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http://www.imgtec.com/News/Release/index.asp?ID=259
Imagination Technologies Launches Programmable Shader Graphics Family for
Wireless Applications
Debut Of PowerVR SGX Wireless Graphics Accelerator Core Family Enables
Industry Roadmap For Next Generation Mobile Devices
------------------------------------------
29 July 2005
London, UK, 29th July 2005: Imagination Technologies - a leader in silicon
IP cores - debuts its PowerVR SGX Shader Graphics Accelerator family, the
future of wireless mobile embedded graphics and video technology.
The PowerVR SGX cores for wireless applications are part of Imagination's
PowerVR Series5 scalable and fully programmable unified shader graphics and
video core family, previously codenamed Eurasia. The first cores from this
family target mainstream and performance mobile graphics with
state-of-the-art support for 2D and 3D and an industry leading feature set
that exceeds OGL 2.0 shader and Microsoft Vertex and Pixel Shader Model 3
requirements.
PowerVR SGX is available for licensing in three scaled variants (PowerVR
SGX510, SGX520, SGX530) with sizes ranging from less than 2mm2 to 8mm2 in
90nm technology. These variants will enable a wide range of mobile devices
from basic phones and entry-level feature phones to mainstream feature
phones and advanced feature and smart phones.
"Despite its very small size PowerVR SGX will set a tough benchmark that any
competitors will have to stretch to compare with and, with advanced
programmability and state-of-the-art shader features, will enable content
developers to create a distinct new generation of mobile games and
applications," says Hossein Yassaie, CEO, Imagination Technologies.
PowerVR SGX enables the highest performance, most efficient and lowest power
consumption solution for handheld 3D graphics and video. Each scalable
PowerVR SGX variant provides highly flexible support for video codecs with
zero silicon overhead, using the advanced programmability of the core.
PowerVR SGX builds on the architectural benefits found in Imagination's
PowerVR MBX family, which is already the de facto standard for mobile
graphics with licensees including six of the world's top 10 semiconductor
manufacturers. The first PowerVR SGX deliverables will be available for
shipping to lead partners from next quarter.
The PowerVR SGX family will co-exist alongside PowerVR MBX, which is
currently integrated in a variety of devices including mobile handhelds, car
navigation and entertainment systems.
PowerVR SGX510, SGX520 and SGX530 are compatible with content created for
PowerVR MBX. PowerVR SGX is backwardly compatible with key features from the
PowerVR MBX family like the vertex shader programs and 2 and 4-bit PVR-TCT
texture compression. These compatibilities, and continued support for all
existing PowerVR extensions to OpenGL ES 1.1, allow comprehensive software
support developed on the PowerVR MBX platform to be carried forward to
PowerVR SGX.
The PowerVR SGX Difference
The new-generation PowerVR SGX offers all the advantages of PowerVR's highly
efficient tile based architecture. Unlike traditional graphics solutions
that demand expensive memory or very large silicon areas, PowerVR's unique,
patented tile-based rendering and deferred pixel shading architecture allows
a very small silicon die to deliver higher performance and higher image
quality, at lower power consumption, than competing technologies.
PowerVR SGX takes the PowerVR architecture to the next level with a unified
scalable shader engine (USSET), which combines vertex shader and pixel
shader features in a single scalable processing unit, enabling mobile
semiconductor and device manufacturers to plan a roadmap where PowerVR will
continue to enable the best performance in the most efficient architecture
for the mobile industry.
Shader technology enables superior realism and advanced features when
rendering 3D objects and, by making 3D effects more programmable, gives
freedom to content developers to create more visually compelling and unique
games and applications.
Continues Yassaie: "With its PowerVR deferred pixel shading architecture the
PowerVR SGX family has the lowest core and system power demands. It's ideal
for unified memory systems plus integrated CPU designs in mobile and cost
sensitive applications. Couple that with wide standards compatibility, high
scalability from a unified shader architecture, pipeline scalability from 1x
to 8x and beyond and video encode and decode for free, and you have a
solution that is demonstrably superior to any other offering on the market.
