Television type display system for displaying waveforms of time-varying signals

Claim 2

Apparatus for displaying time-varying signals including in combination means for receiving a time-varying signal; sampLing means for periodically sampling said signal; means for converting the samples of the signal to digital representations thereof; memory means for storing a predetermined number of said digital representations, the address of a digital representation placed in the memory means remaining the same until the digital representation is removed from the memory means and replaced by another digital representation; input control means including first means for determining the address in the memory means of the oldest digital representation stored therein, and second means for loading the most recent digital representation into the memory means at the address of the oldest digital representation as determined by said first means, the most recent digital representation replacing the oldest digital representation, said first means updating the address of the oldest digital representation upon loading of each new digital representation by the second means; display means of the type producing images on a display surface by selectively writing on the display surface while repeatedly sweeping a raster scanline pattern over the display surface; output means coupled to the memory means and to the display means for causing the display means to produce on the display surface images of digital representations read out of the memory means; and output control means including first means for reading out digital representations from the memory means in succession and second means for synchronizing the reading out of digital representations by the first means with the sweeping of the raster scanline pattern to cause images of the most recent digital representations to appear at one edge of the display and images of the oldest digital representations to appear at the opposite edge of the display.

Claim 3

Apparatus for displaying time-varying signals in accordance with claim 1 wherein said memory means includes a random access memory means having a plurality of stages, each of which is capable of storing a digital representation; said input control means is operable to load digital representations in sequence into said stages, each digital representation being loaded into a stage in place of the oldest digital representation stored in the memory means; and said output control means is operable to read out digital representations from said stages in succession by addressing said stages in succession, the first stage to be addressed in a succession being changed during subsequent successions in accordance with the replacement of old digital representations by new digital representations, while the digital representations remain in the same stages except to be removed from the memory means and replaced by more recent digital representations, in order that images of the most recent digital representations appear at said one edge of the display and images of the oldest digital representations appear at said opposite edge of the display.

Claim 4

Apparatus for displaying time-varying signals in accordance with claim 2 including rate control means coupled to said input control means for varying the rate of loading digital representations into stages of said memory means.

Claim 5

Apparatus for displaying time-varying signals in accordance with claim 2 wherein said display means traces each individual scanline of said pattern in a direction substantially orthogonal to the line of direction from said one edge to said opposite edge of the display; and said output means includes means for producing an output signal causing the display means to produce an image by writing on the display surface at a time during the tracing of a scanline to produce an image on the display surface at a point along the scanline corresponding to the value of the digital representation stored in the stage of the memory means being addressed by the output control means.

Claim 6

Apparatus for displaying time-varying signals in accordance with claim 1 wherein said ouTput means includes counting means for measuring a time period representative of the value of a digital representation read out of the memory means and for producing an output signal at the termination of the measured time period; said display means being operable to produce images by writing on the display surface in response to an output signal from said counting means; and including means for synchronizing the start of measuring each of said time periods with the sweeping of the raster scanline pattern to cause the output signal occuring during a sweep of the raster scanline pattern to write at times during the sweep to produce images at points on the display surface corresponding to the values of the digital representations.

Claim 7

Apparatus for displaying time-varying signals in accordance with claim 1 wherein said display means traces each individual scanline of said pattern in a direction substantially orthogonal to the line of direction from said one edge to said opposite edge of the display; said output means includes counting means for measuring a time period representative of the value of a digital representation read out of the memory means and for producing an output signal at the termination of the measured time period; said display means being operable to produce images by writing on the display surface in response to an output signal from said counting means; and including means for synchronizing the start of measuring each of said time periods with the tracing of a scanline to cause an output signal occurring during the tracing of a scanline to produce an image at a point along the scanline corresponding to the value of the digital representation.

Claim 8

Apparatus for displaying time-varying signals in accordance with claim 6 wherein said counting means includes first means for receiving a count representative of the value of a digital representation read out of the memory means, second means for receiving periodic clock pulses and for producing an output signal when the number of clock pulses received equals the count received from said first means, and third means for applying periodic clock pulses to said second means when activated; and said means for synchronizing is operable to activate the third means of the counting means at the same point during each trace of a scanline.

