Display Controller Dedicated Memory Screen Transfer
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Solution Overview
Problem
There is a need to efficiently transfer and display high-quality screen images from mobile devices to larger screens or other apparatuses, such as TVs or stationary game machines, to enable shared viewing experiences among multiple users without compromising latency or image quality.
Innovation Solution
A screen transfer system that includes a display controller capable of reading frame data from a frame buffer, generating a screen output image, and writing it to a dedicated memory without passing through the system interconnect, allowing for real-time transfer and compression-coding of screen images using only I-frames without inter-frame prediction to prioritize low latency, and decoding by standard AVC decoders.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Speed
If the screen output image passes through the system interconnect for transfer, then standard memory access is used, but transfer latency increases and bandwidth is consumed
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the memory system into a frame buffer for normal display operations and a dedicated memory specifically for screen transfer operations. This segmentation allows the dedicated memory to handle transfer operations independently without competing for bandwidth with the system interconnect, thereby reducing transfer latency while maintaining standard memory access paths for other operations.
Solution Approach 2:
The display controller acts as an intermediary that directly writes the screen output image to the dedicated memory without routing through the system interconnect. This intermediary approach creates a direct data path that bypasses the bottleneck of the system interconnect, significantly improving transfer speed and reducing latency.
2Loss of information
If compression coding with inter-frame prediction is used, then compression ratio improves, but processing complexity and latency increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent uses I-frames (intra-coded frames) that are self-contained and do not depend on previous frames for decoding. While I-frames result in higher bitrates compared to inter-frame prediction, they eliminate the complexity of motion estimation and inter-frame reference management. The trade-off accepts higher data volume in exchange for simpler, faster encoding that prioritizes low latency and reduced processing complexity.
3Productivity
If a dedicated memory is provided separately from the frame buffer, then screen transfer efficiency improves, but device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The display controller is designed with multi-functionality, serving both as the interface for normal display operations and as the direct writer to the dedicated memory for screen transfers. This universal component handles both frame buffer management and dedicated memory writing, reducing the need for additional complex control logic and minimizing the increase in device complexity while maintaining high transfer efficiency.
Data Source
AI summary
There is provided a display controller for reading frame data from a frame buffer, and generating a screen output image to be displayed on a display, wherein the display controller is provided with a path for extracting the screen output image as a screen image for transfer to be transferred to another apparatus, and writing the screen image for transfer to a dedicated memory provided separately from the frame buffer.