Tablet GPU: The upcoming and happening in budget tablets

**sanjoy.bose** · 20-06-2012, 02:43 PM

Intro: ARM supplies the CPU designs used in most tablets and smartphones but it has entered into GPU (Graphics Processing Unit) market in 2006. The idea is to supply few all-in one CPU+GPU (both hardware and Software) in such a manner by which the main goals of the tablet manufacturers and users can be fulfilled.

The PRIMARY goals of a tablet as per we all can assume by commonsense are –
1) Low power consumption thus high battery life 2) Fast task executions i.e. multiple cores of processors and 3) of course as much as possible stunning graphics in higher resolutions/HD. (Keeping price range low is also a business goal)

History: In order to serve the aforesaid goals, ARM comes into pictures to facilitate all-in-one and almost self completed hardware.

ARM introduced MALI, The Mali series of GPUs are a series of semiconductor intellectual property cores.

Like other embedded IP cores for 3D supports, the Mali GPUs does not feature display controllers driving LCDs or monitors (such as the combination often found in common video cards), instead it is a pure 3D engine that renders graphics into memory and hands the rendered image over to another core that handles the display. (Hardware Part)

The different APIs such as OpenGL ES, OpenVG etc. are implemented as shader programs. ARM supplies tools to help in authoring such programs named Mali GPU Shader Development Studio and Mali GPU User Interface Engine. (Software Part)

This becomes quickly popular and ARM also provides a wide variant which can be summarized by the image:

image host

In addition – 400/450 series are for Gaming and video playback while 600 and higher series are added advantages of ‘computational graphics’ which are face reorganization, voice reorganization, panorama effect that means higher resolution pixel dense graphics rendering.

Future: That was till date. ARM has developed a new, entry-level version of its Mali graphics processor that could help expand the market for low-cost Android tablets. Good news for us – The microprocessor architect has announced the Mali 450 GPU, featuring eight cores instead of four. So, now the budget level tablets will get a boost and we will get a more graphics reach tablet in a same or slightly higher price. The Mali-450 is expected to appear in tablets in the first half of next year.

Combined compute and GPU means fast performance and reduced power consumption because there's reduced need to synchronise and cache data and instructions, so the battery life may also extending a bit from the next year tablet and due to the cheap price and availability (ARM reckons 2012 will see 25 partners ship 100 million units using ARM compared to 2011's 12 partners and 48 million units.) the overall price of a budget tablet is most likely to be lowered or as an alternative, you can get better spec on the same price range.

Further out, ARM is developing a high-end part code-named Skrymir, named after a giant in Norse mythology, which is due in 2014.

Source:
1) Mali (GPU) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
2) ARM builds Mali-450 GPU for cheap Android tablets - ComputerworldUK.com
3)ARM Preps Mali GPU for Low-cost Android Tablets | PCWorld
4) ARM unleashes 8-core Mali 450 GPU, heads down both forks in road ? The Register and few more.