"With PowerVR SGX we expect to maintain our hard-won leadership position on
size, power and performance - and its scalability means it's suitable for a
wide range of end-user products. The specification says it all: this is the
premier wireless graphics solution and will enable our partners to continue
the reshaping of the mobile multimedia market they have already begun using
our technology."
Says Dr. Jon Peddie, the leading market researcher in graphics: "The mobile
phone is advancing in functionality at a 3X pace compared to the PC, and
future high-end phones will incorporate the OpenGL ES 2.0 API with shader
capabilities, similar to features found on high-end PCs. Imagination
Technologies, with design wins in most of the major handsets, continues its
lead by being the first to introduce a design with support for this new API
and we expect this new technology to fuel the next wave in modern advanced
mobile phones."
Inside PowerVR SGX
The PowerVR SGX family features the USSET unified scalable shader engine,
which combines vertex shader and pixel shader features in a single
programmable and highly scalable processing unit. Maximum gate utilisation
is achieved by sharing the unit for both vertex and pixel processing with
optimal automatic load balancing of vertex and pixel throughput, which are
often different from application to application.
PowerVR SGX's USSE supports advanced geometry and pixel processing
capabilities such as procedural geometry (e.g. higher order surfaces, data
instancing, path based geometry, point-sprite expansion etc.) and textures,
advanced per pixel and vertex lighting effects (e.g. parallax bump mapping,
refraction and reflection etc). Further, the highly flexible nature of the
USSE architecture allows this programmability to be applied to many other
tasks such as other multimedia related activities (e.g. physical modelling),
flexible video and image processing and many more. This unified approach to
processing also has the benefit of requiring a single unified programming
model with one compiler, reducing hardware and software qualification time.
PowerVR SGX's latency tolerant architecture provides geometry processing and
rasterisation decoupled to achieve minimal stalling as well as no pixel
shading of non-visible pixels and on-chip support for multiple render
targets (MRT). A large proportion of PowerVR SGX's peak throughput is
achievable in real applications and the architecture has the lowest
bandwidth requirements as PowerVR SGX's deferred pixel shading gives 2x - 3x
fill rate compared to other solutions at the same bandwidth. Across the
wireless PowerVR SGX family parts effective fillrate performance is from
200Mpix/sec to 1200Mpix/sec @ 200MHz (with even higher Z and stencil rates)
and polygon throughput is from 2Mpoly/sec to 13.5Mpoly/sec @ 200Mhz.
Z and Stencil tests are performed on-chip requiring no external stencil or
Z-buffer memory or bandwidth. Pixel shading and blending are also performed
on-chip and compressed texture support is just part of an industry leading
feature set which also supports OpenGL ES 2.0, OGL 2.0 and Microsoft Shader
Model 3.0 capable shaders, procedural geometry and MRTs.
PowerVR SGX enables compelling image quality via Internal True ColourT -
enabling colour operations to be performed on-chip using high precision
mathematics at arbitrary pixel colour precision up to 128bit/IEEE32 floating
point - combined with comprehensive programmable multi-sampling image
anti-aliasing for free.
A key benefit of PowerVR SGX's tiling architecture is on-chip multiple
render targets (MRT). This technology is unique to PowerVR tile based
rendering and cannot be replicated by an immediate mode renderer (IMR) in a
cost-effective manner. IMRs use conventional external MRTs with huge
external memory storage and bandwidth. PowerVR's on-chip MRTs result in low
geometry processing with no additional external memory cost and no
additional memory bandwidth cost.
All major 2D operations are accelerated, including: BLTs, Alpha Blend BLTs,
ROP 2, 3 & 4s, lines and surface rotation.
PowerVR SGX fully supports the broadest range of mobile standards including
OpenGL ES 2.0, OpenGL ES 1.X, D3D Mobile, OpenVG, JSR184 and JSR239, DX9+
and Open GL 2.0 APIs running under Linux, Symbian, WinCE and Windows Mobile
OS.
Video For Free
Because of PowerVR SGX's fully programmable architecture it can support
video acceleration for free, without increasing the size and complexity of
the core.
