STM32 MCUs in GUI context

STM32 TouchGFX Workshop 2020

Agenda

1 GFX-Enablers for Rendering

2 GFX-Enablers for Display

3 STM32 Graphic ecosystem

4 TouchGFX ecosystem integration

2
3

GFX-Enablers for Rendering

Graphic sub-system overview

Input bitmaps Frame buffer Display Panel

14:21
Temperature
21°C
Humidity
-5°C
62%

ARMED

FLASH Memory RAM Memory

Update/built Partial or full

of the frame buffer Display Refresh 62% 4
Frame buffer filling complexity

• Frame drawing is a very CPU demanding operation

• Process each pixel several times per second (SVGA 800x600 : 480 000)
• Drawing involves
• Numerical computing operation (add, multiply) not logical operation
• Repetitive operations (process each pixel value)
• Many memory accesses (load/store operations)

→ Very suitable for a dedicated IP (2D engine) instead of the

general purpose Cortex™

5
STM32 Chrom-ART™ Accelerator

• More efficient than Cortex

4% CPU load with chrom-ART™, up to 84% without
• Direct DMA access to memory
• Dedicated to pixel processing

• Compare to a GPU-based approach

• Much smaller and cheaper silicon
• No extra RAM needed

• Covers 90% of “top of the line”

graphical HMI use cases Fluid motion and transparency effects
with 80% less CPU Ressources
6
Chrom-ART Features

• DMA2D
• Mem-to-mem DMA transfer with programmable rectangle area
• Alpha-Blender
• per-object alpha
• per-pixel alpha

a
• Pixel Format convertor
• Input/output: ARGB8888 / RGB888 / RGB565 / ARGB1555 / ARGB4444
• Input-only: A4 /A8 alpha bitmap for glyphs, L8 for 256 colors CLUT
• YCbCr support for higher motion JPEG frame rate

7
HW JPEG Accelerator

• HW JPEG accelerator
• Fully hardware JPEG compression and decompression
• Supporting Motion JPEG videos (MJPEG)
• Saving CPU load for MJPEG processing
• Enhancing branding and user experience Frame
Rate 20 fps*
• Branding animations at startup
• End-product embedded tutorials 8 fps*
x2.50
faster

STM32 F769I STM32 F769I

at 200 MHz at 200 MHz
SW JPEG HW JPEG

* : frames per second

8
Chrom-GRC™

• Chrom-GRC™
• Graphical Resources Cutter for non square displays, fully configurable
• Works transparently as an Memory Management Unit with any memory of the system
• ➔ Saving up to 20% of RAM needs
For 400x400 round display
@16bpp: 250kBytes (vs.312kBytes)
@24bpp: 372kBytes (vs.469kBytes)

Saved Memory

9
Rendering process split

• Chrom-ART is designed for most rendering operations

• Data copy with/without blending
• Fill rectangle with/without transparency
• Pixel format conversion
• HW Jpeg decoder for real world images
• Other operations handled by Cortex
• Smart rendering algorithm processing :
• Optimized algorithm based on Cortex M instructions and FPU
• Primitives drawings (line, circle, polygons, etc.)
• Geometric transformations (rotations, scaling)
• Advanced color effects

10
Graphic sub-system overview

Input bitmaps Frame buffer Display Panel

14:21
Temperature
21°C
Humidity
-5°C
62%

ARMED

FLASH Memory RAM Memory

Update/built Partial or full

of the frame buffer Display Refresh
11
GFX-Enablers for Display
Display Key Elements

MCU DISPLAY
Display Timing
Display Controller Controller
Controller Source Driver Pixel values

Frame
Buffer
Frame (GRAM)
Buffer

Gate Driver
(GRAM)
TFT/OLED Name

RGB444
R

4-bit
G

4-bit
B

4-bit
Size

12bpp
Continuously refreshed
from the GRAM @ 60Hz RGB565 5-bit 6-bit 5-bit 16bpp

RGB666 6-bit 6-bit 6-bit 18bpp

RGB888 8-bit 8-bit 8-bit 24bpp

Backlight
Controller

Only for TFT

13
LTDC Key Features

• 24-bits RGB parallel pixel output up to XGA (1024 x 768)

