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External memory interface with MSP430F5418

venget sekar
Prodigy 30 points
Other Parts Discussed in Thread: MSP430F5418

Hi, i'm using MSP430F5418 controller in my application.  am going to interface controller with TFT display, where i need memory of 7MB. whether MSP can support external memory?. i planed to use External flash and external RAM for it. for displaying a single image i need 225 kb. so please provide me some solution. whether MSP can capable of doing it.. else refer me some other MSP capable of doing this things.

Thanks in advance,

venget

  • 0
    TI__Guru 64600 points

    None of the MSP430 devices have an external memory interface to connect to parallel, NOR flash or SRAM.  The MSP430s have SPI interfaces which could connect to serial flash devices, but nothing that will allow you to connect to a parallel interface.

  • 0
    Guru 92251 points

    You didn't say what resolution of TFT display your application requires. However, it is possible to get TFT display driver ICs which contain the display memory. This allows an MSP430 to control the display without having to continuously refresh the display.

    For an example see BOWEI MSP430F5438 board+2.8" touch LCD  which has a 320 x 240 display with 18 bit (262K) color. This example also uses a 2Mbyte SPI flash for storing images for the display.

  • 0 in reply to Chester Gillon
    Prodigy 30 points

    Thanks chester, TFT am using in my application is 320*240 display with 24bits for each pixel. so in MSP430, it wont have any FSMC or EBI. so by using external flash(using SPI) alone, can i able to display image without any glitches. what are the other factors i have to consider in controller aspect and external things. please guide me in this.

    thanks,

    venget

  • 0 in reply to BrandonAzbell
    Guru 227245 points

    BrandonAzbell said:
    nothing that will allow you to connect to a parallel interface

    Well, you can simulate an external memory bus by software and GPIO. However, this is slooooow compared to a real external memory bus.

    Considering that the USCI in SPI mode can use full system clock speed as bit clock, even SPI would be faster than a software memory bus. Especially if one uses DMA to forward data from USCI to output port. :)

  • 0 in reply to Jens-Michael Gross
    Prodigy 30 points

    Hello brandon,

    Thanks for your reply.  i am going to use external Flash through SPI interface and TFT module which consists of Driver IC and backlight.

    in msp430 it has 18KB RAM.  where my one image is 225kB. inorder to display a image i have to use any external RAM or Driver IC RAM is sufficient to display the image.

    Driver IC VRAM has the capacity near to image size. suggest me some ideas. 

  • 0 in reply to venget sekar
    TI__Guru 64600 points

    What suggestions do you need?  As you have determined, the MSP430 device does not have enough internal SRAM to hold your image nor does it have an external parallel interface to connect to a SRAM.

    If you use a display driver IC with an embedded video RAM, then it will provide you an physical interface.  If that physical interface is compatible to one of the peripheral modules on the MSP430, you may have a solution.

  • 0 in reply to venget sekar
    TI__Guru 56650 points

    Hi,

    i am not sure how this person did it (i haven't looked really in detail how the implementation is done), but someone has managed to run linux on a 8-bit MCU:

    http://dmitry.co/index.php?p=./04.Thoughts/07.%20Linux%20on%208bit

    Maybe this can also at least give you an idea :)

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