Claim 9

Apparatus for displaying time-varying signals in accordance with claim 2 wherein said output control means includes means coupled to said input control means for determining the stage of said memory means in which the most recent digital representation is stored.

Claim 10

Apparatus for displaying time-varying signals in accordance with claim 2 wherein said input control means includes input counting means for counting input clock pulses through a recurring sequence of states equal in number to the number of the plurality of stages in the random access memory means, input pulse means coupled to the input counting means for applying periodic input clock pulses thereto, said input counting means being coupled to the random access memory means and being operable to control the address of the stage in which a digital representation from said means for converting is loaded in accordance with the state of the input counting means whereby each input clock pulse causes a digital representation to be loaded in the next stage in a repeating succession corresponding to the recurring sequence of states of the input counting means; and said output control means includes means coupled to the input counting means for determining the state of said input counting means, and output address means coupled to the random access memory means and to said last-mentioned means and operable to address said stages in sequence in accordance with the state of the input counting means in synchronism with the sweeping of the raster scanline pattern to cause digital representations to be read-out of the memory meanS in sequence and images thereof to appear on the display with the most recent digital representations at said one edge of the display and the oldest digital representations at said opposite edge of the display.

Claim 11

Apparatus for displaying time-varying signals in accordance with claim 9 including rate control means coupled to said input pulse means and operable to vary the rate at which the input pulse means applies periodic input clock pulses to said input counting means.

Claim 12

Apparatus in accordance with claim 1 for displaying time-varying signals and further for displaying additional information in fixed positions on the same display surface, said apparatus further including means for receiving said additional information in digital code words; second memory means for storing a predetermined number of said words; second input control means for loading said words into said second memory means in storage locations corresponding to positions on the display surface; second output means coupled to the second memory means and to the display means for causing the display means to produce on the display surface images representative of the additional information encoded in words read out of the second memory means; and second output control means for reading out the words in synchronism with the sweeping of each raster scanline pattern to cause the images representative of the additional information encoded in the words stored in the second memory means to appear in fixed positions on the display surface.

Claim 13

Apparatus in accordance with claim 2 for displaying time-varying signals and further for displaying additional information in fixed positions of the same display surface, said apparatus further including means for receiving said additional information in digital code words; second memory means for storing a predetermined number of said words including a random access memory means having a plurality of stages each of which is capable of storing a word, each stage corresponding to predetermined positions on the display surface; second input control means for loading words into stages of said second memory means; second output means coupled to the second memory means and to the display means for causing the display means to produce on the display surface images representative of the additional information encoded in words read out of the second memory means; and second output control means for reading out the words from the stages of the second memory means in the same sequence during successive sweeps of the raster scanline pattern whereby images representative of the additional information encoded in the words appear in fixed positions on the display surface.

Claim 14

Apparatus for displaying time-varying signals and further for displaying additional information in fixed positions on the same display surface in accordance with claim 12 including rate control means coupled to the first-mentioned input control means for varying the rate of loading digital representations into stages of said first-mentioned memory means.

Claim 15

Apparatus for displaying time-varying signals and further for displaying additional information in fixed positions on the same display surface in accordance with claim 12 wherein said display means traces each individual scanline of said pattern in a direction substantially orthogonal to the line of direction from said one edge to said opposite edge of the display; and said first-mentioned output means includes means for producing an output signal causing the display means to produce an image by writing on the display surface at a time during the tracing of a scanline to produce an image on the display surface at a point along the scanline corresponding to the value of the digital representation in the stage of the first-mentioned memory means being addressed by the first-mentioned output control means.

