Abstract:
A plasma-discharge display and data storage device wherein a glow discharge condition in a gas-filled, dielectric envelope is transferred from a region between a pair of transferor electrode conductors to a region between a pair of transferee electrode conductors by causing an AC voltage applied between the transferee electrode conductors to cause an associated potential field inside the gas-filled envelope to reach a glow-dischargesustaining magnitude prior to the time that the AC voltage applied between the pair of transferor electrode conductors causes an associated potential field within the gas-filled envelope to reach a magnitude sufficient to sustain a glow discharge; and a tapered electrode conductor in which a plasma or glow discharge in the gas occurs preferentially near the wide end of the tapered electrode conductor.
Abstract:
A negative image cursor is provided for marking a selected location on a cathode-ray tube screen which displays, in human readable form, alphanumeric characters and other graphics and symbols outpulsed at a clock rate from a recirculating memory associated with a keyboard or computer controlled data terminal. A sequence of unblanking pulses arranged in a pattern indicative of each character to be displayed on the screen in dot raster form is normally applied to the tube with a polarity effective to form a brightened character against a darkened screen background. During the clock period corresponding to the address of the screen location to be marked, the polarity of the unblanking pulses in the corresponding sequence is inverted so that the marked character shows up darkened against a locally brightened background to define the cursor.