Embedded Wizard And PennyPixel Bring High-Resolution GUIs to Low-Cost MCUs

An EV wall charger, a thermostat, a blood pressure monitor: most of these run on a microcontroller (MCU) that was never able to drive a TFT display. So the interface gets scaled back, or it never gets built.

PennyPixel, a patented display-driving technology, removes that limit. Standard, low-cost MCUs can now drive high-resolution TFT displays, and you can build smooth, colorful GUIs on them. That means a a lower bill of materials and a bigger, sharper screen for users.

Three Partners, One Validated Stack

To make matters even simpler, Penny Pixel Inc. has entered a strategic partnership with display manufacturer Powertip, and TARA Systems, the company behind the GUI solution Embedded Wizard, to bring this technology to market as a complete, ready-to-use solution. Each partner contributes one layer of the stack:

• PennyPixel provides the patented display-driving technology.
• Powertip manufactures the display panels and offers ready-to-use evaluation kits.
• Embedded Wizard provides the framework to build production-grade GUIs on PennyPixel-based displays.

We built PennyPixel to close the gap between simple passive matrix displays and the traditional, expensive active matrix route. You get premium visuals without the hardware complexity that usually comes with them. I am proud that together with Powertip and Embedded Wizard we can give product teams a simple path from the first evaluation to a finished product. - Soren Jorgensen, CEO of PennyPixel

Key Benefits For Product Managers and Procurement

For teams responsible for cost, sourcing, and product planning, the change shows up in several places at once:

• Lower bill of materials. Driving electronics drop significantly in cost, with no external RAM or FLASH to source separately.
• New product categories become viable. Devices that never justified a display before can now get a smooth, high resolution interface at a lower cost.
• Products currently shipping with large passive or FSTN displays can move to a modern TFT at a comparable cost, without a redesign of the underlying business case.

Key Benefits For GUI Developers And Engineering Teams

For the engineering side, the appeal is less about cost and more about not having to compromise or switch tools:

• Better UI capability. Colorful, animated, flexible interfaces are possible even on the smallest, cheapest MCUs, instead of falling back to fixed segments.
• A proven hardware path. With evaluation kits and running GUI demos available, development can start immediately, without waiting on custom hardware bring-up.

About PennyPixel

Penny Pixel Inc., based in Houston, Texas, develops patented display-driving technology that enables standard microcontrollers to drive active-matrix TFT displays directly, without a display controller or external memory.

About Powertip

Powertip is a display manufacturer with more than 30 years of experience, providing display panels, modules, and evaluation kits through a worldwide sales network.

About Embedded Wizard

Embedded Wizard is an award-winning GUI solution by independent software company TARA Systems. The Embedded Wizard team is dedicated to simplifying and accelerating the creation of user interfaces for embedded systems.