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peter.clarke
peter.clarke
ARM announces 8-way graphics core
Peter Clarke
11/10/2011 3:52 AM EST
Mali, little-big working together
ARM emphasizes that with the Mali-T658 SoC designers are able to make use of a carefully crafted system-level approach to multicore design. That approach that includes ARM Cortex processor cores, the little-big power efficiency technology and cache-coherent interconnect.
As a result designers are expected to target high-end smartphones on 28-nm silicon with quad-core Mali-T658 coming to market in 2013 and eight-cored Mali-T658 graphics units to be 20-nm silicon in 2015. The core is also expected to find application in tablet computers, smart-TVs and automotive infotainment systems.
Mali-T658 will be able to take on computation tasks in applications such as image processing or augmented reality. The core has been made compatible with the recently announced A7-A15 little-big coupling so that as computation is moved on to the T658 it may accompany the movement of the core program down from the A15 to the A7, said Jem Davies, vice president of technology for the media processing division at ARM. The autonomous nature of the Mali Job Manager, and its ability to carry on graphics processing with a reduced load on the CPU, means it is suited to working alongside a big-little CPU system. By using the right processor for the right task the Mali-T658 is able to handle GPU compute tasks in parallel with the CPU handling the always-on always-connected tasks. ARM CoreLink system IP enables system-level cache coherency across clusters of multicore processors, including the Cortex-A15 and Mali-T658.
In addition the Mali-T658 is compatible with the ARMv8 full 64-bit instruction-set architecture, as is the Mali-T604.
ARM lead partners on the development of the Mali-T658 are listed as Fujitsu Semiconductor, LG Electronics, Nufront and Samsung.
As would be expected the Mali-T658 GPU supports all popular graphics and compute APIs, including Microsoft DirectX 11, Khronos OpenGL ES, Open VG, Khronos OpenCL, Google Renderscript and Microsoft DirectCompute.
Related links and articles:
ARM mulls 'big-little' scheme for graphics
ARM adds cache coherency to AMBA 4
Imagination raises outlook for graphic cores
Analysis: 'Rogue' design win hurts ARM
ARM Plays CatchÂup in Graphics IP
ARM emphasizes that with the Mali-T658 SoC designers are able to make use of a carefully crafted system-level approach to multicore design. That approach that includes ARM Cortex processor cores, the little-big power efficiency technology and cache-coherent interconnect.
As a result designers are expected to target high-end smartphones on 28-nm silicon with quad-core Mali-T658 coming to market in 2013 and eight-cored Mali-T658 graphics units to be 20-nm silicon in 2015. The core is also expected to find application in tablet computers, smart-TVs and automotive infotainment systems.
Mali-T658 will be able to take on computation tasks in applications such as image processing or augmented reality. The core has been made compatible with the recently announced A7-A15 little-big coupling so that as computation is moved on to the T658 it may accompany the movement of the core program down from the A15 to the A7, said Jem Davies, vice president of technology for the media processing division at ARM. The autonomous nature of the Mali Job Manager, and its ability to carry on graphics processing with a reduced load on the CPU, means it is suited to working alongside a big-little CPU system. By using the right processor for the right task the Mali-T658 is able to handle GPU compute tasks in parallel with the CPU handling the always-on always-connected tasks. ARM CoreLink system IP enables system-level cache coherency across clusters of multicore processors, including the Cortex-A15 and Mali-T658.
In addition the Mali-T658 is compatible with the ARMv8 full 64-bit instruction-set architecture, as is the Mali-T604.
ARM lead partners on the development of the Mali-T658 are listed as Fujitsu Semiconductor, LG Electronics, Nufront and Samsung.
As would be expected the Mali-T658 GPU supports all popular graphics and compute APIs, including Microsoft DirectX 11, Khronos OpenGL ES, Open VG, Khronos OpenCL, Google Renderscript and Microsoft DirectCompute.
Related links and articles:
ARM mulls 'big-little' scheme for graphics
ARM adds cache coherency to AMBA 4
Imagination raises outlook for graphic cores
Analysis: 'Rogue' design win hurts ARM
ARM Plays CatchÂup in Graphics IP
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help.fulguy
11/10/2011 11:24 AM EST
Poor ARM.....Looks like they are set to loose in this battle. Samsung, who was one of the biggest ARM Mali license, announced today that they licensed Imagination Technologies SGX Core. A fe months back, ST Ericsson made the same switch. ARM is losing....big time....
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Scott Sutton
11/10/2011 2:18 PM EST
Recent A15 announcements from ARM (Freescale, HiSilicon, TI...) do not include any mention of ARM GPUs. Given ARMs PR push on next generation Mali GPUs these must be Imagination or Vivant design wins? As fulguy mentions, Samsung/ST are switched from Mali to Imagination. NVIDIA, Broadcom and Qualcomm have traditionally developed their own GPUs.
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AJones
11/10/2011 4:37 PM EST
Samsung haven't announced anything! Imagination issued an RNS to the LSE.
The fact there is no press release on the Imagination website, shows there is no real substance behind this "announcement" and Samsung would have done the same if there was something worth shouting about.
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help.fulguy
11/11/2011 10:20 PM EST
here you go: http://www.imgtec.com/corporate/newsdetail.asp?NewsID=656
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AJones
11/13/2011 6:40 AM EST
This is not a typical press release that is approved by both parties. It's an RNS as i mentioned. I'm trying to find the a counterpart that Samsung has posted. There isn't one. It seems this is a mere attempt to try and disrupt ARM's announcement.
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dirk.bruere
11/10/2011 2:46 PM EST
ARM + nVidia seems to be the winning combination
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Neo1
11/10/2011 10:33 PM EST
This could be make it or break it for ARM graphics business which bought the small graphics chip design company 3 years ago. This could have the performance which the market is looking for unlike their previous offerings which were on the lower end of the scale.
A small power efficient graphics core would certainly boost the handling of visual data on the handhelds wihtout burning a significant hole in the power budget.
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t.alex
11/11/2011 7:59 AM EST
Just a basic question. What does it mean by 8way graphics core? Is it a marketing term?
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AJones
11/13/2011 6:41 AM EST
8way means 8-Core
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peter.clarke
11/14/2011 4:55 AM EST
@t.alex
I was trying to avoid saying "8-core graphics core" which although logically correct reads oddly.
It is indeed a graphics core with up to 8 shader cores inside it.
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peter.clarke
11/14/2011 4:55 AM EST
@AJones
You got it
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