Claim 16

Apparatus for displaying time-varying signals and further for displaying additional information in fixed positions on the same display surface in accordance with claim 11 wherein said display means traces each individual scanline of said pattern in a direction substantially orthogonal to the line of direction from said one edge to said opposite edge of the display; said first-mentioned output means includes counting means for measuring a time period representative of the value of a digital representation read out of the first-mentioned memory means and for producing an output signal at the termination of the measured time period; said display means being operable to produce images by writing on the display surface in response to an output signal from said counting means; and including means for synchronizing the start of measuring each of said time periods with the tracing of a scanline to cause an output signal occurring during the sweep of a scanline to produce an image at a point along the scanline corresponding to the value of the digital representation.

Claim 17

Apparatus for displaying time-varying signals and further for displaying additional information in fixed positions on the same display surface in accordance with claim 15 wherein said counting means includes first means for receiving a count representative of the value of a digital representation read out of the first mentioned memory means, second means for receiving periodic clock pulses and for producing an output signal when the number of clock pulses received equals the count received from said first means, and third means for applying periodic clock pulses to said second means when activated; and said means for synchronizing is operable to activate the third means of the counting means at the same point during each tracing of a scanline.

Claim 18

Apparatus for displaying a plurality of time-varying signals including in combination means for receiving each of a plurality of time-varying signals; sampling means for periodically sampling each of said signals; means for converting the samples of each of the signals to digital representations thereof; memory means having a plurality of sections, each for storing a predetermined number of digital representations of one of said signals, the address of a digital representation placed in the memory means remaining the same until the digital representation is removed from the memory means and replaced by another digital representation; input control means including first means for determining the address in the memory means of the oldest digital representation stored in each section, and second means for loading the most recent digital representation of each signal into the associated section of the memory means at the address of the oldest digital representation of each signal as determined by said first means, the most recent digital representation of each signal replacing the oldest digital representation of the same signal, said first means updating the address of the oldest digital representation of each signal upon loading of each new digital representation of the same signal by the second means; display means of the type producing images on a display surface by selectively writing on the display surface while repeatedly sweeping a raster scanline pattern over the display surface; output means coupled to the memory means and to the display means for causing the display means to produce on the display surface images of digital representations read out of the memory means; and output control means including first means for reading out digital representations of each signal from the memory means in succession and second means for synchronizing the reading out of digital representations by the first means with the sweeping of the raster scanline pattern to cause images of the most recent digital representations of each signal to appear at one edge of an associated section of the display and images of the oldest digital represEntations of each signal to appear at the opposite edge of the associated section of the display.

Claim 19

Apparatus for displaying a plurality of time-varying signals including in combination means for receiving each of a plurality of time-varying signals; sampling means for periodically sampling each of said signals; means for converting the samples of each of the signals to digital representations thereof; memory means having a plurality of sections, each for storing a predetermined number of digital representations of one of said signals, the address of a digital representation placed in the memory means remaining the same until the digital representation is removed from the memory means and replaced by another digital representation; input control means including first means for determining the address in the memory means of the oldest digital representation stored in each section, and second means for loading the most recent digital representation of each signal into the associated section of the memory means at the address of the oldest digital representation of each signal as determined by said first means, the most recent digital representation of each signal replacing the oldest digital representation of the same signal, said first means updating the address of the oldest digital representation of each signal upon loading of each new digital representation of the same signal by the second means; display means of the type producing images on a display surface by selectively writing on the display surface while repeatedly sweeping a raster scanline pattern over the display surface; output means coupled to the memory means and to the display means for causing the display means to produce on the display surface images of digital representations read out of the memory means; and output control means including first means for reading out digital representations of each signal from the memory means in succession and second means for synchronizing the reading out of digital representations by the first means with the sweeping of the raster scanline pattern to cause images of the most recent digital representations of each signal to appear at one edge of an associated section of the display and images of the oldest digital represEntations of each signal to appear at the opposite edge of the associated section of the display.

Claim 20

Apparatus for displaying a plurality of time-varying signals in accordance with claim 17 wherein said memory means includes a random access memory means having a plurality of stages in each of said sections, each of said stages being capable of storing a digital representation; said input control means is operable to load digital representations of each signal into the stages of the associated section, each digital representation of a signal being loaded in sequence into a stage in place of the oldest digital representation of the signal stored in the section; said output control means is operable to read out digital representations stored in the stages of each section in succession by addressing said stages in succession, the first stage to be addressed in a succession being changed during subsequent successions in accordance with the replacement of the oldest digital representations of each signal by new digital representations, while the digital representations remain in the same stages except to be removed from the memory means and replaced by more recent digital representations, in order that images of the most recent digital representations of each signal appear at said one edge of the associated section of the display and images of the oldest digital representations of each signal appear at said opposite edge of the associated section of the display.

