Posted on Tuesday, December 07 2010 @ 18:48 CET by Thomas De Maesschalck
Imagination Technologies, a leading multimedia and communications technologies company, announces POWERVR SGX554, a high performance graphics core for embedded and mobile applications with full multi-processor capability.
POWERVR SGX554 can be implemented as a high-performance 8-pipe single core, or in multiprocessor (MP) configurations of between 2 and 16 cores (16 to 128 pipes).
POWERVR SGX554 is the latest member of Imagination's POWERVR Series5XT family which is poised to bring new levels of performance to mobile and embedded graphics. [Series5XT is being demonstrated in silicon for the first time today (December 6th) at Imagination’s exclusive annual industry event at the British Embassy in Tokyo.]
SGX554 provides full support for DirectX 9 Feature Level 3 with maximum hardware acceleration, making it ideal for tablets, computing devices and smartphones. SGX554 delivers all the benefits of POWERVR SGX cores, delivering the best industry metrics in performance per mm2 and performance per mW.
Tony King-Smith, VP marketing, Imagination, says: “This latest POWERVR Series5XT core will deliver new levels of embedded graphics capabilities. SGX554 pushes the upper boundaries of performance in power and cost-constrained embedded environments, while building on our unrivalled portfolio of APIs across every significant embedded and desktop operating system. What’s more we have been shipping DX9 level parts for more than three years, in millions of units, so SGX554 will benefit from the maturity of our DX9 drivers.”
SGX554 also provides comprehensive market proven support for desktop OpenGL 2.1 (including X11 integration with DRI2, EXA and DRM support), OpenGL ES 1.1 & 2.0, OpenVG 1.1 and OpenCL 1.1 Embedded Profile, offering the widest ranges of supported APIs of any mobile or embedded graphics IP core available today.
POWERVR SGX software stacks have passed rigorous Khronos and Microsoft conformance tests, guaranteeing fast time to market with high confidence across the widest range of embedded and desktop operating systems. Software configurations for Linux, Android, MeeGo, Palm's WebOS, Nokia's Maemo, Symbian, Windows Mobile, Samsung's Bada, and a variety of other operating systems are all shipping with POWERVR SGX powered devices today.
Additionally, Imagination also revealed two new video IP cores:
Imagination Technologies, a leading multimedia and communications technologies company, announces the latest additions to its multi-standard, multi-stream video IP core families, the POWERVR VXD392 decoder and POWERVR VXE382 encoder, including support for H.264 MVC, WebM (VP8; decode), S3D (Stereoscopic 3D) and resolutions up to UltraHD.
POWERVR VXD392 is a low power, high performance, multi-standard and multi-stream ultra high definition hardware video decoder IP core that enables the widest supported standards of any video IP core, and now includes support for WebM (VP8) as well as key new technologies including Stereo 3D and H.264 MVC. VXD392 also enables up to 4k x 4k resolutions for UltraHD and full resolution top and bottom or side by side display configurations for stereoscopic applications.
H.264 MVC (Multiview Video Coding) enables multiple view point television, advanced S3D video imaging and immersive teleconferencing. The multi-stream VXD architecture is uniquely suited to enabling the two main MVC use cases: Stereo High Profile, which targets two-view stereoscopic 3D video; and Multiview High Profile, which supports two or more views using both inter-picture and inter-view prediction.
VXD392 delivers significant bandwidth reductions compared to previous generation technology to give industry leading performance, even in the case of artificially extreme benchmarks such as Allegro. Further enhancements in latency tolerance delivers high performance with minimised system requirements - essential for today’s application platform SoCs where there are often multiple high bandwidth demands on the unified memory subsystem.
The POWERVR VXE382 Video Encoder IP core is a multi-standard SD and HD video encoder which delivers a comprehensive portfolio of standards and tuning options, including multi-stream input and support for H.264 MVC standard profile (as used by Blu-ray 3D), which makes VXE382 ideal for stereoscopic interactive 3D applications as well as high performance video-based communications. VXE382 also includes an extensive H.264 toolset which demonstrates Imagination’s position as the highest quality encoder IP core in the market.
Using POWERVR VXE382 savings in bitrate of 2.5x are typical when compared to existing solutions in the market. This equates to faster upload & download times, reduced bandwidth costs and vastly increased storage capabilities. By reducing the time required to transmit and receive video data, significant power savings can be made, vital for today's portable electronic devices.
By being part of Imagination’s unique and comprehensive POWERVR family of Visual IP cores, The Imagination codec technologies VXD392 and VXE382 are designed to integrate fully with other members of the family such as the POWERVR SGX graphics IP portfolio under unified software. When combined with SGX, the codec delivers a significant reduction in system bandwidth compared to alternative solutions through the use of sophisticated system integration features such as support for shared system level cache (SLC) with Imagination’s POWERVR SGX graphics cores.
Says Tony King-Smith, VP marketing, Imagination: “These latest POWERVR video decode and encode IP cores complement our industry-leading POWERVR SGX graphics perfectly to create a total visual IP solution for our partners. Imagination’s VXD family has shipped approaching 100 million units and is therefore well tested in the field. Our VXD392 decoder core requires almost no system CPU and GPU processing resource, while delivering everything needed to implement the latest in video processing including 1080P60 up to UltraHD, S3D, VP8 and H.264 MVC. The POWERVR VXE family is first and foremost designed to deliver quality encoding results and now with support for the H.264 MVC standard VXE382 brings our high quality encoding capabilities to the hot market area of stereoscopic 3D.”
Both cores are supported by an extensive set of hardware drivers including OpenMAX and libva API support, and a growing ecosystem of partners providing support for the POWERVR video decode and encode family of IP cores.
Imagination’s highly respected advanced power management techniques ensure that all POWERVR VXD and VXE cores have low power requirements enabling HD video to be consumed or created for hours at a time on power-constrained devices such as portable media players and mobile phones.
POWERVR VXD392 and VXE382 are available for licensing now.
