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ARM reveals its big graphics move

by Scott Bicheno on 10 November 2010, 16:46

Tags: ARM

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Two of the UK's biggest recent technology success stories - ARM and Imagination Technologies - used to be good mates. ARM designs low-power, embedded CPUs and Imagination designs low-power, embedded graphics, so it made sense for them to collaborate in order to offer complete solutions to their mutual customers.

Then ARM went and bought Norwegian graphics IP company Falanx Microsystems in 2006 - and with it the Mali technology designs - and instantly it became arguably Imagination's biggest competitor. It should be remembered that a major shareholder and licensee of Imagination is now Intel.

Relations between the two companies have been strained ever since, but Imagination seems to have kept the upper hand in embedded graphics. The latest announcement from ARM, however, is designed to wrest the initiative away from its Hertfordshire rival just as the embedded graphics market explodes.

The new GPU launch - the Mali T-604 - is being positioned as the GPU equivalent of the Cortex A15, launched a couple of months ago. Samsung has already been announced as the lead licensee, and will doubtless use the design in future iterations of its Hummingbird SoC.

"Visual computing is driving the next generation of consumer electronics, as consumers and developers demand the highest levels of graphics performance", said Lance Howarth, EVP and GM of the Media Processing Division at ARM.  "The tri-pipe architecture in the Mali-T604 provides both market leading compute functionality and high-performance graphics without compromise, enabling unequalled user experiences in energy-efficient consumer electronic devices."

We'll be having a chat with ARM tomorrow to find out the gory details. In the meantime there's a link to the full press release below.

 



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