ARM microcontroller links/tips

[Frank]

I think I need at least a 60MHz ARM7TDMI, 512kB+64KB, maybe no main memory, some FPGA based 2D graphics and some sound.

If you want one that has just about all interfaces you can think of out of the box (only 256 KB flash, though), look at the Atmel AT91SAM7XC256. But if you might want more memory later, you need one with an external adress bus. And then it's cheaper and much easier (especially in the soldering department) to buy a board that already has a lot of that.

For a display, small serial ones like used in cell phones, PDA's and such are very cheap and already have some rudimentary 2D accelleration, as you send commands, not flip pixels. And you can hook those up at any four or so IO pins left over.

If you want a big one, you can better buy an old laptop and see if you can use that screen, as they get very expensive very fast.

As for the sound, you can always hook a speaker up to a PWM output. And the controller on the board I linked even has an AC'97 soundchip on board.


Edit: LCD linky

 

[pascal]

Also It could have a dvi-d conector

 

[Frank]

Also It could have a dvi-d conector

That sounds doable, if the display controller retains the pixels (ie. no refresh).

Have you got a schematic of the electrical and signal specs for that? I would be interested.

 

[pascal]

No, i dont have an schematics but I downloaded the DVI specs from http://www.ddwg.org/

 

[RussSchultz]

DVI is probably more work than you want to invest in.

Most LCDs of 'small' size have a very simple interface (essentially, clock & data). These LCDs are up to 320x240 (QVGA)

 

[Guden Oden]

That sounds doable, if the display controller retains the pixels (ie. no refresh).

Hum, I don't think DVI doesn't support that; you always have to redraw the entire frame constantly from what I've read. It's basically just moving the standard VGA signal into a digital format, complete with vertical/horizontal blanks, which is really really bizarre, but true. Probably a cost-cutting measure, simplifies the transmission link, and makes it compatible with analog displays too. Not that all too many of them ever had DVI inputs to my knowledge...

 

[pascal]

DVI is probably more work than you want to invest in.

Most LCDs of 'small' size have a very simple interface (essentially, clock & data). These LCDs are up to 320x240 (QVGA)

But this could be fun and I could generate a 480p signal using FPGA/SDRAM 2D rasterizer/controller.

Eventually after some time I could gradually expand the project and try to make some basic 3D rasterizer using the same ARM/PCB/FPGA/SDRAMS by changing only the HDL programming of the FPGA

Back to earth, I will see want I can realistically do with my time.

 

[RussSchultz]

Right. THe simple QVGA dispaly will let you concentrate on the interesting parts, and ignore the 'how do I get the data to display' parts.