Abstract: Electronic display system in which a single memory is timeshared by a plurality of display units each including a cathode ray tube (CRT) television monitor capable of displaying a frame of characters in the form of one or more lines as well as a central processing unit and a number of input/output units. Character codes representing the characters in each character line being displayed are stored in blocks of storage locations in the memory, one character line per memory block. A plurality of frame display programs, one for each display element, are stored in separate blocks of storage locations. Each program specifies the order in which the character lines are to be displayed by its corresponding display element. A refresh control unit common to all of the display units includes a basic line counting means which is employed to sequentially execute the frame display programs in retrieving the character codes from the memory and loading them into unit line buffers for the various display units.