MCU with integrated 2D GPU and DDR2 memory has ground-breaking graphics capabilities

The 32-bit PIC32MZ DA MCU family is claimed to be the industry’s first MCU with an integrated 2D GPU and up to 32MB of integrated DDR2 memory. This combination from Microchip Technology gives customers the ability to increase their application’s color resolution and display size (up to 12 inches) with easy-to-use MCU-based resources and tools including the MPLAB Integrated Development Environment (IDE) and MPLAB Harmony Integrated Software Framework. The device family bridges the graphics performance gap between MCUs and MPUs for customers who may wish to stay in the familiar design environment of an MCU. The devices provide MPU-like graphics capabilities with the seamless integration and programming model of their PIC32 and MPLAB IDE and Harmony software framework. These tools provide a visual graphics design environment, custom display driver creation, graphics libraries and an asset converter that can take a custom graphic and optimize it for their chosen display size. “This new family of devices breaks through perceived MCU graphics barriers,” said Rod Drake, vice president of Microchip’s MCU32 business unit. “Customers are demanding greater HMI capability in their designs. Now they can upgrade their applications with the ease of an MCU without increasing board complexity or adding new programming resources.” The addition of DDR2 memory, a first for MCUs throughout the industry, enables 2x faster throughput and large graphics buffers and/or storage for increasingly complex communications protocol stacks and algorithms. The result is smooth, striking interfaces and fewer product variants in a crowded communications control market. “Offering the largest total integrated memory in the industry, these MCUs give designers the memory space needed for their applications at twice the memory speed of anything else in the market,” said Drake. “The combination of the PIC32MZ DA MCU and MPLAB Harmony will make for simpler graphic designs than have ever been experienced in the industry.”