STMicroelectronics NeoChromVG GPU

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STMicroelectronics has launched the NeoChromVG GPU, a vector graphics accelerator for general-purpose microcontrollers. NeoChromVG GPU is a traditional NeoChrom GPU with a hardware unit designed to accelerate vector graphics computations, such as quadratic Bézier curves, which are very common in vector fonts, Bézier tessellation to render surfaces and vector calculations for vertex transformation, among other things, to rapidly draw vector graphics on screen.

The device relies on the same texture mapper as the regular NeoChrom GPU and has similar features like L8 compression. Vector graphic acceleration simply becomes an additional tool in a developer’s arsenal to enhance their UI. The feature also comes on the heels of TouchGFX 4.23, which has gained support for vector fonts.

The GPU will be available on the new STM32U5G9 and STM32U5F9, the former being the version housing a crypto core. Both will feature 3 MB of RAM and 4 MB of dual-bank flash. This hardware configuration enables customers to move to a single-chip design that didn’t require external memory at all, while the increase in internal memory and vector graphics support helped others use smaller NAND devices. In both cases, it helps simplify the PCB design to move to only four layers and lower the bill of materials.

STMicroelectronics is releasing the STM32U5G9J-DK, with a 480 x 480 display, and the STM32U5G9J-DK2, with an 800 x 480 screen, as well as a UI demo showing what developers can accomplish with vector graphics.