The new development platform for products that use touch panels is supported by middleware from technology partners and can be customized and produced in volume for final products

LCD touch panels have made controlling many different types of electronic products easier — and in some cases, even fun. They have already been applied to great effect in popular consumer products such as mobile phones and car navigation systems, as well as in office equipment (copiers, etc.), production machinery, industrial equipment, and more. Importantly, LCD panels allow the use of innovative graphical user interfaces (GUIs). They add value by making product operation and control more intuitive through the use of features such as animation and 2D and 3D graphics. An additional benefit is that these panels and optimized GUIs can eliminate the need for traditional keypads, switches and knobs, thereby making it possible to simplify and shrink the size of products, especially portable ones.

Unfortunately, existing microcomputer development platforms, evaluation boards, and other resources are not keeping pace with the trend to touch panel use. Most development boards that provide an LCD panel don't have touch panel controls, but instead use on buttons, arrow keys, and so on for control. Therefore, they make it difficult for application developers to experience how a touch panel operates. As a result, system engineers have requested a more comprehensive range of middleware and are seeking a development platform with a design and features that are closer to those of end products that incorporate touch panels.

Recognizing how important it is to offer system development tools that let customers to experiment with and apply all the features and capabilities of our microcomputers, Renesas has long pursued a two-prong strategy to meet market needs. We develop our own solutions, of course. However, we also actively seeking to take advantage of other firms' expertise by collaborating with companies that can provide additional products and services that deliver value to our customers. Thus, support for our devices includes an extensive array of hardware and software tools from Renesas, plus a wide range of tools from the expert suppliers in a large, vibrant global support community.

Customer interest is particularly strong now for middleware and system development platforms. To provide these types of support for applications that use touch panels, Renesas has teamed up with ALGO SYSTEM Co. Ltd. (referred to below as ALGO SYSTEM). The objective of this successful collaboration was to develop the "Platform with Touch panel Function" for touch panel devices (see Photograph 1).

This development platform loads middleware developed by Renesas and its partner companies on a panel computer with a touch panel that was jointly developed by Renesas and ALGO SYSTEM. The platform looks just like an ordinary panel computer, allowing for development to be undertaken in an environment that is closer to that of the end product.

A main benefit of the development platform with the touch panel function is that it significantly shortens the time it takes to create and debug the user interface. System engineers can immediately view the effects of the modifications they make and interact with the revised controls. Examples of typical modifications include changing the on-screen icons, button shapes, and button and tab colors, as well as the background image, while maintaining — or altering — the overall layout and control positions.

During demonstrations of this platform to customers, many of the design engineers quickly became impressed by the big impact of touch panel features such as animation middleware. Their positive reactions confirmed that the "Platform with Touch panel Function" is a good solution for system development. Also, some customers observed that, unlike existing microcomputer development boards, the new platform is very close to an end product. In fact, several of them commented that it could be converted into an actual product with only minimal customization.

This response has prompted ALGO SYSTEM to begin marketing the "Platform with Touch panel Function" as a standard panel computer — the "ALGO Smart Panel" — instead of a development platform. Additionally, the company can manufacture the platform as a product customized to meet specific system design requirements.

As a result of this revised marketing strategy, one could say that the "Platform with Touch panel Function" uses the ALGO Smart Panel as a development tool — a complete role reversal. An advantage of this situation is a significant reduction in the cost of the development kit, demonstration systems, and similar tools compared to previous products. It also has ensured that the platform and its various derivatives can be supplied in large quantities.

The target market for the "Platform with Touch panel Function" encompasses electronic devices that use a touch panel GUI, so it covers a wide range of applications and market sectors. These include not only automotive products such as car audio and navigation systems with large LCD screens, but also many others. They range from audio-visual (AV) equipment such as digital still cameras, digital video cameras, and hi-fi audio systems, to office equipment such as POS terminals and standard and multi-function color printers.

The Renesas semiconductor products supported by the "Platform with Touch panel Function" are mainly devices in the SuperH series. They include general-purpose RISC microcomputers and application-specific products such as the SH-Navi series and SH-MobileR series (see Figure 1). The platform can run the Linux and T-Kernel operating systems. Sales and support services are available from both Renesas and ALGO SYSTEM (algos@algosystem.co.jp).

Recently, particular emphasis has been put on versions of the "Platform with Touch panel Function" that are fitted with the SH-MobileR2 application processor for mobile devices, among others (see Figure 2). One popular version provides a 7-inch WVGA (800 x 400 resolution) color LCD screen that is driven directly by a 400MHz SH-MobileR2 chip, the SH7723. This platform has 128Mbytes of DDR SDRAM, 16Mbytes of NOR flash memory, 512Mbytes of NAND flash memory, an Ethernet port, a USB 2.0 port, and a 1024 x 1024 resistive touch panel. Despite all these features, its case is only 32mm thick.

A version of the touch panel platform fitted with the SH7764 SuperH family processor for digital audio applications has also been developed (see Figure 3). This product combines the functions needed to test digital audio systems and includes a 2.5-inch hard disk drive (HDD) and a CD-ROM drive. It can be used without further modification to develop digital audio players that can rip songs from a CD and store them on the HDD.

A rich suite of GUI middleware products is available for the "Platform with Touch panel Function." These middleware offerings have been developed either by Renesas or its partners and most of them can be licensed directly from Renesas. Here are a few examples of the middleware products now available for the platform:

Renesas will promote the "Platform with Touch panel Function" as a development kit by progressively adding support for new versions of our SH-MobileR and SH-Navi series processors. We are strengthening our cooperation with ALGO SYSTEM and encouraging semi-custom development of the ALGO Smart Panel touch panel computer.