Claim 21

Apparatus for displaying a plurality of time-varying signals in accordance with claim 18 including a plurality of rate control means coupled to said input control means for independently varying the rate of loading digital representations of each of said signals into stages of the associated sections of said memory means.

Claim 22

Apparatus for displaying a plurality of time-varying signals in accordance with claim 18 wherein said output control means includes means coupled to said input control means for determining the stage of each section of said memory means in which the most recent digital representation of each signal is stored.

Claim 23

Apparatus for displaying a plurality of time-varying signals in accordance with claim 18 wherein said input control means includes a plurality of input counting means each associated with a section of said memory means for counting input clock pulses through a recurring sequence of states equal in number to the number of the plurality of stages in the associated section of the random access memory means, input pulse means coupled to the plurality of input counting means for applying periodic input clock pulses thereto, each of said input counting means being coupled to the associated section of the random access memory means and being operable to control the address of the stage in which a digital representation from said means for converting is loaded in accordance with the state of the input counting means whereby each input clock pulse counted by an input counting means causes a digital representation to be loaded in the next stage of the associated section of the random access memory means in a repeating succession corresponding to the recurring sequence of states of the associated input counting means; and said output control means includes means coupled to the plurality of input counting means for determining the state of each of said input counting means, output address means coupled to the random access memory means and to said last-mentioned means and operable to address the stages of the associated section of the random access memory means in sequence in accordance with the state of the associated input counting means in synchronism with the sweeping of the raster scanline pattern to cause digital representations to be read out of the memory means in sequence and images thereof to appear on the display with the most recent digital representations of each signal at said one edge of the associatEd section of the display and the oldest digital representations of each signal at said opposite edge of the associated section of the display.

Claim 24

Apparatus for displaying a plurality of time-varying signals in accordance with claim 21 including a plurality of rate control means coupled to said input pulse means and operable to independently vary the rate at which the input pulse means applies periodic input clock pulses to each of the plurality of input counting means.

Claim 25

Apparatus in accordance with claim 17 for displaying a plurality of time-varying signals and further for displaying additional information in fixed positions on the same display surface, said apparatus further including means for receiving said additional information in digital code words; second memory means for storing a predetermined number of said words; second input control means for loading said words into said second memory means in storage locations corresponding to positions on the display surface; second output means coupled to the second memory means and to the display means for causing the display means to produce on the display surface images representative of the additional information encoded in words read out of the second memory means; and second output control means for reading out the words in synchronism with the sweeping of each raster scanline pattern to cause the images representative of the additional information encoded in the words stored in the second memory means to appear in fixed positions on the display surface.

Claim 26

Apparatus in accordance with claim 18 for displaying a plurality of time-varying signals and further for displaying additional information in fixed positions on the same display surface, said apparatus further including means for receiving said additional information in digital code words; second memory means for storing a predetermined number of said words including a random access memory means having a plurality of stages each of which is capable of storing a word, each stage corresponding to predetermined positions on the display surface; second input control means for loading words into stages of said second memory means; second output means coupled to the second memory means and to the display means for causing the display means to produce on the display surface images representative of the additional information encoded in words read out of the second memory means; and second output control means for reading out the words from the stages of the second memory means in the same sequence during successive sweeps of the raster scanline pattern whereby images representative of the additional information encoded in the words appear in fixed positions on the display surface.

Claim 27

Apparatus for displaying a plurality of time-varying signals and further for displaying additional information in fixed positions on the same display surface in accordance with claim 24 including a plurality of rate control means coupled to said input control means for independently varying the rate of loading digital representations of each of said signals into stages of the associated sections of said memory means.