Video is a core competence of handheld graphics processors and is
increasingly a must-have feature, not just in Personal Media Player
products, but also other mobile devices. PowerVR SGX provides outstanding
image quality and frame rates, offloading video codec processing (including
MPEG-4 and H.264) from the main CPU. For video operations the host CPU load
is minimal and the PowerVR SGX part can perform motion estimation, motion
compensation and transform, residual generation, transform, quantisation,
inverse quantisation, inverse transform, image reconstruction, and
deblocking (H.264), making it possible to efficiently off load the tasks
associated with video compression/decompression from the host CPU.
As well as enabling the playback of users own personal media content,
PowerVR SGX's advanced video capabilities will enable mobile services such
as TV/video-on-demand and video messaging. PowerVR SGX also supports still
image standards including JPEG and JPEG2000.
Licensing
PowerVR SGX is the latest family in Imagination's range of comprehensive
visual IP cores, which cover graphics & video cores, digital video cores and
display & TV cores. For more information about becoming a PowerVR licensing
partner, contact (e-mail address removed).
-ends-
Editor's Notes
Collateral, including images and video of PowerVR SGX rendered 3D graphics,
is available from Imagination Technologies' PR, contact details opposite.
About PowerVR Series5 Technologies
Imagination Technologies' PowerVR division has a new highly scalable and
programmable graphics and video IP family, PowerVR Series5, under
development. This family is based on Imagination's new advanced shader
technology, offering state-of-the-art features for multimedia devices, and
sets the technology benchmark significantly ahead of current offerings. The
scalability of PowerVR Series5 supports a broad range of applications
including those in mobile, consumer and computing segments. Further details
about other members of PowerVR Series5 will be announced as appropriate.
http://www.powervr.com/Products/Graphics/Index.asp
PowerVR SGX - Overview
------------------------------------------
The PowerVR SGX Wireless Graphics Accelerator IP family is a range of cores
specifically developed to meet the next-generation requirements of mobile
embedded graphics and video processing. The PowerVR SGX family is based
around a fully programmable Unified Scalable Shader EngineTM, enabling a
feature set that exceeds the requirements of OGL 2.0 and Microsoft Shader
Model 3, enabling 2D, 3D and video processing in a single core.
PowerVR SGX builds on the inherent benefits of the tile based rendering
architecture found in PowerVR MBX, already the de facto standard for mobile
graphics. Among the many benefits of this architecture are low memory
bandwidth, exceptional performance, industry-standard software support,
market leading image quality and low power demands. The underlying PowerVR
SGX architecture is fully scaleable for a range of area and performance
targets and covers the entry-level feature and basic phones up to
smartphones and advanced feature phone market segments.
PowerVR SGX - Key features
-----------------------------------------------------
* Unified Scalable Shader EngineT (USSE) - combines vertex and pixel
shading in a single processing unit maximizing performance for available
silicon area through automatic load balancing.
* Enables advanced geometry and pixel processing capabilities such as
procedural geometry (e.g. HOS) and textures, advanced per pixel and vertex
lighting effects (e.g., shadows, parallax bump mapping, etc.). The
programmable architecture allows acceleration of other multimedia related
tasks (e.g. image processing). This unified approach to processing uses a
single unified-programming model with one compiler, reducing hardware and
software qualification time.
* Latency tolerant architecture - geometry and rasterisation processes
decoupled using tile-based rendering enabling on-chip processing of costly
hidden-surface removal and deferred pixel shading No pixel shading of
non-visible pixels, eliminating all unnecessary accesses to off-chip memory,
with on-chip processing of multiple render targets.
* Image Quality - Internal True ColourT operations to be performed
on-chip using high precision maths at arbitrary pixel precisions up to IEEE
32bit floating point combined with comprehensive programmable image
anti-aliasing for free.
* Video processing for free, with the programmable architecture
providing extensive accelerated functions support for multi-standard video
decode and encode.
PowerVR SGX - Product family
------------------------------------------
Family Members
PowerVR SGX core architecture is fully scaleable and the Wireless Graphics
Accelerator family includes 3 variants: SGX510, SGX520, SGX530 with sizes
ranging from less than 2mm2 to 8mm2 in a 90nm process.
