Software based or hardware based display controller?

I'm designing a device that can display high resolution (at least 1080i or
1280x1024) images to a LCD monitor.  I don't think that much 2D/3D
acceleration is needed for this purpose.

Lower hardware cost is the first priority, although ease of development is
important too.

What is the best route?

1. Microprocessor only, to run embedded Linux and software-based display
controller

2. Microprocessor + FPGA/ASIC display controller

3. Microprocessor with built-in display controller?  Does it exist?

Please point me a direction, thanks!

On Jan 4, 10:31=A0am, "Fei" <i...@netbyair.com> wrote:
> 1. Microprocessor only, to run embedded Linux and software-based display
> controller

I think you will have great difficulty getting the realtime
performance tightly enough controlled to drive such a high-bandwidth
display directly in software. In fact I should say I don't think it's
feasible.

> 2. Microprocessor + FPGA/ASIC display controller
> 3. Microprocessor with built-in display controller? =A0Does it exist?

If you use a big FPGA that can integrate the micro core as well as the
display controller (e.g. Virtex4), it will be very expensive. If you
use a separate micro with an external FPGA performing only the display
functions it will be considerably cheaper, though not exactly a
weekend project to get it working.

The cheapest and simplest solution will be to use a micro with built-
in display controller. However SXGA is at the upper limit of
resolutions typically supported by these parts. You should also be
prepared to have a significant performance hit in such a shared-memory
architecture because a large proportion of the RAM bandwidth is being
eaten by the display DMA.

For anything that specs such a huge resolution, I would automatically
go down the PC VGA chipset route.

On Jan 4, 8:31=A0pm, "Fei" <i...@netbyair.com> wrote:
> I'm designing a device that can display high resolution (at least 1080i or=

> 1280x1024) images to a LCD monitor. =A0I don't think that much 2D/3D
> acceleration is needed for this purpose.

Are you doing something like a Device Driver ?

>
> Lower hardware cost is the first priority, although ease of development is=

> important too.

I think you are into both hardware and software(Driver) development
for displaying high resolution images .

>
> What is the best route?
>
> 1. Microprocessor only, to run embedded Linux and software-based display
> controller
>
I think, you need not have any RTOS / other OS for this.

> 2. Microprocessor + FPGA/ASIC display controller
FPGA with sufficient RAM, ROM and DMA will be a good choice
as you can tune it to your own interest.

>
> 3. Microprocessor with built-in display controller? =A0Does it exist?
    Yes, They exist.

Karthik Balaguru