Vga, Lcd; Vga / Lcd Controller 65535A / 65540 / 65545 - DIGITAL-LOGIC MICROSPACE PC/104 Technical User's Manual

DIGITAL-LOGIC AG
4.9

VGA, LCD

4.9.1

VGA / LCD Controller 65535A / 65540 / 65545

The 65535A High Performance VGA Flatpanel / CRT controller provides a powerful, yet versatile,
feature set optimized for portable PC requirements. The 65535, which integrates the VGA controller,
industry standard RAMDAC, and monitor sense circuitry, enable a complete VGA sub-system to be
implemented with just two chips: CHIPS' 65535 VGA Controller and one memory device. The 65535
employs separate address and data buses and direct panel drive outputs so that no external buffers
are required. The 65535 provides high performance by use of zero wait-state writes (write buffer),
minimum wait-state reads (internal asynchronous FIFO design), 16-bit CPU and I/0 interfaces, and
8/16-bit internal video data paths or local bus.
The 65535 provides a variety of programmable features to optimize display quality, such as simulta-
neous LCD/CRT display capability (with the optional frame buffer), Vertical and Horizontal Compensa-
tion, SMARTMAP, Text Enhancement, three selectable RGB color-to-gray-scale reduction techniques,
and a polynomial FRC gray scale algorithm which reduces flicker on fast response "mouse quick" dis-
plays without increasing the panel's vertical refresh rate.
The 65535 produces up to 64 gray scales on a wide variety of monochrome LCD, EL and plasma
flatpanels with resolutions up to 1280x1024. The 65535 supports color TFT LCD panels with a 24,
389-color palette, support analog and digital CRT monitors - interlaced monitors up to 1024 x 768 x 16
colors and non interlaced monitors up to 800 x 600 x 256 colors.
The 65535's advanced power management features, reduce power consumption of the display sub-
system and extend battery life in portable applications. The 65535 provides CAS-before-RAS refresh
cycles for DRAMS.
The 65535 is fully compatible with IBM's VGA standard at the register, gate and BIOS levels. En-
hanced backwards compatibility is provided with the EGA, CGA, Hercules, and MDA standards with-
out using NMIS. Also available from CHIPS and third-party vendors are a fully VGA-compatible BIOS,
enduser utilities, and drivers for Super-VGA modes, Windows panning, and portrait landscape rota-
tion.
Display Interface
The 65535 is designed to support a wide variety of flatpanel and CRT displays of different types and
resolutions.
Flatpanel Displays
The 65535 supports all flatpanel display technologies including plasma, (EL) and liquid crystal displays
(LCD). LCD panel interfaces are provided for single panel-single drive (SS), dual panel-single drive
(DS) and dual panel dual drive (DD) configurations. A single panel sequences data similar to a CRT
(i.e., sequentially from one area of video memory). In contrast, a dual panel requires video data to be
provided alternating between two separate areas of memory. In addition, a dual drive panel requires
the data from the two areas to be provided simultaneously. Due to its integrated line buffer, the 65535
supports all panels directly. Support for LCD-DD panels does not require external hardware (such as a
frame buffer). The 65535 handles display data sequencing transparently to application software pro-
viding full compatibility on both CRT and flatpanel displays.
The 65535 supports panel resolutions up to 1280x1024, including the popular panel resolutions of
640x200, 640x400, 640x480, 800x600, 1024x768, and 1280x 1024. For non-standard applications
additional resolutions are supported.
There is currently no standard interface for flatpanel displays. Interface signals and timing require-
ments vary between panel technologies and manufacturers. The 65535 provides register programma-
ble features to allow interfacing to the widest possible range of flatpanel display units. The 65535 pro-
vides a direct interface to panels from vendors such as Sharp, Sanyo, Epson, Seiko Instruments, Oki,
Toshiba, Hitachi, Fujitsu, NEC, Matsushita/Panasonic, and Planar.
CRT Displays
The 65535A supports resolution fixed frequency and variable frequency analog monitors in interlaced
and non-interlaced modes of operation. Digital monitor support is also built in.
Supported VGA Modes
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MSM486V Manual V3.22