Method and system for displaying an analog image by a digital display device

Abstract

A clock recovery circuit in a digital display unit for recovering a time reference signal associated with analog display data. The clock recovery circuit includes a phase-locked loop (PLL) implemented in digital domain and an analog filter to eliminate any undesirable frequencies from the output signal of the PLL. The PLL includes independent control loops to track long term frequency drifts of the time reference signal and the transient phase differences respectively. By providing such independent control loops, the generated clock can be better synchronized with the time reference signal. Scaling a source image formed of a number of source image elements to provide a destination image formed of a number of destination image elements using a line buffer and no frame buffer.

What is claimed is: 
     
       1. A circuit for use in a digital display unit of a computer system, and circuit for generating a plurality of pixel data elements from an analog image data received by said digital display unit, said digital display unit further receiving a time reference signal associated with said analog image data, said time reference signal having a high frequency, said circuit comprising:
 an analog-to-digital converter (ADC) for receiving said analog image data, said ADC sampling said analog image data using a sampling clock to generate a plurality of pixel data elements corresponding to said plurality of pixels, wherein said sampling clock has a sampling frequency equal to said high frequency;   a clock generator circuit comprising a phase-locked loop (PLL) circuit for generating said sampling clock, wherein said sampling clock is synchronized with said time reference signal with a jitter of less than a few nano-seconds, said PLL comprising:   a discrete time oscillator (DTO) for receiving a digital input and generating a signal representative of said sampling clock with a frequency determined by said digital input; and
 a digital circuit for receiving said time reference signal and a feedback signal, wherein said feedback signal is generated by dividing said sampling clock, said digital circuit generating said digital input according to the difference of the phases of said time reference signal and said feedback signal, said digital input causing said DTO to generate said signal synchronized with said time reference signal, said digital circuit comprising:
 a frequency correction logic for adjusting the phase of said sampling clock according to the long-term drifts in the frequency of said time reference signal; and 
 a phase correction logic for adjusting the phase of said sampling clock according to the phase difference in said feedback signal and said time reference signal, 
 wherein said frequency correction logic and said phase correction logic are implemented as two separate control loops, 
 
   wherein a panel interface included in said digital display unit can generate display signals for a display screen based on said plurality of pixel data elements.   
     
     
       2. The circuit of  claim 1 , wherein said clock generator circuit further comprises an analog filter to eliminate any undesirable frequencies from said signal representative of said sampling clock to generate said sampling clock. 
     
     
       3. The circuit of  claim 1 , further comprising a phase and frequency detector for determining the difference of phase between said feedback signal and said time reference signal. 
     
     
       4. The circuit of  claim 3 , further comprising a charge/discharge control logic for determining the amount of phase correction to be made based on the determination of said difference of phase. 
     
     
       5. The circuit of  claim 1 , wherein said analog image data and said time reference signal are received on two separate signal paths. 
     
     
       6. The circuit of  claim 5 , wherein said reference clock comprises a binary signal. 
     
     
       7. The circuit of  claim 1 , wherein said digital circuit distributes phase error between said feedback signal and said reference signal during a comparison cycle by changing the phase of individual clock pulses in said sampling clock. 
     
     
       8. The circuit of  claim 1 , wherein said frequency correction logic generates a multi-bit number, wherein said multi-bit number is representative of the amount of phase advance of said sampling clock generated by said DTO during a DTO clock period, and wherein said multi-bit representation enables said PLL to reach said sampling frequency within a short duration. 
     
     
       9. The circuit of  claim 1 , wherein said frequency correction logic comprises:
 a first multiplexor accepting as input Pnom and Fdp values, wherein Pnom represents an expected frequency of said sampling clock and Fdp represents the correction due to the long-term frequency drifts;   a flip-flop for storing a value representative of the phase correction corresponding to the frequency correction logic;   an adder for adding or subtracting the output of said first multiplexor from the value stored in said flip-flop, wherein the output of said adder is stored in said flip-flop; and   a frequency correction control coupled to said flip-flop and said adder, wherein said frequency correction control causes said flip-flop to be set to Pnom at the beginning of a phase acquisition phase, and wherein said frequency correction control causes said adder to add or subtract Fdp depending on whether the sampling clock is early or late in comparison to said time reference.   
     
