Fujitsu Microelectronics Europe's MB86R01 graphics controller codenamed ‘Jade' is used to enable an instrument panel in the Artega GT sports car. The instrument panel consists of a high-resolution, illuminated 10.2-inch colour display with 800 x 480 pixels and a digitally controlled dual-pointer analogue instrument with a high-quality metal clock face acquired from the luxury watch segment. This displays engine speed and road speed on one axis. In the Artega GT, the instrument panel has one large central mechanical gauge with all the other instruments rendered graphically by ‘Jade' and projected onto the LCD. This requires a controller able to produce new 3D graphics - right down to the shading around instruments - to make them look like a mechanical gauge. As an SoC, ‘Jade' is a graphics controller as well as it contains the ARM 9 CPU, a fully synthesisable processor with a Jazelle technology (Java Acceleration) enhanced 32-bit RISC CPU, 16kB instruction cache, 16kB data cache, 16kB ITCM, 16kB DTCM and a memory management unit (MMU). This makes ‘Jade' a single-chip graphical sub-system, which can be controlled externally just by sending it information, for example, display the oil gauge with value x, y, z. This single-chip unit can calculate all the necessary information, produce the graphics and feed the display. The result is a realistic ‘mechanical-look' instrument panel that can be configured to meet individual customer specifications. Introduced in 2007, ‘Jade' is aimed at embedded automotive graphics applications and is a System-on-Chip (SoC) that integrate the 32-bit ARM926EJ-S CPU core with the company's graphics processor ‘Coral PA'. Based on Fujitsu's proprietary 90nm CMOS process technology, ‘Jade' is optimised for applications requiring high CPU performance combined with new 2D/3D graphics features. Target applications include on-board and mobile navigation systems, graphical dashboard systems, HUD (head up display) units, rear seat entertainment, point-of-sale terminals and industrial control panels. Fujitsu's Coral PA processor provides new features for embedded graphics applications, such as in-car infotainment systems, which require more display and rendering functions. These features include a rendering engine for 2D/3D graphic acceleration functions, a geometry processor supporting floating point transformations for smooth graphics animation and a dual-display capability (2 x RGB digital output) that enables independent contents to be shown on two connected screens. Packaged in a 484-pin BGA, the device requires a supply voltage of 3.3V (I/O), 1.8V (DDR2), 1.2V (Internal) and is designed to operate over a temperature range of -40 to +85°C. Further features include an ETM9 (medium) and JTAG ICE interface, 8-channel DMA and 32-bit timers. Core frequency is 320MHz (generated by on-chip PLL). On-board peripherals include a unified DDR2 memory interface supporting 320Mbps (up to 128MB), a parallel flash/SRAM host interface with decryption engine, parallel ATA, SD-Card, CAN, Media LB, USB 2.0 (Host and Function), ADC, DAC, I2C, I2S, PWM, SPI, UART, GPIO and an external interrupt. Other features include: a texture mapping unit (up to 4096 x 4096); Bit-Blt Unit (up to 4096 x 4096) ; alpha Bit-Blt and ROP2 functions; 6 layers of overlay display (Windows); alpha plane and constant alpha value for each layer; dual digital video input (various formats including YUV,RGB, ITU656); video scaler (up/down scaling); brightness, contrast, saturation control for video; and built-in alpha blending, anti-aliasing and chroma-keying. Display resolutions from 320 x 240 up to 1024 x 768 are supported. Fujitsu also provides a starter kit with this graphics controller.
