28 April 2025 –

Engineers are all too familiar with the challenges involved in achieving true excellence in their design whilst getting it to market in time. As a defining factor in the user experience of the product, the Human Machine Interface (HMI) is one area where this increasingly holds true.

Whether creating new products or updating existing designs, the addition of a Graphical User Interface (GUI) is one way to improve the user experience significantly. Vital steps in the development process (including evaluating and selecting the right graphics controller, prototyping, GUI development and preparing for mass production) must be thorough but efficient to achieve commercial success. Reluctantly, compromises are often needed to achieve this. With the right solution however, you can achieve great products 和 fast time to market.

Challenges

Some of the key challenges facing engineers during the product development cycle include:

• Selecting the right graphics platform for the GUI – Engineers seek solutions which will help them produce High-Resolution GUIs, with visual impact and functionality which differentiate their product in the marketplace, as quickly and easily as possible.

• Developing and Prototyping the GUI – Setting up the hardware and software tools can significantly delay the prototyping and development stages of the project. Thereafter, the GUI creation itself presents several challenges including learning the associated tools and techniques.

• Final Design and Mass Production – With the prototype running on an evaluation set-up, the journey lies ahead to turn this into a device suitable for mass production. Today’s increasingly comprehensive high-resolution GUIs require more complex graphics devices, placing additional demands on the tools and skills needed for PCB design, routing and assembly.

Solutions

• The Embedded Video Engine (EVE) IC BT820B – The powerful embedded GPU to create easy-to-use high-resolution GUIs for any MCU – The BT820B continues our line of innovative EVE devices, featuring 3-in-1 functionality with colour graphics, touch screen control and audio output, but now with enhanced features such as even higher resolution (up to 2K), LVDS output and live video input.

• The Development Board VM820C – Rapid Development and Prototyping with the BT820B – This fully featured development board lets you explore all the features of the BT820B using a computer over USB or your own MCU as the host. Just add a display to get up and running in minutes to begin evaluating and developing your GUI.

• The Mini Module MN820 – Simplify your Final PCB Design for Mass Production – Harness the power of the BT820B, whilst keeping the PCB design simple, using the MN820. Integrating the BT820B and on-board DDR3L SDRAM, the MN820 takes care of the layout-critical parts of the BT820B system, connecting directly to your main PCB via a 100-pin connector.

The BT820B: A powerful yet easy-to-use GUI SOlution for any MCU

‎这 BT820B Embedded Video Engine (EVE) IC offers a 3-in-1 solution for adding three key GUI features to any MCU: high resolution graphics, touch screen control and audio output. Capable of driving LVDS displays up to 1920 x 1200 pixels (for example 15.6” displays) at up to 60 frames per second (fps), it provides an ideal platform to create feature-rich GUIs which meet and exceed users’ expectations in fields such as industrial control, medical instruments, transportation, and building automation applications.

With EVE, designers have an alternative to MCUs with on-board graphics capability when developing products which use a GUI. Instead, they can select any MCU based on the requirements of the product, with only an SPI/QSPI Master being required to interface with EVE.  By eliminating the move to a more complex MCU, engineers benefit from time savings through re-use of existing application code and avoiding the hurdles in becoming familiar with a new MCU platform and associated tools.

                                                                              Key features of the BT820B Embedded Video Engine used on the MN820 Mini Module

What’s more, EVE’s innovative and unique features like the touch engine, audio engine, directly attached Flash storage and real-time video input with pre-processing minimise the workload and Flash memory requirements on the MCU. This enables a cost-effective MCU to be selected and accelerates the application development process without compromising on GUI functionality.

GUI Development: It’s easier with the right tools

‎这 VM820C proposes a fully featured BT820B evaluation setup ready within minutes. At the heart of the VM820C lies the MN820 Mini Module with its on-board BT820B and 1Gbit DDR3 SDRAM. An extensive range of connectors on the VM820C allows fast and easy access to all the BT820B’s features and interfaces. Simply connect an LVDS display and I²C touch cables to get started. You can also connect speakers for stereo audio and a live video input to LVDS Rx.

The VM820C (with on-board MN820) provides convenient connections to all interfaces on the BT820B IC

Begin by downloading the free toolchains 和 examples. The emulation features of the EVE Screen Designer (ESD) and EVE Screen Editor (ESE) allow you to begin designing even before you have hardware. Attaching the VM820C hardware to your computer via USB (with its on-board USB-QSPI interface) then allows you to preview your GUI on a real display and to run our extensive range of examples.

As the application development progresses, simply connect the same VM820C to your chosen MCU (via the SPI/QSPI pin header), import the code for your GUI to your MCU’s toolchain environment, and continue development of your application.

MN820: Faster and Simplier hardware for Mass Production

It is vital, when selecting a solution at the beginning of the project, to ensure that it is feasible for mass production. Larger high-resolution displays and more extensive GUIs expected by users often require more powerful graphics solutions, with frame buffers in external RAM and high-speed data interfaces such as LVDS and DDR3. These bring more stringent routing requirements and design constraints compared to previous generation graphics devices, which can increase the engineering effort and tools required to complete the design.

Recognising this challenge, Bridgetek introduces the MN820 Mini Module as part of the launch of the new BT820B Embedded Video Engine, giving designers a powerful solution for creating stunning GUIs and a simple PCB design at the same time. After prototyping and development, designers can easily adopt the MN820 on their production PCBs by placing a 100-pin board to board connector.

Take advantage of the MN820’s hardware features to simplify the final product PCB design

Incorporating the BT820B IC itself and 1Gbit of DDR3L SDRAM, the MN820 takes care of the most challenging parts of the hardware design, including BGA package routing, decoupling and assembly, and the timing-critical DDR3 traces. The on-board DC-to-DC step-down converter allows a single 3.3V supply to be used, further simplifying the main product PCB. With its small footprint, at only 49mm x 29mm, the MN820 can be easily integrated into the product PCB as an alternative to the BT820B IC itself.

Conclusion

When adding a GUI to a new or existing product, Bridgetek’s innovative solutions help engineers with all aspects of the project from initial development through to mass production.

 

‎这 BT820B IC empowers designers to create high-resolution high-performance GUIs. Significant time and cost savings can be achieved via easy integration to their preferred or existing MCU, compared to re-designing with a complex graphics MCU.

Extensive development support, in the form of hardware modules such as the VM820C and software tools and examples, ensures that high quality GUIs can be created quickly and easily.

Offering an alternative hardware solution to integrating the BT820B IC itself on the product PCB, the MN820 Mini Module allows designers to continue this momentum to bring products such as building access controllers, medical devices, test and measurement devices, or instrumentation with high-resolution feature-rich GUIs to production in a short timescale.

Get in touch with us at marketing@brtchip.com to find out more about how the MN820 can help you minimise cost and complexity, and achieve a faster time-to-market, in your final hardware design!

Find out more at these links:

Bridgetek homepage

BT820B Embedded Video Engine IC

VM820C Credit card development module

MN820 Mini Module

Getting started with EVE

BT820B Hardware Design Guidelines