ProductsInterfaceSupportFAQ

Frequently asked questions

Video SerDes Parallel Interface FAQ

Q What are some common parallel interfaces for the display? What are some processors that support these parallel interfaces?
A
Some common parallel interfaces for the display unit include the following:
  • Digital RGB Interface: Parallel RGB (Red, Green, Blue) data are clocked by a continuous pixel clock, and typically accompanied by VS (Vertical Synchronization), HS (Horizontal Synchronization), and DE (Data Enable) signals. Some examples for processors that use RGB interface: NXP LPC2478 microcontroller, TI OMAP, Marvell PXA25x/PXA27x, and Samsung S3C2410. The display module that supports digital RGB interface does not have embedded RAM to store the whole frame, and is typically of higher resolution.
  • MPU Interface: This interface uses asynchronous 8-bit wide i86 or 68k style command bus. Microcontrollers that do not have an embedded LCD controller, in general, support MPU mode and not RGB mode. The display module that supports MPU interface has embedded RAM and is typically of lower resolution.
Q Does the PTN3700 parallel interface support digital RGB or microcontroller (MPU) interfaces?
A The PTN3700 supports digital RGB parallel interfaces but not MPU interfaces. Please contact Interface.Support@NXP.com for discussions on our future roadmap.
Q Can the PTN3700 digital RGB parallel interface support data other than video data?
A
What is called the digital RGB interface is actually misleading, because the data does not have to be RGB video data. For PTN3700 in pseudo source synchronous (PSS) mode with frame mixing disabled, RGB[0:23], HS, VS, DE can carry any arbitrary signals, i.e. the PTN3700 is transparent to the content of these input signals.
Additionally, the PTN3700 also features 2 bits of auxiliary inputs A[0:1], which can be any arbitrary data to be serialized and deserialized in all active modes.
For example, various command data, LED control data, audio data, or other arbitrary data can be serialized and deserialized by PTN3700. In fact, there are 29 bits (RGB[0:23], HS, VS, DE, A[0:1]) that can be used in PSS mode provided the frame mixing feature is not enabled (since this is a video-specific function that makes use of the fact that the data pertains to video).

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