Berkshire, United Kingdom: Usage of colour displays is on the rise in consumer applications, from coffee machines and door phones to microwave ovens and washing machines. To help manufacturers of white goods and other household and CE devices produce functional and aesthetically appealing HMIs with low development costs, Sharp devised “HAP” modules as a plug-and-play system solution for the design-in of displays.
Industrial equipment manufacturers may also benefit from HAP modules by inserting them as a control element in appliances—they’re designed for use at operating temperatures ranging from -10 to 60°C. The HAP modules are ready-fitted with an LCD, microcontroller, memory units, various interfaces, and further peripherals.
As a high-end solution, Sharp offers the LR0G94X HAP2 module. It comes with either a 4.3in. WQVGA display or a 7in. WVGA display (both with LED backlight), which may optionally be fitted with a touchscreen function and analogue video input.
The core element of the module is the 108MHz, 32-bit ARM926EJ-S CPU. It includes numerous peripheral units for controlling the LCDs: a JPEG codec; up to 608kB of built-in RAM for the processing of images and graphics; and a BG/SPRITE graphic controller that can process up to 30 images per second and ensure the smooth viewing of moving images even in WXGA format. The modules are also fitted with 4Gb of NAND flash for the storage of programs and data, 512Mb of SDRAM and 512kb of EEPROM. The display is controlled via an integrated digital 24bit RGB interface.
Numerous peripheral devices can be connected via various interfaces. A microphone input and an integrated audio processor also make it possible to easily add sounds to applications. Serial interfaces include UART, I2C, IrSS, SD card Interface, SPI, and GPIO.
For simpler applications, Sharp developed the LR0G93X HAP Di module. Its design is basically the same as the HAP2 module with a slightly more slim-line configuration. The display is a 3.5in. QVGA-LCD with LED backlight and optional touchscreen functions, analogue video input, and real-time clock functions. The LR35503-type processor is based on a Z80-compatible 8-bit CPU with a 27MHz cycle. Though the memory units are also slightly smaller, the HAP DI modules do contain key peripheral units to control the LCD, such as a JPEG codec, up to 40kB of built-in RAM for the processing of images and graphics, and a BG/SPRITE graphic controller that can process up to 30 images per second in QVGA resolution. In addition, it comes with serial interfaces and digital I/O, including PWM and an ADC.
The HAP modules are available now in diagonals of 3.5in. and 4.3in. at Sharp sales offices in Europe and through its distribution partners. The first prototypes of 7in. models are scheduled to appear in Q1 2011.