

(CPU), a special processor, called the video
controller or display controller, is used
to control the operation of the display device.
CPU

System
Memory

System Bus
I/O Devices

Video
Controller

Monitor

Video Controller

A fixed area of the system memory is reserved

for the frame buffer, and the video controller
is given direct access to the frame buffer
memory.

Video Controller

Frame buffer location, and the

corresponding screen positions, are
referenced in Cartesian coordinates.
y

Video Controller

Scan lines are then labeled from ymax at

the top of the screen to 0 at the bottom.
Along each scan line, screen pixel
positions are labeled from 0 to xmax.
y

y max
y max

Line Scan
Line Scan

x max

x max

Video Controller

Two registers are used to store the coordinates

of the screen pixels.
Raster Scan Generator

x Register

y Register

The Basic refresh

operation of the
video controller.

Memory Address

Frame Buffer

Pixel register

Video Controller
Some of operations can be performed by the Video
Controller:

Refreshing operation.

Video controller can retrieve pixel intensities from

different areas on different refresh cycles.
Example:Two frame buffers are often provided so
that one buffer used for refreshing other is filled with
intensity values.two buffers can swithch roles
used in real time animations.

Transformation (Areas of the screen can be

enlarged, reduces, or moved during the
refresh cycles)
some systems are designed to allow the
video controller to mix the frame buffer
image with input image from television
camera or other input device.

Raster Scan Display

Processor

Raster Scan Display Processor

A raster system containing a separate display

processor (graphics controller, display coprocessor)
The purpose of the DP is to free the CPU from the
graphics chores.

Architecture of a raster graphics

system with display processor
Display Processor
Memory

CPU

Frame
buffer

Display
Processor

System Bus
I/O Devices

Video
Controller

System
Memory

Monitor

DP
A major task of the display processor
is Scan Conversion.
Scan Conversion: is digitizing a
picture definition given in an
application program into a set of
pixel intensity values for storage in
the frame buffer.( scan conversion
straight line segment, Character )

Scan converting a straight

line segment
for example, means that we
have to locate the pixel
position closest to the line
path and store the intensity
for each position in the frame
buffer.
Characters can be defined

Display Processor
Generation various line styles
(dashed, dotted, or solid)

Displaying color areas

Performing certain transformation

and manipulation on display
objects.

In effort to reduce memory requirement in raster

system,methods have been devised for organizing
the frame buffer as linked list and decoding the
intensity information.

One way to do this is to store each scan line as a

set of integer pairs

One number of each pair indicates an intensity value

and the second number specifies the number of
adjacent pixels on the scan line that are to have same
intensity.(run length encoding)

Random Scan Systems

Random Scan System

An application program as input and stored in

the system memory along with a graphic
package.
Graphic commands in the application program
are translated by the graphics package into a
display file stored in the system memory.
This file is then accessed by the display
processor unit (DPU)(graphic controller) to
refresh the screen.

Random-Scan Systems

CPU

System
Memory

System Bus
I/O Devices

Display
Processor

Monitor