Cockpit display systems (or CDS) is the part of avionics that manage modern Glass cockpits.
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History
Prior to the 1970s, cockpits were not using any electronic instruments or displays (see Glass cockpit history). Improvements in computer technology, the need for enhancement of Situational awareness in more complex environments, and a tremendous growing of air transportation, lead to more and more integration of the cockpits displays[1].
Architecture
Glass cockpits now mainly use a set of displays (often LCD displays) that present integrated informations about the various parts of aircraft systems and flight management. The latest Integrated Modular Avionics (IMA) architecture allows to maximize integration of the cockpit instruments and displays at the hardware and software level. 
CDS Software is most of the time a sequence of OpenGL (or any other API understandable by the display board), written by hands or with COTS tools such as VAPS or SCADE Display [1]. Standards as ARINC 661 specifies the integration of the CDS at the software level with the aircraft system applications (called User Applications or UA).
References
- ^ The average transport aircraft in the mid-1970s had more than 100 cockpit instruments and controls, and the primary flight instruments were already crowded with indicators, crossbars, and symbols. In other words, the growing number of cockpit elements were competing for cockpit space and pilot attention (see Glass cockpit)
