May 31, 2017 — The 32-bit PIC32MZ DA microcontroller (MCU) family is an MCU with an integrated 2D Graphics Processing Unit (GPU) and up to 32 MB of integrated DDR2 memory. This combination from Microchip Technology is designed to give customers the ability to increase their application’s color resolution and display size (up to 12 inches) with MCU-based resources and tools including the MPLAB Integrated Development Environment (IDE) and MPLAB Harmony software framework.
The PIC32MZ DA family bridges the graphics performance gap between MCUs and microprocessor units (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 integration and programming model of Microchip’s 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.
Features of the new devices include:
- Three-layer graphics controller capable of driving 24-bit color Super eXtended Graphics Array (SXGA) displays
- 2D Graphics Processing Unit (GPU)
- 32 MB integrated SDRAM or 128 MB externally addressable SDRAM option providing expansive storage
- On-chip Flash, SRAM and connectivity options
The addition of DDR2 memory enables faster throughput and large graphics buffers and/or storage for complex communications protocol stacks and algorithms.
