By combining proven hardware architectures with reusable graphics software, it helps engineers cut development time, reduce system complexity, and deliver intuitive, visually rich interfaces across industrial, consumer, and smart connected applications.
As embedded products evolve to deliver intuitive, consumer-grade visual experiences, engineers are under increasing pressure to integrate rich graphical interfaces without inflating cost or development timelines. This GUI reference design by Microchip Technology addresses that challenge by offering a validated foundation that reduces design risk, shortens development cycles, and lowers overall system cost. By providing complete design collateral including firmware, schematics, software, and layout files it allows developers to build on proven architectures rather than creating custom GUI stacks from the ground up.
At its core, the graphical user interface reference design is a comprehensive hardware–software framework aimed at accelerating the adoption of touchscreen-based, graphics-driven interfaces in embedded systems. It demonstrates how to implement responsive GUIs using a single 32-bit microcontroller to handle both display rendering and touch sensing. By eliminating the need for a dedicated touch controller, the design simplifies system architecture, reduces BOM complexity, and improves overall reliability key considerations for cost-sensitive consumer and industrial applications.
The embedded firmware is built around a mature graphics library and associated drivers, enabling modern UI capabilities such as animations, gesture control, and multi-touch interaction. This allows developers to deliver visually rich interfaces while operating within the constraints of embedded hardware platforms.
For design engineers, the reference design serves multiple roles. As a design accelerant, it provides ready-to-use code and layouts that follow established best practices for display interfacing and touch integration, allowing teams to focus on product differentiation rather than low-level debugging. At the same time, it functions as an educational resource, offering real-world examples of how to structure and optimize embedded GUIs. Engineers can study the firmware, reuse modules, and adapt UI components to suit their specific application needs.
The applicability of the design spans both consumer and industrial domains. In consumer electronics, it supports touchscreen-based control panels for appliances, smart home devices, and personal electronics. In industrial environments, it enables the development of human–machine interfaces (HMIs) for automation systems, diagnostic equipment, and control panels where clarity, responsiveness, and reliability are critical. Automotive and medical devices also benefit from such GUI platforms to present operational data, alerts, and controls in an intuitive and accessible manner.
Complementing the reference design is a broader development ecosystem that includes graphical configuration tools and WYSIWYG GUI designers capable of auto-generating source code. These tools further reduce development effort, promote design reuse across product lines, and help maintain UI consistency, making the reference design a practical starting point for scalable, graphics-enabled embedded products.
Microchip Technology has tested this reference design. It comes with a bill of materials (BOM), schematics, assembly drawing, printed circuit board (PCB) layout, and more. The company’s website has additional data about the reference design. To read more about this reference design, click here.
