Monitor system, display device and image display method

A monitor system comprising:

• a display device including a screen with a resolution of a first aspect ratio, the screen being for displaying an image;
• and
• a plurality of graphics adapters, each having an area with a resolution of a second aspect ratio different from said first aspect ratio, for which image creation can be performed and each supplying, to said display device, image data corresponding to a resolution lower than that of said first aspect ratio of said screen, wherein:
• each area with the resolution of the second aspect ratio is divided into a plurality of sub-areas having a predetermined size;
• the image data supplied from each of said plurality of graphics adapters, with which image creation can be performed, is arranged in the plurality of sub-areas, and undergoes a clipping processing to isolate the image data in the plurality of sub-areas according to each respective graphics adapter to which each one of the plurality of sub-areas correspond;
• and
• said display device reconstructs said image data supplied from said plurality of graphics adapters, and outputs said image data to said screen with the resolution of the first aspect ratio.

A display device comprising:

• a frame buffer for storing divided image data received from a plurality of graphics adapters capable of creating an image with a low resolution;
• a reconstruction section for reading out said divided image data stored in said frame buffer in turn based on a predetermined assignment, and forming display data;
• and
• a high resolution screen for displaying an image based on said display data formed by said reconstruction section,
• wherein said divided image data stored in said frame buffer is obtained by sub-dividing the data of each area having a size and scale corresponding to the low resolution of one of the plurality of graphics adapters into a plurality of sub-areas, each of the plurality of sub-areas having the same size or having one of at least two sizes.

A method of displaying an image on a large screen by use of a plurality of graphics adapters, comprising the steps of:

• forming divided image data having a size obtained by sub-dividing each area corresponding to a resolution of said graphics adapters, wherein the size of each piece of the divided image data is the same or one of at least two sizes;
• reading out said divided image data developed into said graphics adapters in a predetermined order and reconstructing said divided image data;
• and
• displaying an image on said screen based on said divided image data reconstructed.

An image display method to display an image on a high resolution screen of a first aspect ratio, by use of a plurality of low resolution graphics adapters, each being capable of displaying an image having a second aspect ratio different from the first aspect ratio, comprising the steps of:

• forming divided image data in a size obtained by sub-dividing the image displayed by each of said low resolution graphics adapters into a plurality of areas, wherein the image displayed by each low resolution graphics adapter forms part of the image on said high resolution screen;
• assigning said divided image data to each of said low resolution graphics adapters based a degree of a load required for displaying said divided image data;
• reading out and reconstructing said divided image data assigned to each of said low resolution graphics adapters in an order to create the image on said high resolution screen;
• and
• displaying said divided image data reconstructed on said high resolution screen.