20+ Years
Embedded display engineering, end to end
Full Lifecycle Support
Products supported across full lifecycles
Field-Proven
Global deployments in demanding environments
Production-ready
Low-risk interfaces built to work the first time
Graphics Processor
Standalone or Co-Processor Mode
Display Solution
OLED, LCD & TFT Graphics UI
Memory Resources
15KB Flash & 14KB SRAM
Display Interface
80-Series 16-bit CPU Support
PICASO
- Custom embedded 4DGL graphics controller designed to interface with many popular OLED and LCD displays.
- Powerful graphics, text, image, animation and countless more features are built right inside the chip.
- Offers a simple plug-n-play interface to many 16-bit 80-Series colour LCD and OLED displays.
- The PICASO is not available for purchase in our online store. If you wish to purchase, please contact our sales team.
Volume Discount
PICASO processor
The PICASO is a custom embedded 4DGL graphics controller designed to interface with many popular OLED and LCD display panels. Powerful graphics, text, image, animation and countless more features are built right inside the chip. It offers a simple plug-n-play interface to many 16-bit 80-Series colour LCD and OLED displays.
The chip is designed to work with minimal design effort and all of the data and control signals are provided by the chip to interface directly to the display. Simply choose your display and interface it to the PICASO on your application board. This offers enormous advantage to the designer in development time and cost saving and takes away all of the burden of low level design.
The PICASO belongs to a family of processors powered by a highly optimised soft core virtual engine, E.V.E. (Extensible Virtual Engine). EVE is a proprietary, high performance virtual processor with an extensive byte-code instruction set optimised to execute compiled 4DGL programs. 4DGL (4D Graphics Language) was specifically developed from ground up for the EVE engine core. It is a high level language which is easy to learn and simple to understand yet powerful enough to tackle many embedded graphics applications.
The device offers modest but comprehensive I/O features and can interface to I2C, serial, digital, buttons, joystick and many more. Provision is also made for a dedicated PWM audio output that supports audio WAV files and complex sound generation. A basic system font is included, and unlimited customisable fonts with fixed or proportional spacing can be created using the 4D Workshop 4 IDE. All of the display built-in driver libraries implement and share the same high-level function interface. This allows your GUI application to be portable to different display controller types.
The 4D Workshop4 IDE is FREE and there is no licensing requirement.
Product Availability Statement
WORKSHOP4 IDE
Tailored Development for 4D Processors and Modules
Workshop4 IDE is a comprehensive software development environment specifically designed for the 4D family of processors and modules. Whether you are a seasoned developer or just starting out, Workshop4 provides the perfect platform tailored to your development needs. This versatile IDE supports all core development processes, including code writing, compiling, linking, and transferring code to your target device.
Workshop4 IDE let you choose from four distinct environments—Designer , ViSi, ViSi-Genie and Serial—each catering to different development preferences and project specifics. This flexibility allows developers to select the most suitable environment for their tasks.
Workshop4 IDE is your go-to development companion in the 4D ecosystem, simplifying complex tasks and enhancing productivity through its user-friendly and versatile design. Whether coding manually or designing visually, Workshop4 elevates your development experience to new heights.
Information about the processor
- Low-cost OLED, LCD and TFT display graphics user interface solution.
- Ideal as a standalone embedded graphics processor or interface to any host controller as a graphics co-processor.
- Connect to any colour display that supports an 80-Series 16 bit wide CPU interface. All data and control signals are provided.
- Built in high performance virtual processor core (EVE) with an extensive byte-code instruction set optimised for 4DGL, the high level 4D Graphics Language.
- Comprehensive set of built in graphics and multimedia services.
- Display full colour images, animations, icons and video clips.
- 15K bytes of flash memory for user code storage and 14K bytes of SRAM for user variables
- 13 Digital I/O pins.
- I2C interface (Master).
- D0…D15, RD, WR, RS, CS – dedicated display interface pins.
- FAT16 file services.
- 2 Asynchronous hardware serial ports with Auto-Baud feature.
- SPI interface support for SDHC/SD memory card for multimedia storage and data logging purposes (uSD with up to 2GB and SDHC memory cards starting from 4GB and above).
- 4-Wire resistive touch panel interface.
- Audio support for wave files and complex sound generation with a dedicated 16-bit PWM audio output.
- 8 x 16 bit timers with 1 millisecond resolution.
- Single 3.3 Volt Supply @25mA typical.
- Available in a 64 pin TQFP 10mm x 10mm package.
- RoHS compliant.
The PICASO includes the following items:
- PICASO Processor
Frequently Asked Questions
Find quick answers about our display modules, embedded integration, customization capabilities, and system compatibility.
How do I choose the right display module for my project?
Start by identifying the demands of your product environment: required screen size, touch capability, operating conditions and UI complexity. Our consistent form-factor families allow you to select a module that fits your constraints today and upgrade performance later without redesigning your enclosure or PCB. Our documentation hub provides comparison tables to assist selection.
What is the difference between a smart display and a host-driven display?
Smart displays include an onboard processor that handles graphics, widgets, UI logic and drawing commands internally. This reduces load on your host MCU, simplifies code and often shortens development time dramatically. Host-driven modules require the host MCU to manage everything, which may be appropriate for minimal UIs but introduces more integration work.
Can I upgrade processors without changing my enclosure or PCB?
Yes. Our architecture is deliberately designed around footprint consistency. Most display families maintain identical mechanical and electrical footprints across multiple processor types, enabling generation-to-generation performance improvements without mechanical redesign.
Do you offer non-touch and touch options?
Yes. Many display families provide variants for non-touch, resistive-touch and capacitive-touch configurations. Capacitive-touch variants are recommended for modern, responsive UI experiences.