Seiko Epson has developed S1D13U11, a colour TFT panel display controller with USB interface. The spread of CPUs with high-speed USB host functionality has made it possible to transfer colour images using USB cable as internal wiring. Bi-directional digital data transmission (up to 480Mbit/s), support for long cables (up to 5m), the supply of power (up to 500mA/5V), and power-saving features (USB suspend and resume) are USB 2.0 characteristics that enable innovations in the design of embedded systems with displays. The display controller uses one USB interface for both upstream and downstream transmissions of colour TFT panel image data and touch-screen/key-switch input data. This allows a single USB cable to replace the multiple internal lines that are generally needed. It also makes it possible to reduce the space occupied by wiring between the host CPU and colour TFT panel, and to use a long cable and special connections (e.g. rotating hinges).
The TFT panel display controller has features that include: embedded protocol sequencer for easy USB control (23 kinds of commands available); embedded SPI interface that receives coordinate data from an external touch-screen controller; embedded key scan interface that receives input data from up to 8x8 (64) key-switches; start-up display function that enables image display within 2 seconds of power on (external flash ROM required); wake-up display function that enables image display within 100ms from a power saving state; evaluation board that can be connected by a USB cable available (product name: S5U13U11P00C100); and Linux sample driver and sample program.
The TFT panel display controller has specifications that include: CPU interface: USB 2.0 high-speed device port (480Mbps); panel interface: 24bit colour TFT panel; supported resolutions: QVGA to SVGA, 24bpp; display buffer: external SDRAM (16MB maximum); input data formats: RGB 8:8:8, RGB 5:6:5; display features: picture-in-picture, double-buffer display and easy display scrolling; I/O interfaces: SPI, I2C, GPIO, buzzer, key scan and PWM; clock: 12MHz or 24MHz crystal oscillator; power saving features: USB suspend, USB resume and USB remote wake-up; package: QFP20 144-pin (20x20mm with a 0.5mm pitch); supply voltages: 3.3V and 1.8V; operating temperature range: -40°to 85°C; main applications: operation panels for office and factory automation equipment, advertising display panels and game equipment.
