Transforming Embedded Displays with Sparklet
Overview
With the rapid evolution of user expectations in automotive, medical, and industrial devices, delivering rich graphical interfaces on embedded systems with constrained resources has become increasingly challenging. Sparklet, a high-performance graphics runtime engine developed by Embien Technologies, addresses these challenges by enabling sophisticated GUI rendering on low-footprint hardware without compromising performance or aesthetics.
Challenge
A leading automotive Tier-1 supplier approached Embien Technologies to create a visually rich and responsive UI on an RH850/D1M1A-based platform. The project demanded dynamic gauge animations, fast boot times, bilingual support, and seamless integration with a CAN-based communication stack—all within tight resource boundaries. Complicating the challenge further, the memory footprint had to remain below 512 KB, and the system needed to boot in under two seconds.
Solution
Embien addressed the challenge by deploying Sparklet, a lightweight graphics engine engineered for embedded platforms. Sparklet was optimized specifically for the RH850 architecture, utilizing fixed-point arithmetic and efficient 2D rasterization techniques to avoid floating-point performance penalties. By employing Sparklet’s dirty rectangle rendering, only the portions of the screen that changed were redrawn, dramatically improving performance and reducing CPU load. A custom resource manager ensured that all fonts, bitmaps, and shape assets were stored and accessed efficiently, further saving valuable memory.
The UI design was crafted using Flint, Embien’s advanced visual design tool, which allowed designers to create pixel-perfect screen layouts with ease. Flint seamlessly exported these designs into Sparklet’s optimized runtime format, streamlining the development process and reducing integration complexity. Leveraging Sparklet’s advanced capabilities - including smooth animations, frustum-based 2.5D visuals, text concatenation, scaling effects, and rotated text rendering - Embien delivered a highly dynamic and visually engaging user interface. This included visually appealing 2.5D gauges, dynamic scaling animations with alpha blending, and multi-language support covering both English and various European languages.
Performance testing on the RH850 showed exceptional results. The system booted in 1.5 seconds from a cold start. The runtime graphics engine operated at an average of 30 frames per second while ensuring efficient CPU utilization. The entire GUI system, including assets, was efficiently accommodated within the available 64MB external flash memory. The integration with CAN protocols ensured real-time data updates, keeping the UI in sync with engine and sensor data.
With Sparklet, Embien not only met but exceeded the customer’s performance and design expectations. The resulting digital cluster interface was sleek, responsive, and production-ready within six weeks.
Conclusion
Sparklet proved to be the ideal solution for creating high-impact embedded displays on RH850 MCUs, combining efficiency, flexibility, and ease of integration. This success story stands as a testament to how intelligent design and platform-specific optimization can overcome the limitations of traditional embedded systems.