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Publication#
20749
Issue Date:
June 1997
Rev:
A
Amendment/
0
This document contains information on a product under development at Advanced Micro Devices. The information
is intended to help you evaluate this product. AMD reserves the right to change or discontinue work on this proposed
product without notice.
Configuring the élan
SC300 Device’s Internal
CGA Controller for a Specific LCD Panel
Application Note
This application note explains how to determine if a specific LCD panel is supported by the
élan
TM
SC300 microcontroller, and in what modes (CGA two-color or four-color graphics, CGA text,
HGA graphics, HGA text); how to configure the élanSC300 microcontroller to work with the LCD
panel in those modes; and which signals need to be connected to the élanSC300 microcontroller
to properly drive the panel.
INTRODUCTION
There are a number of factors that need to be under-
stood to accomplish the tasks mentioned above. The
sections in the first part of this document provide you
with the understanding and background needed to fol-
low the procedures beginning on page 7. You are also
encouraged to read and have available for reference
Chapter 3, “Video Controller” of the élan
TM
SC300 Mi-
crocontroller Programmer’s Reference Manual
, order
#18470.
DEFINITIONS
The following terms are used throughout this docu-
ment. Understanding these terms as they apply to the
élanSC300 microcontroller is essential for understand-
ing how to configure the microcontroller’s Video Index
registers to work with various LCD panels.
Single-Screen Panels
A single-screen LCD panel consists of the Liquid Crys-
tal Display (LCD) and a set of column drivers (also
known as segment drivers) and row drivers (also called
common drivers). These drivers supply the appropriate
DC voltage to the liquid crystals in the display such that
the crystals become aligned and block the light from
passing through the display. An entire row of pixels is
biased at one time. For this to occur, the pixel data for
one row is loaded into the segment drivers. Then, a DC
voltage is applied to the segment drivers and to the
common driver that is attached to the row being dis-
played. This process is then repeated for each row of
the display.
Figure 1 is a simplified illustration of an LCD panel that
can be driven by the élanSC300 microcontroller. Not all
signals are shown (e.g., FRM and M), and not all con-
nections of existing signals are shown. As depicted in
Figure 1, the élanSC300 microcontroller drives 4 bits of
pixel data at a time. The data is clocked into the seg-
ment drivers using the shift clock. When all the data for
a row of pixels is loaded into the segment drivers, the
line clock will pulse, causing the common driver to ac-
tivate the voltage to the “common line” for the row of
pixels being displayed.
Dual-Screen Panels
A dual-screen LCD panel is two single-screen panels
glued so tightly together that they appear to be one
panel. Each panel has separate data bits but shares
the same control signals: shift clock, line clock, and
frame start (see the sections that follow). For example,
a 640 x 200 dual-screen panel is actually two 640 x 100
single-screen panels glued together.
The only dual-screen panel resolution the élanSC300
microcontroller supports is 640 x 200. More specific in-
formation as to how the élanSC300 microcontroller
handles a dual-screen panel is discussed later in this
document.
Figure 1.
Simplified LCD Panel Configuration