The Solartron Electronic Group Limited

Roy W Sumner

Antony J Wakeling

Alan D Thompson

Digital simulation apparatus, e.g. a digital coastline generator, for simulating a terrain-representative display of the kind produced by a movable scanning-type display device, e.g. a radar display device, comprises a main store for storing digital data representative, in Cartesian co-ordinate form, of terrain features such as contours and buildings in an area, known as the playing area, typically 256 nautical miles by 256 nautical miles. The data is divided into groups relating to contiguous zones each typically 2 nautical miles by 2 nautical miles. The apparatus further comprises means for producing a signal representative of the current position of the display device in the playing area, means for producing successive signals representative of successive segments of scan of the display device, and means responsive to these signals to select from the main store those groups of data corresponding to zones intersected by the current scan segment. The selected groups of data are applied to co-ordinate conversion means which converts them into polar co-ordinate form, in which form they are then used to generate the simulated display. The selection process greatly reduces the computational burden of the co-ordinate conversion means.

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Hartley Wintney, United Kingdom

Roy W Sumner