Patent ID: RE43235

Claim:
A multi-block display-refresh controller comprising: a start address selector for selecting a block starting address from a plurality of block starting addresses and a screen starting address, the start address selector being loaded with a series of block starting addresses for a plurality of blocks within a display frame; a selector, coupled to the start address selector, for selecting either the block starting address or a next-line address for output; a line start register, coupled to receive an output of the selector, for storing a line starting address for a horizontal line of pixels in the display frame; a memory address counter that is loaded with the line starting address from the line start register and incremented by a pixel clock as pixels in the horizontal line are written to a display; an adder, receiving the line starting address from the line start register, for adding a line width to the line starting address to generate the next-line address to the selector; a block-end detector, coupled to receive a pixel address from the memory address counter, for detecting a block end when the pixel address matches a block-end address for a current one of the plurality of blocks within the display frame; and wherein the selector selects a new block starting address from the start address selector when the block-end detector detects the block end, but the selector selects the next-line address from the adder when the block end is not detected by the block-end detector, whereby new block starting address are used when block ends are detected as the plurality of blocks of pixels are displayed within a display frame.