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A fourteen-segment display (FSD), also known as a starburst display or Union Jack display,^[1][2] is a type of display based on 14 segments that can be turned on or off to produce letters and numerals. It is an expansion of the more common seven-segment display, having an additional four diagonal and two vertical segments with the middle horizontal segment broken in half. A seven-segment display suffices for numerals and certain letters, but unambiguously rendering the ISO basic Latin alphabet requires more detail.^[3] A slight variation is the sixteen-segment display which allows additional legibility in displaying letters or other symbols.

A decimal point or comma may be present as an additional segment, or pair of segments; the comma (used for triple-digit groupings or as a decimal separator in many regions) is commonly formed by combining the decimal point with a closely 'attached' leftwards-descending arc-shaped segment.

Electronic alphanumeric displays may use LEDs, LCDs, or vacuum fluorescent display devices. The LED variant is typically manufactured in single or dual character packages, allowing the system designer to choose the number of characters suiting the application.

Often a character generator is used to translate 7-bit ASCII character codes to the 14 bits that indicate which of the 14 segments to turn on or off.^[4]

Character encoding

By lighting different elements, different characters can be displayed.

In a 14-segment display, there is also an optional 15th segment which is a decimal point (denoted as "DP").

Latin alphabet

A 14-segment display is mostly used to display text because the 14 elements allow all Latin letters to be displayed both in upper case and lower case (with a few exceptions like "s").^{[citation needed]}

Hexadecimal Encoding of Latin Alphabet for 14-segment display

Alphabet	A	B	C	D	E	F	G	H	I	J	K	L	M	N
Hex code	0xF7	0x128F	0x39	0x120F	0xF9	0xF1	0xBD	0xF6	0x1209	0x1E	0x2470	0x38	0x536	0x2136

Alphabet	O	P	Q	R	S	T	U	V	W	X	Y	Z
Hex code	0x3F	0xF3	0x203F	0x20F3	0x18D	0x1201	0x3E	0xC30	0x2836	0x2D00	0x1500	0xC09

Applications

Multiple-segment display devices use fewer elements than a full dot-matrix display, and may produce a better character appearance where the segments are shaped appropriately. This can reduce power consumption and the number of driver components.

Fourteen-segment gas-plasma displays were used in pinball machines from 1986 through 1991 with an additional comma and period part making for a total of 16 segments.

Fourteen and sixteen-segment displays were used to produce alphanumeric characters on calculators and other embedded systems. Applications today include displays fitted to telephone Caller ID units, gymnasium equipment, VCRs, car stereos, microwave ovens, slot machines, and DVD players.

Such displays were very common on pinball machines for displaying the score and other information, before the widespread use of dot-matrix display panels.

See also

• Seven-segment display
• Eight-segment display
• Nine-segment display
• Sixteen-segment display
• Dot matrix display
• Nixie tube display
• Vacuum fluorescent display

References

External links

Media related to Fourteen segment displays at Wikimedia Commons