Interfacing circuitry system for multiple gaseous display/memory unit

Claim 1

In a gas discharge panel display system in which a discharge in a hermetically enclosed ionizable gas generates charges row and column conductor arrays, respectively, cooperatively defining a plurality of pairs of matrix discharge points, dielectric means having charge storage surface, said dielectric means being on said conductor and isolating at least one conductor array from said gas and means supplying a pair of oppositely poled periodic alternating sustaining voltage to said row and column conductor arrays, respectively the charges once created and stored at, a matrix cross point first terminating a discharge within a fraction of a half cycle of said applied sustaining voltages, and, second, acting with said applied sustaining voltage on the next half cycle of sustaining voltage to cause a second discharge, and repeating the sequence of discharges for each succeeding half cycle of applied sustaining voltage and an addressing circuit for selecting individual ones of said row and column conductors, circuit means controlled by said addressing circuit for producing a pair of opposite polarity high voltage unidirectional pulses, each having a time duration relatively short with respect to a cycle of said periodic alternating sustaining voltage, and means for (1) combining a first of said high voltage unidirectional pulses with said pair of periodic alternating sustaining voltages, respectively, applied to a selected conductor pair of said conductor arrays and cause a discharge in the selected gas discharge unit and produce charges for storage at the charge storage areas defined by the selected row and column conductor pair, and initiating the sequence of discharges on each half cycle of applied sustaining voltage and (2) combining the next succeeding of said high voltage unidirectional pulses with said alternating sustaining voltage, at a time in the cycle thereof to rapidly modify the storage of charge at said selected charge storage area and terminate the storage of charges at said selected storage means so as to terminate the sequence of discharges, the improvement wherein said sustaining voltage has a frequency of under 100 KHz and the time duration of the unidirectional voltage pulses is between 0.5 microsecond to 5 microseconds.