Umesh Gowda, Bitboys
Apr 17, 2006 (5:00 AM)
The visual capabilities found on mobile phones have gone through a dramatic change over the past couple of years. Capturing photographs and videos are key features that consumers are looking for in their mobile phones. The importance of high-quality graphics has also increased as high-resolution color displays have become commonplace. Graphics processing is now seen as one of the most important growth areas in the mobile industry.
The true potential of 3D graphics in mobile devices will be seen in the very near future as handsets with 3D graphics accelerators find their way into the hands of the consumers. Incorporating a dedicated graphics processor can dramatically improve the handset's graphics capability. Applications can include enhanced user interfaces, mobile 3D games, and maps and navigation.
Enabling advanced graphics features on future mobile phones means that we currently face the challenge of integrating 3D graphics processors in SoCs such as application and multimedia processors. Many aspects are involved, as 3D graphics can be an extremely memory-bandwidth hungry application, thus pushing the limits of the memory system, system bus, and overall system complexity.