• Programmable interface for :
• Display size and position (e.g. for partial screen refresh)
• Timings and polarity to address a wide range of displays
• Input pixel formats (ARGB8888, RGB888, RGB565, ARGB1555, ARGB444 + LUT formats)
• AHB Master interface to access int./ext. memories
• Integrated dithering module (2 bits per color channel)
• (e.g. for 24-bits data display on 18-bit limited color palette display)

14
MIPI-DSI host

• The DSI host provides a communication interface with LTDC

external DSI displays

DSI
• Fully configurable
DSI Host
• Supports Command mode & Video mode DSI
APB

• Up to 500Mbps per lane (2 lanes on STM32 MCUs) Wrapper

D-PHY

• Allows low pin count display interfacing (4 or 6)

• Very fast refresh time (1Gbps with 2 lanes)
DSI Display
• Highly integrated solution (internal D-PHY) D-PHY

• Simple integration on existing project (using LTDC) DSI Device

TFT
GRAM
Ctrl.

15
STM32 supports all main display interfaces
• Intel 8080 and Motorola 6800 LCD interfaces for small resolution

STM32 Display
F
Chrom Frame M
-ART buffer 1 C Frame
buffer 2

• TFT controller for medium resolutions (up to XGA) and new generation MIP low power displays

STM32 STM32
Frame L External SDRAM L
T F
Chrom buffer 1 Display Chrom T
D M Display
-ART Frame Frame -ART D
Frame C C
buffer 1 buffer 2 C
buffer 2

16
STM32 supports all main display interfaces
• MIPI-DSI interface for medium resolutions, high pixel density GUI, mainly consumer today

STM32
L Display
Frame STM32
D F D
Chrom buffer 1 T Frame
S Display Chrom M S
-ART D -ART buffer 1 Frame
Frame I C I
C buffer 2
buffer 2

STM32
External SDRAM L
F D
Chrom T
M -ART
S Display
Frame Frame D
C I
buffer 1 buffer 2 C

17
STM32 supports all main display interfaces

• Design for Graphic applications STM32H7B3I provides a large internal RAM

STM32H7Ax/B3
Frame L

OctoSPI
External buffer 1 T Display
Chrom
Flash -ART D
(if needed) Frame C
buffer 2

18
Questions break time

20
STM32 ecosystem
STM32 Ecosystem

Hardware Development Software Development

Embedded Software Information and sharing
Tools Tools

Configuration Tools
Drivers Web site
Evaluation boards Development &
RTOS Product selectors
Debug and Debugging Tools
Stacks and Communities & Social
Programming Probes Program & Monitoring
Application Bricks Media
Tools

Open Partners ST-

source designed

22
HW Development Tools

Evaluation STM32 Nucleo

STM32 Nucleo Discovery kits Third-party boards
boards expansion

Flexible Key feature Full feature Functionality From full evaluation to open
prototyping prototyping evaluation add-on hardware
www.st.com/stm32nucleo www.st.com/stm32discovery www.st.com/stm32evaltools www.st.com/x-nucleo

All Families 23
SW Development Tools

STM32CubeProgrammer
STM32CubeMX IDEs
STM32CubeMonitor

Configure & Generate Code Compile and Debug Program & Monitor

24
TouchGFX ecosystem integration
Developing with TouchGFX
Enabling TouchGFX involves
• UI Application development
• Creating the User Interface including setup of the graphical elements, handling user
events, communicating with the non-UI part of the system.
TouchGFX Designer main purpose

• TouchGFX AL development
• Build the software layer that connects the TouchGFX application with the hardware.
• BSP is provided by ST but only for DevKits peripherals (e.g. external SDRAM, Display)
TouchGFX Designer also provides it but only for ST development kits
CubeMX with TouchGFX plugin guide the customer in this task

26
TouchGFX in STM32 Ecosystem

• TouchGFX comes now a plugin of CubeMX

• Better interaction with the Designer tool
• Independent version management
• MCU Independent
• The CubeMX plugin will help customers in
defining the TouchGFX AL for their custom
platform
• Enabling required IPs (e.g. CRC, LTDC)
• Configure these IPs
• Configure the TouchGFX framework
(e.g. buffer management, display definition)

