NEWS! STM32H7R7/S7 Product line for graphics

[Soren Myllerup MIKKELSEN]

Dear all,

We are very happy to announce that the new STM32H7R7/S7 graphics line is launched, offering even higher performance and memory flexibility. 

The main graphics benefits are:

1: Rich graphics features: NeoChrom GPU, LTDC, JPEG Codec, Chrom-ART

2: 2x Quad or octoSPI, 1x 8/16bit Serial RAM interface at 200MHz DTR, 1x 32bit FMC for SDRAM.

3: 64Kbytes of userflash, large enough to fit your boot code, and small enough to make an impact on the price, making it the cheapest STM32H7 to date. still with 60Kbytes of SRAM. 

4: MCE: on-the-fly encrypt and encrypt of your code and data. 

5: Run multiple applications with one MCU. 

6: Future proof your design by not running out of memory. 

 

STM32 software and hardware tools available:

• Nucleo board: NUCLEO-H7S3L8
• Discovery kit: STM32H7S78-DK
• Dedicated software package: STM32CubeH7RS
• X-CUBE-TOUCHGFX board support package in TouchGFX Designer
• Expansion packages such as X-CUBE-AWS-H7S, X-CUBE-AZURE-H7S, X-CUBE-AZRT-H7RS

 

For more information:

• Press release: https://newsroom.st.com/media-center/press-item.html/p4615.html
• Blog article: https://blog.st.com/stm32h7r-stm32h7s/
• Website: www.st.com/stm32h7rs
• Youtube Demo playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLnMKNibPkDnEEBenkOkcJTWLfW1ep4r4s

[Osman SOYKURT]

Dear community,

We have released the STM32H7S78-DK TBS on TouchGFX Designer version 4.23.2 :grinning_face:

Enjoy!

[Richard Lowe]

Something very troubling is the bug that exists for generating of TouchGFX projects for the STM32CubeIDE with "Generate Under Root" selected.

This same error exists for dual-core MCUs as well.  If you generate a project template with "Generate Under Root" selected, when building the project in TouchGFX it will not find the .cproject file, and the build will fail.

This has been a known bug for quite some time.  It seems a simple fix, why hasn't it been addressed?

[Richard Lowe]

Beyond frustrating that I have to use linked files in STM32CudeIDE when coupled to TouchGFX.

Is anyone else as frustrated as I am?  Does anyone have a work around or suggestion?

Generate a project for the STM32CubeIDE.  Generate the project at the root:

And then when trying to generate the TouchGFX section you get this ***:

Same behavior for dual core MCUs.  A year or more has passed and this simple error seems to have no fix in sight.

Great MCU.  Powerful and feature rich.  Would love to work with it, but this is just making me want to practice discus throwing.

[Jack3]

Dear community,

I am an STM32-minded lead engineer in the maritime industry. I brought the STM32 era to our development team.
I read about this STM32H7R7/S7 that it comes "With a dedicated graphics processor".

Does this point to the infamous GPU2D peripheral built into the STM32U5G9, which lacks any documentation to use it?

Will it finally be documented this time, or will ST just abandon their developer community again and ban writing code for it?

Please understand that using unsecured code for an unwanted GUI and undocumented peripherals on highly critical ship equipment is absolutely not an option for us.

While we still have excellent (non-ST) solutions for it at the moment, I'm still curious about ST's direction regarding supporting their community.

Happy developing everybody, but at least for now, always leave GPU2D disabled to save power!

[ACapo.1]

I just ordered one of these DK boards.

Am I to believe the only way to use GPU2D is via TouchGFX?

[Jack3]

ST still does not have any documented or supported GPU2D as of today.

But note, a least one competitor (Dutch) has it all, at even higher clock speeds!

[ACapo.1]

Interestingly TouchGFX designer only runs on Windows. 

All the other tools run also on Linux and OSX, not TouchGFX designer though.

