Paul Karazuba joined QuickLogic in April of 2010 as the senior product marketing manager in charge of display and display enhancement technologies. Prior to joining QuickLogic, he served in several marketing and sales positions at Aptina, Foveon, and PerkinElmer. At Aptina, a CMOS image sensor manufacturer, he was the segment manager in charge of the computer industry and then followed as the North American sales and business manager, managing all customers and sales in North America. Prior to Aptina, he was the marketing manager for DLSR image sensor products at Foveon. He holds BS degrees in marketing and management from Manhattan College, New York.

The convergence of computing and communications that has led to today’s high-function mobile devices has also created a challenge for designers. Displays come with a variety of interfaces, often leading to a mismatch between the application processor’s output and the display’s input requirements. With the right bridging solution, however, developers can resolve the mismatch while adding value to the design.

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The interface used in a mobile display often depends on the market the developers originally targeted. Smaller displays, for instance, are typically designed for smart-phone applications and most often utilize the MIPI interface. Larger displays used in tablets often come from the notebook market and use a low-voltage differential signaling (LVDS) interface.

Further, many new displays use an RGB interface when initially released, in part because RGB is relatively quick and simple to implement. When display developers are unsure of application requirements or wish to bring a new product technology to market quickly, the generic RGB interface represents a safe choice.

Processor vendors also have had to choose which display interface to implement based on initial target markets. Applications processors targeting smart phones often have the MIPI interface while processors designed for tablets either offer MIPI or LVDS. In addition, as with displays, new processor introductions may choose to incorporate RGB to speed development and to be market agnostic.

As communications and computing functionality converge to various degrees in mobile device designs, device developers often can find that the processor and display they want to use do not have the same interface. According to market research firm IHS iSuppli, as many as 60 million smart phones are shipping each year with such mismatches. The number of tablets with mismatches is likely high because very few mobile applications processors offer LVDS as a native display interface.

An interface mismatch creates a problem for mobile device designers. If they change the applications processor to one that matches their preferred display, they must port all their software to the new platform. The company may lack expertise in development for the new processor as well, adding to development difficulties, not to mention significantly increased development time. Changing the display, on the other hand, could compromise the product’s intended specifications and feature set, giving the design a non-competitive “look and feel.” Neither choice is acceptable in today’s fast-paced and competitive market.