Imagination Technologies extends graphics IP core family with POWERVR SGX543

POWERVR graphics roadmap continues to outpace competition with debut of POWERVR Series5XT architecture

Las Vegas, January 8, 2009 -- Imagination Technologies – the leader in semiconductor System on Chip Intellectual Property (SoC IP) – announces POWERVR SGX543, the first graphics processor IP core based on Imagination’s extended POWERVR Series5XT architecture, which enables higher performance POWERVR SGX cores and multi-processor support.

The debut of POWERVR SGX543 takes the POWERVR roadmap to the next level. The SGX family now offers the ultimate scalability, ranging from the world’s smallest OpenGL ES 2.0 mobile core through solutions for performance mobile and HDTV, to high-performance gaming and computing solutions, confirming the ultimate scalability of the Series5 POWERVR SGX architecture.

POWERVR SGX543 is the first POWERVR SGX graphics IP core available in both single core and multi-processor solutions. Imagination will release further details of POWERVR SGX543’s multi-processor capabilities at Multicore Expo 2009 in March.

POWERVR SGX543 – the first POWERVR Series5XT architecture IP core
The four pipeline POWERVR SGX543 is the first in a series of new SGX IP cores that utilise the POWERVR Series5XT architecture, which delivers significant enhancements to the Series5 SGX architecture used in previous SGX IP cores. SGX543’s wide-ranging architectural enhancements include:

• USSE2 - extend USSE instruction set with comprehensive vector operations and co-issue capability
• upgraded tile handling to further reduce memory bandwidth and improve performance for setup-bound applicatis
• typically 40% faster performance for ‘shader-heavy’ applications
• 2x floating point and 2x hidden surface removal performance
• enhanced triangle setup delivering up to 50% higher throughput
• improved multi-sampling anti-aliasing performance
• features for optimised performance when used with POWERVR VXD and VXE video cores
• advanced colour space handling and gamma correction
• further optimised OpenVG 1.x support
• cache and MMU improvements

The new POWERVR SGX543 delivers real-world performance of 35 million polygons/sec and 1 Gpixels/sec fillrate at 200MHz,* capable of driving HD screens with ultra smooth high definition 3D graphics. Even in a single-core solution POWERVR SGX543’s performance is unprecedented in any GPU, demonstrating Imagination's pace of innovation and ability to drive the consumer experience in graphics to levels unheard of only a few years ago in anything less than high end specialist platforms.

Tony King-Smith, VP marketing Imagination Technologies says: "With POWERVR SGX543 Imagination continues to extend its leadership and dominance of the embedded graphics acceleration market with a solution capable of delivering blistering 3D, 2D and vector graphics. The Series5XT architecture enables us to continue to extend our dominance in mobile and embedded graphics solutions by addressing the rapidly growing demands for high performance graphics in a wide range of market segments."

Inside POWERVR SGX543
The POWERVR Series5XT architecture builds on the highly efficient Series5 architecture, which ensures that maximum performance is achieved across a wide range of applications, regardless of whether the content is dominated by polygon throughput, pixel processing, high fill rate or any combination of these. Other architectures that use separate polygon and pixel processing units cannot achieve the sustained throughput or silicon utilisation of POWERVR SGX graphics cores.

USSE2 (Universal Scalable Shader Engine2), the main programmable processing unit within each POWERVR SGX543 pipeline, incorporates a major upgrade of the data path to deliver vastly improved vector processing performance and overall throughput. This datapath upgrade is a key reason why SGX543 delivers on average 40% faster performance for 'shader-heavy' applications than earlier POWERVR SGX cores.

USSE2 is a scalable multi-threaded GPU shader processing engine that efficiently processes graphics as well as many other mathematically-intensive tasks. These tasks are automatically broken down into processing packets, which can include parts of shaders, which are then scheduled across a number of hardware multi-threaded execution units for maximum processing efficiency. USSE2 is programmed using the GLSL language that forms part of the OpenGL ES 2.0 API specification from the Khronos Group.

Imagination is also part of the OpenCL Working Group in Khronos defining the new GPGPU processing API, which will enable developers to gain greater access to the full capabilities of USSE2 in a broader range of applications.

About Imagination Technologies
Imagination Technologies Group plc (FTSE:IMG) – a leader in semiconductor System on Chip Intellectual Property (SoC IP) – creates and licenses market-leading embedded graphics, video, display and multi-threaded processors and multi-standard receiver technologies. These IP solutions are complemented by dynamic and extensive developer and middleware ecosystems. Target markets include mobile phone multimedia, handheld multimedia, home consumer entertainment, in-car and mobile computing. Its licensees include leading semiconductor and consumer electronics companies, as well as innovative leading edge start-up and fabless semiconductor companies. Imagination has corporate headquarters in the United Kingdom, with sales and R&D offices worldwide. See: www.imgtec.com.