Performance
Maximum effective pixel fillrate performance from 200Mpix/sec to
1200Mpix/sec @ 200MHz with even higher Z and stencil fill rate and polygon
throughput from 2Mpoly/sec to 13.5Mpoly/sec @ 200MHz. Performance depends on
core and configuration selected.
Power
PowerVR SGX cores are built on a foundation of unique patent-potected
technologies that deliver class-leading performance while keeping power
dissipation to a minimum. In addition, sophisticated clock gating power
management techniques ensure the lowest active and standby power
consumption.
PowerVR SGX - Software support
----------------------------------------------
API and OS Support
All industry standard graphics APIs and OSs supported, including:
* OpenGL ES 2.0, OpenGL ES 1.x, OpenGL 2.0, OpenVG
* Direct3D Mobile, DX9+
* JSR 184 and JSR 239
* Linux, Symbian, WinCE, Windows Mobile
Content Compatibility
PowerVR SGX510, SGX520 and SGX530 are compatible with content created for
PowerVR MBX. Powerful features like the Vertex Shader and PVR-TCT texture
compression are compatible with the MBX family. Continued support for all
existing PowerVR extensions to OpenGL ES 1.1, allows comprehensive software
support developed on the MBX platform to be carried forward to SGX.
Demos:
http://www.powervr.com/Products/Graphics/SGX/Index.asp?Page=5
_______________________________
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/07/29/imagination_powervr_sgx/
Imagination launches PowerVR SGX
By Tony Smith
Published Friday 29th July 2005 14:21 GMT
Get breaking Reg news straight to your desktop - click here to find out how
Imagination Technologies today launched its latest PowerVR graphics core
design. The new release brings programmable shader support to the company's
mobile graphics accelerator line-up.
The PowerVR SGX core - formerly known by its codename, 'Eurasia - provides
shader support to beyond OpenGL 2.0 and DirectX 9 Shader Model 3 standard,
Imagination claimed. The SGX's shader system, dubbed the Unified Scalable
Shader Engine (USSE), merges vertex and pixel shading into a single pipeline
capable of processing either kind of image element.
It's an approach adopted by ATI for its R500 Xbox 360 graphics chip and
probably for the upcoming R520 desktop GPU. Nvidia is working on a unified
shader architecture for its next-generation G80 GPU family. Like today's ATI
and Nvidia chips, the SGX series employ their pixel processing pipelines to
handle video work, including MPEG-4 and H.264 decoding and encoding, along
with motion compensation and estimation, too.
The SGX architecture decouples geometry processing and rasterisation to
achieve minimal stalling, along with on-chip support for multiple render
targets (MRT). Non-visible pixels are not shaded leading to 2-3x fill rate
compared to other solutions at the same bandwidth. The SGX series' effective
fill-rate runs from 200m pixels per second to 1200mps at 200MHz, with even
higher Z and stencil rates, Imagination claimed. Z and Stencil tests are
performed on-chip requiring no external stencil or Z-buffer memory or
bandwidth. Running through the range of core, polygon throughput is 2m
polygons per second up to 3.5m at 200MHz. The core support colour precision
up to 128 bits, and support multi-sampling anti-aliasing.
The SGX series will initially comprise three designs, the 510, 520 and 530.
The cores range from 2-8mm², made possible in part by the USSE support for
up to eight pipelines.
The SGX series builds on Imagination's existing PowerVR MBX line, itself
founded on PowerVR's low-bandwidth tile-based rendering architecture and
deferred pixel shading technique. The new cores are fully
backward-compatible with applications developed for the MBX, Imagination
said. The SGX family will not replace the MBX series, it said.
Like other PowerVR core designs, the SBX series will be made available to
semiconductor makers under licence. Imagination said key licensees will
receive their first core designs from Q4.
One such licensee is Intel, which said in May it had bought the rights to
use the core design. It's already a PowerVR MBX licensee, using the
technology in its PXA2700G mobile graphics chip, part of its XScale line-up.
