HD44780U Hitachi Semiconductor (acquired by Renesas), HD44780U Datasheet - Page 23

• Manufacturer Part Number: HD44780U
• Description: Dot Matrix Liquid Crystal Display Controller/driver
• Manufacturer: Hitachi Semiconductor (acquired by Renesas)

Interfacing to the MPU
The HD44780U can send data in either two 4-bit operations or one 8-bit operation, thus allowing
interfacing with 4- or 8-bit MPUs.
For 4-bit interface data, only four bus lines (DB4 to DB7) are used for transfer. Bus lines DB0 to DB3
are disabled. The data transfer between the HD44780U and the MPU is completed after the 4-bit data
has been transferred twice. As for the order of data transfer, the four high order bits (for 8-bit
operation, DB4 to DB7) are transferred before the four low order bits (for 8-bit operation, DB0 to
DB3).
The busy flag must be checked (one instruction) after the 4-bit data has been transferred twice. Two
more 4-bit operations then transfer the busy flag and address counter data.
For 8-bit interface data, all eight bus lines (DB0 to DB7) are used.
RS
R/W
E
DB7
DB6
DB5
DB4
Instruction register (IR)
write
IR7
IR6
IR5
IR4
Figure 9 4-Bit Transfer Example
IR3
IR2
IR1
IR0
AC6
AC5
AC4
Busy flag (BF) and
address counter (AC)
read
BF
AC3
AC2
AC1
AC0
Data register (DR)
read
DR7
DR6
DR5
DR4
DR3
DR2
DR1
DR0
HD44780U
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