Patent ID: 7362338

Claim:
A display unit comprising: a display panel comprising a pixel matrix comprising: a rectangular pixel frame buffer region; and a fixed, active pixel border region comprising pixels permanently dedicated to displaying a border attribute, wherein said fixed, active pixel border region surrounds said rectangular pixel frame buffer region on four sides of said rectangular pixel frame buffer region and comprises a width in the range of two to 128 pixels; a frame buffer memory for containing image data for generating an image within said frame buffer region; a border attribute register dedicated for containing said border attribute, wherein said border attribute is automatically selected to provide viewing contrast with image data located near said border region, and wherein said border attribute comprises color information for each pixel in said fixed, active pixel border region, and wherein said border attribute is equal to a background attribute currently being displayed; and a display controller coupled to said frame buffer memory, coupled to receive said border attribute from said border attribute register, and coupled to control said display panel, said display controller for generating a first set of signals for rendering said image within said frame buffer region and for generating a second set of signals for displaying said border attribute within said fixed, active border region.