In addition to Intel, Imagination has licensed PowerVR MBX to Sony Ericsson,
Texas Instruments, Freescale, ARM - which also has the right to sub-license
the graphics technology - Philips, Samsung and others. ®
Imagination Technologies Launches Programmable Shader Graphics Family for
Wireless Applications
Debut Of PowerVR SGX Wireless Graphics Accelerator Core Family Enables
Industry Roadmap For Next Generation Mobile Devices
------------------------------------------
29 July 2005
London, UK, 29th July 2005: Imagination Technologies - a leader in silicon
IP cores - debuts its PowerVR SGX Shader Graphics Accelerator family, the
future of wireless mobile embedded graphics and video technology.
The PowerVR SGX cores for wireless applications are part of Imagination's
PowerVR Series5 scalable and fully programmable unified shader graphics and
video core family, previously codenamed Eurasia. The first cores from this
family target mainstream and performance mobile graphics with
state-of-the-art support for 2D and 3D and an industry leading feature set
that exceeds OGL 2.0 shader and Microsoft Vertex and Pixel Shader Model 3
requirements.
PowerVR SGX is available for licensing in three scaled variants (PowerVR
SGX510, SGX520, SGX530) with sizes ranging from less than 2mm2 to 8mm2 in
90nm technology. These variants will enable a wide range of mobile devices
from basic phones and entry-level feature phones to mainstream feature
phones and advanced feature and smart phones.
"Despite its very small size PowerVR SGX will set a tough benchmark that any
competitors will have to stretch to compare with and, with advanced
programmability and state-of-the-art shader features, will enable content
developers to create a distinct new generation of mobile games and
applications," says Hossein Yassaie, CEO, Imagination Technologies.
PowerVR SGX enables the highest performance, most efficient and lowest power
consumption solution for handheld 3D graphics and video. Each scalable
PowerVR SGX variant provides highly flexible support for video codecs with
zero silicon overhead, using the advanced programmability of the core.
PowerVR SGX builds on the architectural benefits found in Imagination's
PowerVR MBX family, which is already the de facto standard for mobile
graphics with licensees including six of the world's top 10 semiconductor
manufacturers. The first PowerVR SGX deliverables will be available for
shipping to lead partners from next quarter.
The PowerVR SGX family will co-exist alongside PowerVR MBX, which is
currently integrated in a variety of devices including mobile handhelds, car
navigation and entertainment systems.
PowerVR SGX510, SGX520 and SGX530 are compatible with content created for
PowerVR MBX. PowerVR SGX is backwardly compatible with key features from the
PowerVR MBX family like the vertex shader programs and 2 and 4-bit PVR-TCT
texture compression. These compatibilities, and continued support for all
existing PowerVR extensions to OpenGL ES 1.1, allow comprehensive software
support developed on the PowerVR MBX platform to be carried forward to
PowerVR SGX.
The PowerVR SGX Difference
The new-generation PowerVR SGX offers all the advantages of PowerVR's highly
efficient tile based architecture. Unlike traditional graphics solutions
that demand expensive memory or very large silicon areas, PowerVR's unique,
patented tile-based rendering and deferred pixel shading architecture allows
a very small silicon die to deliver higher performance and higher image
quality, at lower power consumption, than competing technologies.
PowerVR SGX takes the PowerVR architecture to the next level with a unified
scalable shader engine (USSET), which combines vertex shader and pixel
shader features in a single scalable processing unit, enabling mobile
semiconductor and device manufacturers to plan a roadmap where PowerVR will
continue to enable the best performance in the most efficient architecture
for the mobile industry.
Shader technology enables superior realism and advanced features when
rendering 3D objects and, by making 3D effects more programmable, gives
freedom to content developers to create more visually compelling and unique
games and applications.
Continues Yassaie: "With its PowerVR deferred pixel shading architecture the
PowerVR SGX family has the lowest core and system power demands. It's ideal
for unified memory systems plus integrated CPU designs in mobile and cost
sensitive applications. Couple that with wide standards compatibility, high
scalability from a unified shader architecture, pipeline scalability from 1x
to 8x and beyond and video encode and decode for free, and you have a
solution that is demonstrably superior to any other offering on the market.
