CS220 Lab#4

LCD Driver

Mainak Chaudhuri
Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur
 Sketch
• Assignment#1: printing the string
“WELCOME TO CSE, IIT KANPUR” on LCD
– We will write the Verilog modules in such a way
that they can be used in future for displaying
other things as well
• This is called a driver which is a generic interface
between a hardware device (LCD in this case) and the
software that uses the device
– This assignment carries five marks

2
 Lab#4
• Make a new folder Lab4_1 under CS220Labs
to do the assignment
• Refer to lab#1 slides for Xilinx ISE
instructions
• Finish pending assignments from lab#3 first

3
 Assignment#1
• LCD (liquid crystal display)
– Chapter 5 of the user guide explains the details
of the LCD
https://www.cse.iitk.ac.in/users/mainakc/2024Sp
ring/lec220/ug230.pdf
– First goal of this assignment is to understand the
relevant portions of this chapter
– The LCD screen can display two lines of
characters and each line can have 16 characters
– Figure 5-1 shows the interface between the LCD
and the FPGA
• FPGA can communicate four data bits (DB4, DB5,
DB6, DB7) and three control bits (E, RS, R/W)
4
 Assignment#1
• Interface between LCD and FPGA
– Table 5-1 explains the meaning of the signals
• Ignore all references to StrataFLASH
– Take note of Figure 5-2
• This will be needed in PlanAhead later
– Before a character is displayed at a specific
location of the screen, its ASCII code must be
stored at an address of the display data RAM
(DD RAM)
• DD RAM is a small memory embedded inside the LCD
• Figure 5-3 shows the mapping between LCD position
and the DD RAM address
– For example, to display a character at the 11th position from
left in the second line, its ASCII code must be stored at DD
RAM address 4A 5
 Assignment#1
• Predefined characters
– Most of the commonly used characters are
already stored in a 16 x 13 character generator
ROM (CG ROM)
• The CG ROM contents are shown in Figure 5-4
• The CG ROM address of a character is DB[7:0]
– For example, the CG ROM address for the character ‘S’ is
0x53 where 5 represents the column number and 3
represents the row number
• Interestingly, CG ROM address of a character is same
as the ASCII/EBCDIC code of the character
– When displaying a character, it is enough to look up Figure 5-
4, find the CG ROM address of the character, and write that
address in the correct location of DD RAM
6
 Assignment#1
• Skip over the discussion on CG RAM
– This memory is meant for storing user defined
custom characters
• We will not use this feature
• Set of commands for interacting with LCD
– Table 5-3 lists the available commands for
controlling the LCD
– For any command to work, the LCD must be in
enabled mode (i.e., LCD_E must be 1)
– Each command sends a specific bit pattern to the
LCD in the form of {LCD_RS, LCD_W, DB[7:0]}
• Since only DB[7:4] are connected to the FPGA,
DB[7:0] is broken down into two parts and sent one
after another (DB[7:4] first and DB[3:0] next) 7
 Assignment#1
• LCD commands
– Pay attention to the following commands (we will
be using these)
• Clear display
• Entry mode set: pay attention to I/D only
• Display on/off
• Function set
• Set DD RAM address
• Write data to CG RAM or DD RAM

8
 Assignment#1
• Sending a command or data to the LCD
– Figure 5-6 shows the general protocol for
sending a command or data
– It is important to observe the timing constraints
– In general, LCD_RS, LCD_W, and the four data
bits must be stable sufficiently earlier (at least 40
ns earlier) than setting LCD_E to 1
• We will use a time gap of 20 ms
– LCD_E should be kept 1 for at least 230 ns
• We will keep it high for 20 ms
– Before sending the next set of values for
LCD_RS, LCD_W, and the four data bits, LCD_E
must be 0 for at least 10 ns
• We will wait for 20 ms after setting LCD_E to 0 9
 Assignment#1
• Sending a command or data to the LCD
– We will use the following general procedure
1. Set LCD_E to 0
2. Wait for 20 ms (1000000 cycles of 50 MHz clock)
3. Send LCD_RS, LCD_W, and four data bits
4. Wait for 20 ms
5. Set LCD_E to 1
6. Wait for 20 ms
• Repeat steps 1 to 6 until all commands or data have
been sent to LCD
– If a communication requires sending eight bits of
data, the most significant four bits are sent first
(along with LCD_RS and LCD_W) and then the
least significant four bits are sent (with the same
LCD_RS and LCD_W) 10
 Assignment#1
• Initializing the LCD
– This is the first step before anything can be
displayed
– The initialization of LCD has a fixed sequence of
commands; we will use the following sequence
1. Set LCD_E=0 and wait for 20 ms
2. Set LCD_RS=0, LCD_W=0, data=0x3, wait for 20
ms
3. Set LCD_E=1 and wait for 20 ms
4. Repeat steps 1 to 3 two more times
5. Set LCD_E=0 and wait for 20 ms
6. Set LCD_RS=0, LCD_W=0, data=0x2, wait for 20
ms
7. Set LCD_E=1 and wait for 20 ms 11
 Assignment#1
• Configuring the LCD
– This is the second step before anything can be
displayed
– This step requires sending four commands to the
LCD
– The first one is the Function Set command which
requires sending 0x28 as the data bits to the
LCD
• Set LCD_E=0 and wait for 20 ms
• Set LCD_RS=0, LCD_W=0, data=0x2, wait for 20 ms
• Set LCD_E=1 and wait for 20 ms
• Set LCD_E=0 and wait for 20 ms
• Set LCD_RS=0, LCD_W=0, data=0x8, wait for 20 ms
• Set LCD_E=1 and wait for 20 ms 12
 Assignment#1
• Configuring the LCD
– The second command is the Entry Mode Set
command which requires setting the data bits to
0x06 (see Table 5-3) so that DD RAM address is
auto-incremented and shifting is disabled
• Set LCD_E=0 and wait for 20 ms
• Set LCD_RS=0, LCD_W=0, data=0x0, wait for 20 ms
• Set LCD_E=1 and wait for 20 ms
• Set LCD_E=0 and wait for 20 ms
• Set LCD_RS=0, LCD_W=0, data=0x6, wait for 20 ms
• Set LCD_E=1 and wait for 20 ms

