Patent ID: 7348972

Claim:
An apparatus for driving a display panel including an icon area to display predetermined icons according to icon data for display and a dot-matrix area to display varying images according to dot-matrix data, the apparatus comprising: a main display control unit that divides input image data into the icon data and the dot-matrix data and outputs the icon data and the dot-matrix data; an icon display control unit that processes the icon data received from the main display control unit in accordance with an arrangement within the icon area of the display panel and simultaneously outputs separate icon data and timing control signals; a dot-matrix display control unit that processes the dot-matrix data received from the main display control unit according to an arrangement within the dot-matrix area and outputs separate dot-matrix data and timing control signals simultaneously; a first oscillator that generates a first clock signal composed of pulses having a first frequency and supplies the first clock signal to the dot-matrix display control unit; a second oscillator generates a second clock signal composed of pulses having a second frequency that is lower than the first frequency and supplies the second clock signal to the icon display control unit; an icon driver that drives the icon area of the display panel in response to the separate icon data and timing control signals received from the icon display control unit; and a dot-matrix driver that drives the dot-matrix area of the display panel in response to the separate dot-matrix data and timing control signals received from the dot-matrix display control unit.