Abstract: An architecture for an information appliance adapted for a specific application supports a variety of appliance personalities, relying on a single core technology. The information appliance comprises an application-optimized hardware platform, including a processor, a display coupled to the processor, an input/output device coupled to an information source and to the processor, a user input device, and working memory coupled to the processor. Non-volatile memory is coupled to the processor and stores appliance operating software and application software. The appliance operating software includes logic executed by the processor, which manages information flow from the information source through the working memory to the display, and the application software includes logic executed by the processor and responsive to the user input to manage selection of information from the information source.

Abstract: A method for generating a font for display on an interlaced monitor which is relatively free of the distorting effects of interlacing. The method operates by obtaining an original bitmap for a character in the font which is larger than a desired size for the font. This original bitmap is subjected to a weighted filtering to produce a filtered bitmap. The filtered bitmap is reduced to a desired font size by dividing the filtered bitmap into a plurality of tiles. Each tile is subjected to an unweighted filtering to produce an average value, which is rounded to produce a value for a corresponding pixel in a reduced bitmap. Next, the reduced bitmap is quantized to form a bitmap for display by setting all values which exceed an upper quantization limit to the upper quantization limit, and if necessary, setting all values which are below a lower quantization limit to the lower quantization limit.

Abstract: An architecture for an information appliance adapted for a specific application supports a variety of appliance personalities, relying on a single core technology. The information appliance comprises an application-optimized hardware platform, including a processor, a display coupled to the processor, an input/output device coupled to an information source and to the processor, a user input device, and working memory coupled to the processor. Non-volatile memory is coupled to the processor and stores appliance operating software and application software. The appliance operating software includes logic executed by the processor, which manages information flow from the information source through the working memory to the display, and the application software includes logic executed by the processor and responsive to the user input to manage selection of information from the information source.