Vision - January/February 2009 - (Page 31) hardware acceleration engines, allowing users to browse to their heart’s content without fear of killing the battery on their phone or other connected device. Enabling Accelerated Graphics CE manufacturers and the semiconductor vendors who serve them, must ensure they have access to the wide range of accelerated graphics functionality these sophisticated mobile devices require. However, creating and sustaining the fundamental technology to integrate into SoCs for these end-user markets can cost tens of millions of dollars and divert resources from the task of SoC integration. That’s where SoC intellectual property (IP) comes in. Among the most advanced SoC IPs available today are 3D graphic cores that can deliver high image quality while using much less memory and consuming less power. The market, however, requires more than this; a key IP like 3D graphics must be delivered as a complete, integrated platform in order to simultaneously enable the semiconductor vendor, device manufacturer, and content provider. The graphics acceleration technology in IP cores achieves this by addressing the important issues of software standardization, development tool provision, and industry support, which help maximize available content—and high-quality content drives sales. That is why the leading SoC IP providers are so successful today. They work with all the major semiconductor players and key OEMs/ODMs (original equipment and design manufacturers), as well as standards bodies such as the Khronos Group—an industry consortium that has created several open-standard, royalty-free graphics APIs (application programming interfaces), such as OpenGL ES and OpenVG. These enable accelerated playback of dynamic media on a wide variety of platforms and devices. As a result of SoC IP, the device manufacturer can cut costs and time-to-market, while devoting precious engineering dollars on delivering to end-users the higher performance and enhanced feature sets they demand for their next-generation mobile phones, PDAs and TVs; digital video, radio and audio; electronic gaming; car navigation systems; and a host of other products. 3D graphics acceleration technologies are changing people’s relationships with their mobile devices, as seen by a growing number of devices and applications that use the technology. It will soon be the norm and demanded of future CE offerings. The bottom line is if you’re in product planning, design or manufacturing, you need to make sure that your chip supplier can meet your graphics acceleration needs. And if you’re the semiconductor vendor, the only realistic way to get such complex technology into your next designs is to license SoC IP. The bandwagon is moving with or without you. • Kristof Beets is business development manager for POWERVR Graphics at Imagination Technologies (www.imgtec.com). www.ce.org January/February 2009 31 http://www.imgtec.com http://www.iogear.com http://www.iogear.com http://www.ce.org
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