So the recommended path is to run a windows VM, and ST seem to be saying it will not be ported to other operating systems. Very strange.

The STM32H7S78-DK board though looks pretty good, you even get a WIFI adapter and a SD card with it. The examples though are limited.

Shame there is no documentation for GPU2D and it also relies on a piece of software that only runs on 1 out of the 3 supported platforms.

 

 

[Pavel A.]

@ACapo.1It may run under wine, have you tried?

[Richard Lowe]

It does run under wine.  I use it with bottles and it does have 100% functionality under Linux a bit a little slow.  It appears that TouchGFX was started with 100% Microsoft Kool Aid built in.  They even went with the MS Model View Presenter paradigm when the rest of the known world uses a more friendly Model View Controller design.  Because of this, I wouldn't hold my breath waiting for a Linux version.

[ACapo.1]

Nope, I will use a windows VM to have a look. 

[ACapo.1]

One other thing I did not realise is the Vector Graphics stuff is missing from the STM32H7R7/S7

One interesting thing though is the SVG rendering seems to be using some hardware help, or is maybe just much more efficient.

Taking a SVG for a 150x150 square and seeing how many it could rotate without dipping under 30fps:

 

touchgfx::SVGImage (simple filled square shape)
 Neochrom, 11 objects at 30fps, MPU usage = 24%
 MPUOnly, 11 objects at 30fps, MPU usage = 32%
 DmaAccel, 11 objects at 30fps, MPU usage = 26%

 

Now useing a touchgfx::Shape 150x150 square:

touchgfx::Shape<4> & touchgfx::PainterRGB565 (simple white square)
 Neochrom, 11 objects at 30fps, MPU usage = 96%
 MPUOnly, 11 objects at 30fps, MPU usage = 98%
 DmaAccel, 11 objects at 30fps, MPU usage = 92%

Very weird.

 

For rotating bitmaps though the Neocrom gives a good performance increase:

touchgfx::TextureMapper (TouchGFX Gradient Embossed)
 Neochrom, 13 objects at 30fps, MPU usage = 18%
 MPUOnly, 13 objects at 12fps, MPU usage = 94%. for 30fps: 4 objects at 30fps, MPU usage = 78%
 DmaAccel, 13 objects at 12fps, MPU usage = 91%. for 30fps: 4 objects at 30fps, MPU usage = 75%

 

So in general it looks like the best bet is to pre render everything into bitmaps and use `touchgfx::TextureMapper`.

[Soren Myllerup MIKKELSEN]

Hello @ACapo.1 

This sub-demo with ice-cream selection is purely VG. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ho_lXv0RQqo&t=21s

As you can see, even without the VG extension to the NeoChrom GPU.

The Neo-Chrom GPU has some drawing capabilities, and DMAs which accelerates partly the SVGs. 

So 600MHz you can still do a lot of SVG GUIs. 

Best regards

Soren 

[JMYGI]

Dear Community
We are preparing to share basic documentation, code examples and required NemaGFX libs through NeoChromSDK. The NeoChromSDK comes in versions dedicated to one STM32 series (STM32U5x9, STM32H7R/S) supporting code examples to dedicated STM32 discovery kits.

Main target user of NeoChromSDK is GUI expert wanting to utilize NeoChrom(VG) GPU features, not using TouchGFX or other GUI tools already prepared to utilize the features of NeoChrom GPU.

We are working on a solution to share it through ST.com on a demand approach as it requires expert-level, and support on NeoChrom GPU is not mass market available. The documentation is limited to what is available from the IP vendor Think Silicon. Please note, I recommend using TouchGFX or other tools using NeoChrom GPU if you need dedicated support for NeoChrom features, this is available through the GUI tool vendor, so ST for TouchGFX.

As a temporary solution, you can already contact me on [e-mail] to request access to NeoChromSDK.

Regards
Jørgen Mygind
STM32 Graphics Business Manager