A new solution for controlling parallel eink displays
Intro We're all familiar with Kindle-type e-book readers. They've been around for enough years and have been copied by enough competitors that we've seen or used one over the last 10 years or so. What these devices have in common is that they make use of a high speed eink display which is controlled over a parallel data bus. These displays can handle 8 or 16-bits of data sent at up to (and beyond) 20MHz. This allows them to have very high resolution and support fast updates. What has typically been controlling these displays is a powerful 32 or 64-bit Arm processor running Android or Linux. People have made an effort to hack these devices to run their own code, but that path is not always practical or cost effective. How does parallel eink work? For people familiar with SPI epaper displays like the small ones found in supermarket shelf labels, the larger parallel ones work on the same principal. Charged pigment particles are suspended in a clear oil between two conductors a...