A progressive display is realized that has an electrode structure in which two
neighboring rows share a display electrode. A PDP has display electrodes arranged
so that two neighboring rows share one electrode for display, and the display electrodes
crosses an address electrode in each column. A row selection is performed by temporarily
biasing one display electrode Yj of the electrode pair corresponding
to the selected row to the selecting potential Vy, while an addressing is performed
by controlling the potential of the address electrode Ak in accordance
with the display data. At that time, the cell-selecting voltage Vay that is applied
to the interelectrode AY between the display electrode Yj and the address
electrode Ak made lower than the discharge starting voltage VAY
of the interelectrode AY. A row selection voltage Vxy that is lower than
the discharge starting voltage VXY is applied to the interelectrode
XY between the display electrodes of the electrode pair corresponding to the selected
row, so that an address discharge is generated.
