Chandler, Ariz. — Microchip Technology Inc. has added two new development tools to its graphics display portfolio for 16- and 32-bit PIC microcontrollers and dsPIC digital-signal controllers (DSCs) that enable designers to easily add graphics displays to their embedded designs. This free Graphics Display Designer software tool allows the designer to visually create screens on a computer and then auto-generate the code that draws these screens for use with the free Microchip graphics library.
In addition, the Graphics PICtail Plus daughter board with 3.2-inch display kit enables designers to evaluate Microchip’s graphics solutions and to develop embedded graphics display applications using a single microcontroller. The kit reduces development risk, total system cost and time to market, said the company.
Key features of the Graphics Display Designer software tool include configurable display size, multiple-screen displays/menus, 16-bit color depth, and object re-sizing, movement and placement, as well as resource management for schemes, fonts and images. The tool also provides a plug-in for Microchip’s free MPLAB integrated development environment (IDE), and cross-platform compatibility among all of Microchip’s 16-bit PIC24 MCUs, 32-bit PIC32 MCUs and dsPIC DSCs.
The display kit includes an Explorer 16 Development Board, PIC32 USB Starter Board, 16-megabit (2Mx8) serial flash memory for additional storage and a SD/MMC card socket. The display supports 4/8-bit STN, 4/8-bit CSTN, 18-bit HR-TFT and 9/12/18/24-bit TFT interfaces and all of Microchip’s 16-bit PIC24 MCUs, 32-bit PIC32 MCUs and dsPIC DSCs.
Availability: The free Graphics Display Designer Tool is available for download at: Microchip Graphics Display Application Design Center
Pricing: The Graphics PICtail Plus daughter board with 3.2-inch display kit (part # AC164127-3) is priced at $154.99. It can be purchased via microchipDIRECT or any authorized worldwide distributor.