QVGA Graphics Solution for Cost-Sensitive Embedded Display Applications

The free Microchip graphics library supports rapid, low-risk development using two- and three-dimensional objects, including text, circles, rectangles, buttons, meters, windows, progress bars and more, along with images, animation, and touch screen capabilities. In addition, Microchip’s third-party partners, Segger (www.segger.com) and Ramtex (www.ramtex.dk), offer compatible graphics libraries to provide even greater flexibility.

Microchip’s new Graphics PICtail Plus daughter board is designed to plug into the Explorer 16 development board and includes a Thin Film Transistor (TFT) Liquid-Crystal Display (LCD) module that supports 320 x 240 (Quarter VGA) graphic resolution and 65,000 colours along with touch-screen operation.

The new QVGA Graphics Solution supports any of Microchip’s existing PIC24F 16-bit microcontrollers, and will offer support for future PIC24H 16-bit microcontrollers, 16-bit dsPIC® digital signal controllers, and the new 32-bit PIC32MX microcontrollers.

The PIC24F family of devices provide a parallel master port interface, 4 - 8KB of RAM and 16 - 128KB of Flash program memory, offering maximum flexibility in supporting different LCD panel options. For example, using a 28-pin PIC24F microcontroller can enable high system performance, an extremely small footprint and reduced total system cost.

The increasing demand for user-friendly, visually appealing data displays in a wide range of embedded applications, along with aggressive price reductions, should see the shipments of active matrix (TFT) LCD panels grow from their current 700 million (according to iSupply) to more than 1100 million by 2009. Such graphical user interface applications include home appliances; consumer electronics; portable medical applications; point-of-sale terminals and test and measurement equipment.