"With PowerVR SGX we expect to maintain our hard-won leadership position on
size, power and performance - and its scalability means it's suitable for a
wide range of end-user products. The specification says it all: this is the
premier wireless graphics solution and will enable our partners to continue
the reshaping of the mobile multimedia market they have already begun using
our technology."
Says Dr. Jon Peddie, the leading market researcher in graphics: "The mobile
phone is advancing in functionality at a 3X pace compared to the PC, and
future high-end phones will incorporate the OpenGL ES 2.0 API with shader
capabilities, similar to features found on high-end PCs. Imagination
Technologies, with design wins in most of the major handsets, continues its
lead by being the first to introduce a design with support for this new API
and we expect this new technology to fuel the next wave in modern advanced
mobile phones."
Inside PowerVR SGX
The PowerVR SGX family features the USSET unified scalable shader engine,
which combines vertex shader and pixel shader features in a single
programmable and highly scalable processing unit. Maximum gate utilisation
is achieved by sharing the unit for both vertex and pixel processing with
optimal automatic load balancing of vertex and pixel throughput, which are
often different from application to application.
PowerVR SGX's USSE supports advanced geometry and pixel processing
capabilities such as procedural geometry (e.g. higher order surfaces, data
instancing, path based geometry, point-sprite expansion etc.) and textures,
advanced per pixel and vertex lighting effects (e.g. parallax bump mapping,
refraction and reflection etc). Further, the highly flexible nature of the
USSE architecture allows this programmability to be applied to many other
tasks such as other multimedia related activities (e.g. physical modelling),
flexible video and image processing and many more. This unified approach to
processing also has the benefit of requiring a single unified programming
model with one compiler, reducing hardware and software qualification time.
PowerVR SGX's latency tolerant architecture provides geometry processing and
rasterisation decoupled to achieve minimal stalling as well as no pixel
shading of non-visible pixels and on-chip support for multiple render
targets (MRT). A large proportion of PowerVR SGX's peak throughput is
achievable in real applications and the architecture has the lowest
bandwidth requirements as PowerVR SGX's deferred pixel shading gives 2x - 3x
fill rate compared to other solutions at the same bandwidth. Across the
wireless PowerVR SGX family parts effective fillrate performance is from
200Mpix/sec to 1200Mpix/sec @ 200MHz (with even higher Z and stencil rates)
and polygon throughput is from 2Mpoly/sec to 13.5Mpoly/sec @ 200Mhz.
Z and Stencil tests are performed on-chip requiring no external stencil or
Z-buffer memory or bandwidth. Pixel shading and blending are also performed
on-chip and compressed texture support is just part of an industry leading
feature set which also supports OpenGL ES 2.0, OGL 2.0 and Microsoft Shader
Model 3.0 capable shaders, procedural geometry and MRTs.
PowerVR SGX enables compelling image quality via Internal True ColourT -
enabling colour operations to be performed on-chip using high precision
mathematics at arbitrary pixel colour precision up to 128bit/IEEE32 floating
point - combined with comprehensive programmable multi-sampling image
anti-aliasing for free.
A key benefit of PowerVR SGX's tiling architecture is on-chip multiple
render targets (MRT). This technology is unique to PowerVR tile based
rendering and cannot be replicated by an immediate mode renderer (IMR) in a
cost-effective manner. IMRs use conventional external MRTs with huge
external memory storage and bandwidth. PowerVR's on-chip MRTs result in low
geometry processing with no additional external memory cost and no
additional memory bandwidth cost.
All major 2D operations are accelerated, including: BLTs, Alpha Blend BLTs,
ROP 2, 3 & 4s, lines and surface rotation.
PowerVR SGX fully supports the broadest range of mobile standards including
OpenGL ES 2.0, OpenGL ES 1.X, D3D Mobile, OpenVG, JSR184 and JSR239, DX9+
and Open GL 2.0 APIs running under Linux, Symbian, WinCE and Windows Mobile
OS.
Video For Free
Because of PowerVR SGX's fully programmable architecture it can support
video acceleration for free, without increasing the size and complexity of
the core.
