Patent ID: 8059129

Claim:
A fast rasterizer comprising: a fast memory for drawing a waveform image at rates up to a fastest rate at which data is acquired, the fast memory having a bit-set port for receiving the data and a waveform drawing command and having a totally independent readout and clear port for outputting the waveform image, the fast memory having a number of memory cells corresponding to rows and columns of a raster display device and being divided into sections that operate in parallel so that each section is capable of drawing one vertical column each memory cycle in order to draw a plurality of vertical columns corresponding to contiguous columns of the raster display device each memory cycle; row and column logic coupled to the bit-set port for setting row lines in the fast memory as a function of the data; and means coupled to the totally independent readout and clear port for reading the waveform image and clearing the memory cells; wherein said memory cell columns are sequentially addressed during a read operation to correspond to the contiguous columns of the raster display device and are physically located in different ones of said sections of said fast memory.