STMicroelectronics updates TouchGFX software, adds video capabilities, and enriches STM32 user experience

November 5, 2021, China – STMicroelectronics has released the latest version of the STM32* microcontroller (MCU) graphical interface development software TouchGFX Version 4.18, which adds video playback and improves collaborative development tools for multiple developers. , which supports the new X-NUCLEO Display board.

With the ability to play Motion-JPEG (MJPEG) video files, TouchGFX brings more product power to small devices such as home automation products, wearables, medical devices, and industrial sensors, enabling rich functions such as user guides or interesting Start and pause the screen to improve the visual effect of the GUI. Developers can use their own MJPEG files or choose from movie samples provided by the software. The new video applet in TouchGFX Designer has properties such as start, stop, repeat and go to frame to simplify prototyping and drag and drop into applications.

TouchGFX 4.18 can perform video decoding in software or hardware. Hardware decoding can be done with STM32 MCUs with suitable decoding peripherals, for example, STM32F769 and STM32H7B3. Except for STM32G0, all systems have software decoding function. Video buffering employs different strategic approaches, including direct rendering to framebuffer and double-buffering techniques, which help optimize memory requirements and performance.

Other new features in TouchGFX 4.18 include enhanced support for collaborative development, using XML to store text data and translations. When multiple team members are involved in project development, XML can simplify team sharing and integration of different project modules. The latest TouchGFX retains powerful and convenient features from the previous version, including a partial framebuffer for small RAM, ultra-efficient rendering to prevent image breakage, and support for low-cost non-memory-mapped SPI flash.

To facilitate easy start-up of GUI development projects, TouchGFX 4.18 comes with examples showing how to use the new video features and the necessary TouchGFX Development Board Setup (TBS) on the popular STM32 Discovery development board.

STMicroelectronics also updated and increased the variety of display boards to help developers speed up user interface project development. The updated display board X-NUCLEO-GFX01M2 of the Nucleo 64 development board has a 2.2-inch QVGA serial display, and now supports the NUCLEO-WB55RG development board, which is convenient for adding a display to the Bluetooth® application device. The new X-NUCLEO-GFX02Z1 display board for Nucleo 144 development board is equipped with high-speed parallel interface and QSPI flash memory, and supports development boards such as NUCLEO-U575ZI-Q. Both boards are on the list of supported devices in TouchGFX 4.18.

TouchGFX 4.18 is now available as a free download from st.com. The new X-NUCLEO-GFX02Z1 Nucleo 144 Display Shield is also available, and the X-NUCLEO-GFX01M2 will be available in December.

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