On each display there is an ATMEL ATMega48PA MCU controlling the backlight brightness using the 8bit PWM. All Pins are connected to a pad area for easy access by the user. Each pin can be controlled from the MINI2440v2 via I2C by sending simple commands to the ATMEL. And the best, the ATMEL can notify the MINI via the EINT12 Interrupt that something happened. Be it a key pressed or an AD Conversion finished. The value of each pin and registers can be set and read from the MINI using simple commands sent via I2C. The benefits are that the ATMEL stays as slave on the bus, no complicated multi-master solution needed. And the device drivers can be written in User space by using the /dev/i2c device. This will reduce the Time To Market ration significantly and assures a long live cycle of the application. 

But that’s not all! The screen characteristics as width, height in pixels and mm as well as BPP and the complete Linux Frambuffer device parameter are stored in the ATMEL’s EEPROM. In u-boot or in Linux itself the parameter can be read via I2C from the kernel to initialize the Framebuffer accordingly. For WinCE we are working on a similar solution and will be available in WinCE 6.0 . 

Startup parameter for each of the ATMEL’s registers are stored as well, so the ATMEL boots up at a defined state. Even a small boot loader found it’s place into the ATMEL’s flash which allows firmware upgrades or customized. We’ll release the source for the ATMEL GPLed or under a similar license.

Includes

Product specifications
-LCD Module: Innolux AT070TN83
-Screen size: 7"
-Driver element: a-Si TFT active matrix
-Resolution: 800 x 3(RGB) x 480
-Display mode: normally white, transmissive
-Dot pitch: 0.0635(W) x 0.1905(H) mm
-Active area: 152.4 (W)X91.44 (H) mm
-Module size: 165(W)X104(H)X5.5(D) mm
-Surface treatment: Anti-glare
-Color arrangement: RGB stripe
-Backlight power consumption: 2.500W (typ.)
-Panel power consumption: 0.825W (typ.)
-Weight: 130g (typ.)
-Auxiliary MCU: ATMEL AVR48pa for Backlight PWM, general purpose GPIO, connected via IIC to HOST and PWREN (EINT)