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Chromium – High-performance web HMIs for embedded Linux
Web technologies have established themselves as a powerful alternative to traditional GUI development. With Chromium — the open-source foundation of Google Chrome — frameworks like React, Vue, or Angular can run directly on your embedded devices. However, integrating a full-featured browser into a lean embedded Linux system is highly complex and demands deep Yocto and hardware expertise. This is exactly where we come in: leverage the hands-on knowledge of our FAEs (Field Application Engineers) to get Chromium running with hardware acceleration and rock-solid stability on PHYTEC hardware.
Why Web Graphics on Embedded Hardware?
The days when browser engines were too resource-hungry for embedded devices are over. Modern SoCs feature dedicated graphics units (GPUs) that handle HTML5, CSS3, and WebGL rendering with high efficiency. Chromium is the de facto standard for putting that performance to work.
Why Use Web HMIs for Your Next Project?
✓ Platform independence
Build your user interface once. The same UI runs on the embedded device at a touch display, on a service technician's PC, or on the end customer's smartphone.
✓ Faster time-to-market
Tap into a vast ecosystem of web developers, pre-built UI components (e.g., Material Design), and open-source libraries instead of writing complex C/C++ from scratch.
✓ Flexible architecture
Web HMIs can run fully standalone via a local, lightweight web server (e.g., Nginx) on the PHYTEC device, or seamlessly visualize cloud data as an edge gateway.
✓ Easy OTA updates
Decoupling the OS from the application makes updates faster and safer. Refreshing the UI no longer requires a full firmware update. Just replacing the local HTML/JS files is enough.
The Challenge: Mastering Chromium Integration
The theory sounds straightforward — but the reality under Yocto often tells a different story. Chromium is one of the largest and most complex packages in the open-source world. Compiling it, resolving Yocto dependencies, and — most critically — correctly enabling hardware acceleration (VPU/GPU) via Wayland can cost development teams weeks. How to correctly enable hardware acceleration (VPU/GPU) via Wayland, often costs development teams weeks.
Our Expertise, Applied to Your Project
You don't have to tackle this alone. PHYTEC brings deep in-house expertise to Chromium integration. Our Field Application Engineers have successfully deployed high-performance kiosk-mode solutions (fullscreen, no browser chrome) on our modules, fully utilizing available hardware resources. Reach out — we're happy to advise on architecture, hardware selection, and integration best practices.
Recommended Hardware
Embedded Wizard and PHYTEC are continuously working to support an expanding range of platforms. Currently, we recommend the following hardware, for which certified Platform Packages are available:
Our top value pick for web graphics. Texas Instruments' architecture delivers surprisingly strong benchmark results for hardware-accelerated browser rendering — an ideal fit for cost-sensitive HMI designs.
We are currently preparing a dedicated development kit tailored specifically for Web HMIs. It will give you the perfect starting point for evaluating Chromium on PHYTEC hardware.
The high-performance choice for premium HMIs. Ideal for projects that go beyond web visualization and also require significant compute power for complex backend processes, video processing (Dual-ISP), or machine learning inference (NPU).
