ARM gpu brings Playstation 3 quality graphics to mobile phones
1 min read
ARM has unveiled the latest member of the Midgard architecture based graphics processing unit family, targeting high performance devices such as superphones, tablets and smart tvs. ARM claims that the Mali-T658 gpu will enable Playstation 3 quality graphics on smartphones and tablets.
Targeting high end consumer requirements, the gpu delivers up to 10 times graphics performance of the Mali-400 MP gpu, found in a wide range of mainstream consumer products such as the Samsung Galaxy S2.
ARM adds that it also features four times the gpu compute performance of the Mali-T604 gpu, enabling new use cases outside of traditional graphics processing, such as computational photography, image processing and augmented reality. According to ARM, it enables an immersive visual computing experience on a range of 'always on, always connected' consumer devices.
The gpu has strong support by lead ARM partners, including Fujitsu, LG, Nufront and Samsung and extends the organizations performance leadership with scalability up to eight cores and by doubling of the number of arithmetic pipelines within each of these cores. It is also compatible with the ARMv8 architecture.
Rock Yang, vp marketing, Nufront, believes ARM is in a unique position to integrate cpu, gpu and interconnect technology into optimised, coherent systems, "and by doing so," he said that this will, "improve performance and enable more efficient data sharing. This will allow partners, such as Beijing Nufront to make the most of the leading capabilities of each system component and maximise throughput in ARM technology based computed sub systems."
The Mali-T658 gpu supports a wide range of graphics and compute APIs and has been designed to work with the ARM Cortex-A15 and A7 processors either in standalone modes or in big.LITTLE processing mode. Its ability to scale up to eight cores provides unprecedented energy efficiency and scalability to match the cpu and gpu performance points through one coherent interface.
Pete Hutton, ARM's general manager, Media Processing Division, said: "Next generation consumer devices based on the Mali-T658 gpu will address the growing user expectation for slick user interfaces and desktop class graphics. Intuitive user interfaces will mean that consumers can access the full functionality of their connected devices, for richer user experiences. This includes hd gaming and new compute intensive applications, such as augmented reality."