Video is a core competence of handheld graphics processors and is
increasingly a must-have feature, not just in Personal Media Player
products, but also other mobile devices. PowerVR SGX provides outstanding
image quality and frame rates, offloading video codec processing (including
MPEG-4 and H.264) from the main CPU. For video operations the host CPU load
is minimal and the PowerVR SGX part can perform motion estimation, motion
compensation and transform, residual generation, transform, quantisation,
inverse quantisation, inverse transform, image reconstruction, and
deblocking (H.264), making it possible to efficiently off load the tasks
associated with video compression/decompression from the host CPU.
As well as enabling the playback of users own personal media content,
PowerVR SGX's advanced video capabilities will enable mobile services such
as TV/video-on-demand and video messaging. PowerVR SGX also supports still
image standards including JPEG and JPEG2000.
Licensing
PowerVR SGX is the latest family in Imagination's range of comprehensive
visual IP cores, which cover graphics & video cores, digital video cores and
display & TV cores. For more information about becoming a PowerVR licensing
partner, contact (e-mail address removed).
-ends-
Editor's Notes
Collateral, including images and video of PowerVR SGX rendered 3D graphics,
is available from Imagination Technologies' PR, contact details opposite.
About PowerVR Series5 Technologies
Imagination Technologies' PowerVR division has a new highly scalable and
programmable graphics and video IP family, PowerVR Series5, under
development. This family is based on Imagination's new advanced shader
technology, offering state-of-the-art features for multimedia devices, and
sets the technology benchmark significantly ahead of current offerings. The
scalability of PowerVR Series5 supports a broad range of applications
including those in mobile, consumer and computing segments. Further details
about other members of PowerVR Series5 will be announced as appropriate.
http://www.powervr.com/Products/Graphics/Index.asp
PowerVR SGX - Overview
------------------------------------------
The PowerVR SGX Wireless Graphics Accelerator IP family is a range of cores
specifically developed to meet the next-generation requirements of mobile
embedded graphics and video processing. The PowerVR SGX family is based
around a fully programmable Unified Scalable Shader EngineTM, enabling a
feature set that exceeds the requirements of OGL 2.0 and Microsoft Shader
Model 3, enabling 2D, 3D and video processing in a single core.
PowerVR SGX builds on the inherent benefits of the tile based rendering
architecture found in PowerVR MBX, already the de facto standard for mobile
graphics. Among the many benefits of this architecture are low memory
bandwidth, exceptional performance, industry-standard software support,
market leading image quality and low power demands. The underlying PowerVR
SGX architecture is fully scaleable for a range of area and performance
targets and covers the entry-level feature and basic phones up to
smartphones and advanced feature phone market segments.
PowerVR SGX - Key features
-----------------------------------------------------
* Unified Scalable Shader EngineT (USSE) - combines vertex and pixel
shading in a single processing unit maximizing performance for available
silicon area through automatic load balancing.
* Enables advanced geometry and pixel processing capabilities such as
procedural geometry (e.g. HOS) and textures, advanced per pixel and vertex
lighting effects (e.g., shadows, parallax bump mapping, etc.). The
programmable architecture allows acceleration of other multimedia related
tasks (e.g. image processing). This unified approach to processing uses a
single unified-programming model with one compiler, reducing hardware and
software qualification time.
* Latency tolerant architecture - geometry and rasterisation processes
decoupled using tile-based rendering enabling on-chip processing of costly
hidden-surface removal and deferred pixel shading No pixel shading of
non-visible pixels, eliminating all unnecessary accesses to off-chip memory,
with on-chip processing of multiple render targets.
* Image Quality - Internal True ColourT operations to be performed
on-chip using high precision maths at arbitrary pixel precisions up to IEEE
32bit floating point combined with comprehensive programmable image
anti-aliasing for free.
* Video processing for free, with the programmable architecture
providing extensive accelerated functions support for multi-standard video
decode and encode.
PowerVR SGX - Product family
------------------------------------------
Family Members
PowerVR SGX core architecture is fully scaleable and the Wireless Graphics
Accelerator family includes 3 variants: SGX510, SGX520, SGX530 with sizes
ranging from less than 2mm2 to 8mm2 in a 90nm process.