13
 Assignment#1
• Configuring the LCD
– The third command is Display On/Off which
requires setting the data bits to 0x0C (see Table
5-3) so that the display is on and the cursor and
blinking are disabled
• Set LCD_E=0 and wait for 20 ms
• Set LCD_RS=0, LCD_W=0, data=0x0, wait for 20 ms
• Set LCD_E=1 and wait for 20 ms
• Set LCD_E=0 and wait for 20 ms
• Set LCD_RS=0, LCD_W=0, data=0xC, wait for 20 ms
• Set LCD_E=1 and wait for 20 ms

14
 Assignment#1
• Configuring the LCD
– The fourth command is Clear Display to prepare
the display for your characters; requires setting
the data bits to 0x01
• Set LCD_E=0 and wait for 20 ms
• Set LCD_RS=0, LCD_W=0, data=0x0, wait for 20 ms
• Set LCD_E=1 and wait for 20 ms
• Set LCD_E=0 and wait for 20 ms
• Set LCD_RS=0, LCD_W=0, data=0x1, wait for 20 ms
• Set LCD_E=1 and wait for 20 ms
• Now the LCD is ready to accept the
characters you want to display
15
 Assignment#1
• Displaying characters in the LCD
– Since we have enabled auto-increment of DD
RAM address, if we send the starting address of
the DD RAM, each character will automatically
increment the address
– The command to set the starting address is Set
DD RAM address
– We will start displaying from the leftmost corner
of the first line
• This corresponds to DD RAM address 0x00
• The corresponding Set DD RAM address command
requires setting the data bits to 0x80 (see Table 5-3)
16
 Assignment#1
• Displaying characters in the LCD
– Set DD RAM address to 0x00 using command
0x80
• Set LCD_E=0 and wait for 20 ms
• Set LCD_RS=0, LCD_W=0, data=0x8, wait for 20 ms
• Set LCD_E=1 and wait for 20 ms
• Set LCD_E=0 and wait for 20 ms
• Set LCD_RS=0, LCD_W=0, data=0x0, wait for 20 ms
• Set LCD_E=1 and wait for 20 ms
– Now we are ready to send the characters for the
first line of the display

17
 Assignment#1
• Displaying characters in the LCD
– We will assume that the first line is stored in a
128-bit array where each character is a byte
corresponding to its ASCII value or equivalently
its CG ROM address (see Figure 5-4)
• Each character corresponds to DB[7:0]
• Use command Write Data to CG RAM or DD RAM (see
Table 5-3)
1. Set LCD_E=0 and wait for 20 ms
2. Set LCD_RS=1, LCD_W=0, data=DB[7:4], wait for
20 ms
3. Set LCD_E=1 and wait for 20 ms
4. Repeat steps 1 to 3 with data=DB[3:0]
• Repeat steps 1 to 4 for each character in the first line
18
 Assignment#1
• Displaying characters in the LCD
– Once the characters of the first line are sent, we
need to set up the LCD for a line break
– This is done by setting the DD RAM address to
the beginning of the second line i.e., address
0x40 (see Figure 5-3)
– This requires sending a Set DD RAM address
command with data bits 0xC0 (see Table 5-3)
1. Set LCD_E=0 and wait for 20 ms
2. Set LCD_RS=0, LCD_W=0, data=0xC, wait for 20
ms
3. Set LCD_E=1 and wait for 20 ms
4. Repeat steps 1 to 3 with data=0x0 19
 Assignment#1
• Displaying characters in the LCD
– Use the same method as used for the first line
for sending the second line characters to the LCD
– At the end make sure to set LCD_E=0
• Planning the Verilog modules
– We will use two modules
– The first module (LCD_driver) takes as input the
two lines of characters (each a 128-bit array),
and clk
– The first module’s outputs are LCD_RS, LCD_W,
LCD_E, and the four data bits
– The module LCD_driver implements the entire
algorithm for displaying the characters of the two
input lines 20
 Assignment#1
• Planning the Verilog modules
– Structure the module LCD_driver is as follows
• Have a counter that can count up to 1000000
• On posedge clk, if the counter has reached 1000000,
execute one step of the LCD algorithm; else increment
the counter
• To determine which step of the LCD algorithm needs
to be executed now, you need to maintain a state
register that gets incremented after each step of the
algorithm
• Your algorithm will have four distinct parts
– Initialization and configuration of the LCD
– Displaying first line
– Line break
21
– Displaying second line
 Assignment#1
• Planning the Verilog modules
– The top-level module simply instantiates
LCD_driver
• The top-level module’s input is clk and outputs are
LCD_RS, LCD_W, LCD_E, and the four data bits
– These will be connected to the appropriate pins
• The instantiation of LCD_driver passes two strings,
clk, LCD_RS, LCD_E, and the four data bits
– Make sure that each string has exactly 16 characters (pad at
the end with whitespaces to make 16 characters)
– For example: “WELCOME TO CSE, “, “IIT KANPUR “
• Use PlanAhead to assign pins to clk, LCD_RS,
LCD_W, LCD_E, and the four data bits
– You should be using the clock generated at pin
C9 for clk (Figure 3-2 of Chapter 3) 22
 Assignment#1
• Synthesize the hardware and verify that the
LCD driver is working correctly
• Try changing the strings in the top-level
module and see if the driver works

23