27
Developing with TouchGFX
• Two use cases, two starting points
• UC-A. Prototyping / Proof-of-Concept on STM32 Display Kits

• UC-B. Product development on STM32 MCU based custom board

+
28
Developing with TouchGFX
• UC-A : Prototyping on STM32 Display Kits
• Use TouchGFX Designer to start your project
• Select premade Application Templates (AT) for the specific CubeMX
Application Project
STM32 Display Kit Templates (.ioc)
• Develop UI, build, flash from TouchGFX Designer,
• Modify your hardware setup using CubeMX
opening the AT associated .IOC CubeMX project file
• Change the IDE among CubeIDE, IAR or Keil gcc
toolchain
• Modify/Build/Flash application using selected toolchain

Not yet available for all ATs, version 3.x.x only

IDE
IAR,
CubeIDE,
Keil
29
Developing with TouchGFX

• UC-B : Custom STM32 based board

• Use CubeMX to select MCU and setup hardware IPs
• Enable the TouchGFX Generator to configure and
generate the TouchGFX start up code.
• Develop UI using TouchGFX Designer (.part file)
• Select preferred IDE (CubeIDE, IAR or Keil) IDE
IAR,
• Configure board bring up and add board specific setup CubeIDE,
Add Board Keil
code that is not managed by CubeMX. Specific
• Write/build/flash using selected IDE Code

30
Enable Plugin in CubeMX

31
Configure Plugin in CubeMX

32
Generated code

• HAL (read-only)
• Mandatory set of classes
• Contains virtual members needed by the Library

• TouchGFXGeneratedHAL (read-only)
• GeneratedHAL is an HAL customization based on
TouchGFX Generator settings (e.g frame buffer size)

33
User intervention

• TouchGFXHAL (user-defined)
• Inherits from TouchGFXGeneratedHAL
• Generated once by CubeMX (skeleton)
• Need to be adapted to custom board (datasheet)
• e.g. a driver for transferring pixels from a
framebuffer over SPI, PWM for LCD backlight.
• Can even override/ignore the TouchGFXGeneratedHAL
code

34
TouchGFX Port for Specific Hardware

SPI calls ChromArt

for display refresh API calls
Or LTDC Interrupt
35
TouchGFX - Software Layers

User Application
Text
Images, Fonts
Code
Layout
TouchGFX Config

TouchGFX Core
Widgets
Rendering
Event handling
Timing
FreeRTOS ST Devkit ST Devkit
OS TouchGFX HAL Drivers
Other OS Wrapper Generated HAL
Custom board
User Drivers
No OS HAL

36
ST Development Kit

User Application
Text
Images, Fonts
Code
Layout
TouchGFX Config

TouchGFX Core
Widgets
Rendering
Event handling
Timing

OS TouchGFX
ST Devkit ST Devkit
FreeRTOS Wrapper Generated HAL HAL Drivers

37
Custom Design

User Application
Text
Images, Fonts
Code
Layout
TouchGFX Config

TouchGFX Core
Widgets
Rendering
Event handling
Timing

OS TouchGFX
Custom board
Other OS Wrapper Generated HAL User Drivers
HAL

38
Summary

• Start from TouchGFX Designer for ST devkits prototyping

• Use the STM32 Ecosystem for custom boards
• CubeMX configuration tool
• X-CUBE-TOUCHGFX expansion pack
• More complete information on the TouchGFX Framework on:
https://support.touchgfx.com/docs/Introduction/welcome

39
Doc – Basic concepts

40
Doc – TouchGFX Plugin

41
Doc – Abstraction Layer

42
Doc – Board bring-up

43
Doc – Rendering flow example

44
Extended Graphics ECO System
• TouchGFX Implementer Services
• Coupon support
• Porting
• Application Development
• Onsite Development
• Training
• Hardware Development
• Full Turnkey Solutions
• Electronic Manufacturing
• User experience
• Graphical Art-work
• .

Learn more at https://www.touchgfx.com/implementers/ 45

Thank you

Questions ?
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