Possible to development GUI application without using external SDRAM?

[hiectai]

Hello community.

I failed to try to develop GUI applycation simply using internal SDRAM.
Is it possible to development GUI application without using external SDRAM (only use 512KB internal SDRAM)?
Has anyone succeeded in this yet?

Thank

[hiectai]

Thank you. I am trying on IMXRT 1050 EVK board.

[mjbcswitzerland · Accepted solution]

Hi

I would upgrade to a 1060 (or 1064) since it has 512k OCR2 which is fine for 2 frame buffers at 16bit RGB and the 480 x 272 pixel TFT that the kit can be connected to.

See https://community.nxp.com/t5/i-MX-RT/Does-the-LCD-Panel-of-MIMXRT1060-EVK-support-multi-touch/m-p/11... with a video attached and this showing some operation:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=83-Sc4TqpSc&list=PLWKlVb_MqDQEOCnsNOJO8gd3jDCwiyKKe&index=13

Internal memory is more efficient than SDRAM and is also possible on tne 1050, but it means using ITC or DTC which is a bit more limiting as you will also be using it for system variables and possibly code.

Regards

Mark
[uTasker project developer for Kinetis and i.MX RT]
Contact me by personal message or on the uTasker web site to discuss professional training, solutions to problems or rapid product development requirements

For professionals searching for faster, problem-free Kinetis and i.MX RT 10xx developments the uTasker project holds the key: https://www.utasker.com/iMX/RT1050.html

[Aubineau_FAE]

Hi,

What is your RT derivative?

It will depends of many parameters such as your screen resolution, framebuffer encoding (24bpp or 8bpp with LUT does not have the same memory footprint). You can reduce the 24bpp to 16bpp offline without that much degradation in quality if you do spatial dithering (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dither ) with ImageMagick for instance.(https://legacy.imagemagick.org/Usage/quantize/ ) for instance on you graphics data.

You may need to optimize you GUI, for instance on i.MXRT1170 encoding with LUT save a lot of memory, keep you YUV format for camera input and convert it with the display controller will help, in addition it is recommended to do XIP from QSPI/Octal NOR to save RAM space, etc...

Graphics is a question of memory space and memory bandwidth, so you have to use basic tricks to reduce them.

BR

V.