From SPI Panel to Android Screen: Integrating a Custom DRM Display Driver on ARM64

Android's graphics stack is primarily designed for high-performance display interfaces such as HDMI, eDP, and MIPI-DSI. However, many embedded systems still rely on unconventional display interfaces like SPI, which are rarely supported by Android's standard display pipeline.

This talk presents a real-world case study of integrating a custom SPI-based display driver into the Android 14 graphics stack on an ARM64 platform. The driver is implemented using the Linux DRM framework and drives a small e-paper display connected through SPI.

Using RK3588 as a practical example, this session walks through the full integration process between the Linux DRM subsystem and the Android graphics stack. We will explore how SurfaceFlinger, Hardware Composer (HWC3), and DRM/KMS interact, as well as the challenges encountered when bringing up a non-standard display device in Android.