# Arm-2D GPU (/integration/chip_vendors/arm/arm2d)



Arm-2D is not a GPU but **an abstraction layer for 2D GPUs dedicated to
Microcontrollers**. It supports all Cortex-M processors ranging from
Cortex-M0 to the latest Cortex-M85.

Arm-2D accelerates LVGL9 with two modes: **Synchronous Mode** and
**Asynchronous Mode**.

* When **Helium** and **ACI (Arm Custom Instruction)** are available, it is recommend
  to use **Synchronous Mode** to accelerate LVGL.
* When Arm-2D backed 2D-GPUs are available, for example, **DMAC-350 based 2D
  GPUs**, it is recommend to use **Asynchronous Mode** to accelerate LVGL.

Arm-2D is an open-source project on GitHub. For more, please refer to:
[https://github.com/ARM-software/Arm-2D](https://github.com/ARM-software/Arm-2D).

How to Use [#how-to-use]

In general:

* you can set the macro <ApiLink name="LV_USE_DRAW_ARM2D_SYNC" /> to `1` and
  <ApiLink name="LV_DRAW_SW_ASM" /> to <ApiLink name="LV_DRAW_SW_ASM_HELIUM" /> in `lv_conf.h` to
  enable Arm-2D synchronous acceleration for LVGL.
* You can set
  the macro <ApiLink name="LV_USE_DRAW_ARM2D_ASYNC" /> to `1` in `lv_conf.h` to enable
  Arm-2D Asynchronous acceleration for LVGL.

If you are using
[CMSIS-Pack](https://github.com/lvgl/lvgl/tree/master/env_support/cmsis-pack)
to deploy the LVGL. You don't have to define the macro
<ApiLink name="LV_USE_DRAW_ARM2D_SYNC" /> manually, instead the lv\_conf\_cmsis.h will
check the environment and set the <ApiLink name="LV_USE_DRAW_ARM2D_SYNC" /> accordingly.

Design Considerations [#design-considerations]

As mentioned before, Arm-2D is an abstraction layer for 2D GPU; hence if
there is no accelerator or dedicated instruction set (such as Helium or
ACI) available for Arm-2D, it provides negligible performance boost for
LVGL (sometimes worse) for regular Cortex-M processors.

**We highly recommend you enable Arm-2D acceleration for LVGL** when:

* The target processors are **Cortex-M55**, **Cortex-M52** and **Cortex-M85**
* The target processors support
  [Helium](https://developer.arm.com/documentation/102102/0103/?lang=en).
* The device vendor provides an arm-2d compliant driver for their
  proprietary 2D accelerators and/or ACI (Arm Customized Instruction).
* The target device contains
  [DMAC-350](https://community.arm.com/arm-community-blogs/b/internet-of-things-blog/posts/arm-corelink-dma-350-next-generation-direct-memory-access-for-endpoint-ai)

Examples [#examples]

* [A Cortex-M55 (supports Helium) based MDK Project, PC emulation is
  available.](https://github.com/lvgl/lv_port_an547_cm55_sim)

API [#api]