Performance
Maximum effective pixel fillrate performance from 200Mpix/sec to
1200Mpix/sec @ 200MHz with even higher Z and stencil fill rate and polygon
throughput from 2Mpoly/sec to 13.5Mpoly/sec @ 200MHz. Performance depends on
core and configuration selected.
Power
PowerVR SGX cores are built on a foundation of unique patent-potected
technologies that deliver class-leading performance while keeping power
dissipation to a minimum. In addition, sophisticated clock gating power
management techniques ensure the lowest active and standby power
consumption.
PowerVR SGX - Software support
----------------------------------------------
API and OS Support
All industry standard graphics APIs and OSs supported, including:
* OpenGL ES 2.0, OpenGL ES 1.x, OpenGL 2.0, OpenVG
* Direct3D Mobile, DX9+
* JSR 184 and JSR 239
* Linux, Symbian, WinCE, Windows Mobile
Content Compatibility
PowerVR SGX510, SGX520 and SGX530 are compatible with content created for
PowerVR MBX. Powerful features like the Vertex Shader and PVR-TCT texture
compression are compatible with the MBX family. Continued support for all
existing PowerVR extensions to OpenGL ES 1.1, allows comprehensive software
support developed on the MBX platform to be carried forward to SGX.
Demos:
http://www.powervr.com/Products/Graphics/SGX/Index.asp?Page=5
_______________________________
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/07/29/imagination_powervr_sgx/
Imagination launches PowerVR SGX
By Tony Smith
Published Friday 29th July 2005 14:21 GMT
Get breaking Reg news straight to your desktop - click here to find out how
Imagination Technologies today launched its latest PowerVR graphics core
design. The new release brings programmable shader support to the company's
mobile graphics accelerator line-up.
The PowerVR SGX core - formerly known by its codename, 'Eurasia - provides
shader support to beyond OpenGL 2.0 and DirectX 9 Shader Model 3 standard,
Imagination claimed. The SGX's shader system, dubbed the Unified Scalable
Shader Engine (USSE), merges vertex and pixel shading into a single pipeline
capable of processing either kind of image element.
It's an approach adopted by ATI for its R500 Xbox 360 graphics chip and
probably for the upcoming R520 desktop GPU. Nvidia is working on a unified
shader architecture for its next-generation G80 GPU family. Like today's ATI
and Nvidia chips, the SGX series employ their pixel processing pipelines to
handle video work, including MPEG-4 and H.264 decoding and encoding, along
with motion compensation and estimation, too.
The SGX architecture decouples geometry processing and rasterisation to
achieve minimal stalling, along with on-chip support for multiple render
targets (MRT). Non-visible pixels are not shaded leading to 2-3x fill rate
compared to other solutions at the same bandwidth. The SGX series' effective
fill-rate runs from 200m pixels per second to 1200mps at 200MHz, with even
higher Z and stencil rates, Imagination claimed. Z and Stencil tests are
performed on-chip requiring no external stencil or Z-buffer memory or
bandwidth. Running through the range of core, polygon throughput is 2m
polygons per second up to 3.5m at 200MHz. The core support colour precision
up to 128 bits, and support multi-sampling anti-aliasing.
The SGX series will initially comprise three designs, the 510, 520 and 530.
The cores range from 2-8mm², made possible in part by the USSE support for
up to eight pipelines.
The SGX series builds on Imagination's existing PowerVR MBX line, itself
founded on PowerVR's low-bandwidth tile-based rendering architecture and
deferred pixel shading technique. The new cores are fully
backward-compatible with applications developed for the MBX, Imagination
said. The SGX family will not replace the MBX series, it said.
Like other PowerVR core designs, the SBX series will be made available to
semiconductor makers under licence. Imagination said key licensees will
receive their first core designs from Q4.
One such licensee is Intel, which said in May it had bought the rights to
use the core design. It's already a PowerVR MBX licensee, using the
technology in its PXA2700G mobile graphics chip, part of its XScale line-up.
In addition to Intel, Imagination has licensed PowerVR MBX to Sony Ericsson,
Texas Instruments, Freescale, ARM - which also has the right to sub-license
the graphics technology - Philips, Samsung and others. ®