     
       10. The circuit of  claim 1 , further comprising:
 a phase and frequency detector for determining the difference of phase between said feedback signal and said time reference signal, wherein said phase and frequency detector asserts an EARLY signal a number of clock pulses proportionate to the difference of phase by which said feedback signal is earlier than said time reference signal and a or a LATE signal a number of pulses proportionate to the difference of phase by which said feedback signal is later than said time reference signal; and   a charge/discharge control logic implemented using digital components, said charge/discharge control logic including a phase integrator, said charge/discharge control logic charging said phase integrator according to the number of pulses said EARLY signal or said LATE signal is asserted, said charge/discharge logic discharging over a longer period of time than the charging period so as to spread the difference in phase over a comparison cycle, wherein the phase of said sampling clock is corrected during the discharging period.   
     
     
       11. The circuit of  claim 10 , further comprising a sign and zero crossing detector for correcting any over-correction performed by said charge/discharge logic during said discharging period. 
     
     
       12. A method of scaling a source image without using a frame buffer, the source image formed of a plurality of source image elements, comprising:
 receiving source image elements corresponding to a single scan line of the source image;   passing the received image elements to a line buffer, the line buffer having a length in accordance with the scan line;   storing the received image elements in the line buffer;   passing selected ones of the stored image elements to an interpolator unit; and   providing a single scan line of a scaled display image by the interpolator unit.   
     
     
       13. The method as recited in claim 12, wherein when the scaling is upscaling, then the scaled display image has more image elements than does the source image. 
     
     
       14. The method as recited in claim 12, wherein a rate at which the single scan line of the scaled display image is provided by the interpolator unit is about the same as a rate that the image elements corresponding to the single scan line of the source image are stored in the line buffer. 
     
     
       15. An integrated circuit, comprising:
 a line buffer; and   a processor coupled with the line buffer, the processor arranged to execute instructions for performing at least the following operations:
 receiving a number of image elements in accordance with a single scan line of the source image, 
 passing the received image elements to the line buffer, the line buffer having a length in accordance with the scan line, 
 storing the received image elements in the line buffer, 
 passing selected ones of the stored image elements to an interpolator, and 
 providing a single scan line of a scaled display image by the interpolator. 
   
     
     
       16. The integrated circuit as recited in claim 15, wherein when the scaling is upscaling, then the scaled display image has more image elements than does the source image. 
     
     
       17. The integrated circuit as recited in claim 15, wherein a rate at which the single scan line of the scaled display image is provided by the interpolator unit is about the same as a rate that the source image elements corresponding to the single scan line of the source image are stored in the line buffer. 
     
     
       18. Computer readable medium arranged to store computer code executable by a processor for scaling a source image without using a frame buffer, the source image formed of a plurality of source image elements, the computer readable medium comprising:
 computer code for receiving a number of image elements in accordance with a single scan line of the source image;   computer code for passing the received image elements to a line buffer, the line buffer having a length in accordance with the scan line;   computer code for storing the received image elements in the line buffer;   computer code for passing selected ones of the stored image elements to an interpolator; and   computer code for providing a single scan line of a scaled display image by the interpolator.   
     
     
       19. The computer readable medium as recited in claim 18, wherein when the scaling is upscaling, then the scaled display image has more image elements than does the source image. 
     
     
       20. The computer readable medium as recited in claim 18, wherein a rate at which the single scan line of the scaled display image is provided by the interpolator unit is about the same as a rate that the source image elements corresponding to the single scan line of the source image are stored in the line buffer. 
     
     
       21. A pipelined scaler unit arranged to form an appropriately scaled display image from a source image without using a frame buffer, wherein the scaler unit forms the appropriately scaled display image without using the frame buffer by storing source image elements corresponding to a single scan line of the source image to a line buffer and providing selected ones of the stored image elements to an interpolator unit, the interpolator unit outputs the appropriately scaled display image one scan line at a time. 
     
     
       22. The pipelined scaler unit as recited in claim 21, wherein when the scaling is upscaling, then the appropriately scaled display image is larger than the source image. 
     
     
       23. The pipelined scaler unit as recited in claim 21, wherein a rate at which the interpolator unit outputs the one scan line of the appropriately scaled display image is about the same as a rate that the single source image scan line is stored to the line buffer.