Image display processor for graphics workstation

Claim 1

A graphics workstation for displaying both image data and graphics data comprising: first and second buses, said first bus communicating said image data and said graphics data and control information between elements of said graphics workstation and an external processing system, and said second bus communicating processed graphics data and processed image data between processing elements of said graphics workstation and one or more frame buffers; system control processing means connected to said first bus for controlling workstation functions; storage means connected to said first bus for storing image data and graphics data; graphics data processing means connected between said first bus and said second bus for generating graphics images to be displayed from graphics data; image data processing means connected between said first bus and said second bus for controlling the display of image data on a display; a plurality of interleaved frame buffers connected between said second bus and a display means for storing said graphics images, said image data, or a composite of said graphics images and said image data to be displayed, said plurality of interleaved frame buffers excepting said graphics images and said image data at a first rate; and display means for displaying image and graphics data at a second rate greater than said first rate.