New PowerVR GPUs from Imagination combine advanced graphics with optimizations for vision and computational photography

Series7XT Plus GPUs achieve up to 4x performance increase for vision applications

International CES, Las Vegas – 6^th January, 2016 – Imagination Technologies (IMG.L) introduces two new PowerVR Rogue GPU IP cores designed to enable customers to create advanced high definition graphics with a superior experience for vision and computational photography-based applications in their next-generation devices. New PowerVR Series7XT Plus GPUs extend Imagination’s flagship Series7XT lineup by adding support for OpenCL™ 2.0* as well as improving power/performance/area for vision applications.

With PowerVR Series7XT Plus GPUs, customers can achieve the ultimate graphics experience with hardware virtualization, multi-domain security, hardware tessellation, continued support for the latest APIs including OpenGL® ES 3.2 and Vulkan™** and more – and now provide an even better experience for next-generation vision and compute applications.

In recent years, the interfaces between humans and mobile devices, such as phones and tablets, have changed significantly. Technology first enabled touch interfaces, then voice recognition, and is now enabling natural language processing. The next evolution will extend to computer vision with GPUs including advanced camera processing and vision processing capabilities. These are required to enable key computer vision technologies such as advanced Deep Learning algorithms such as HOG (Histogram of Oriented Gradients), SLAM (Simultaneous Location and Mapping), and CNNs (Convolutional Neural Networks).

Peter McGuinness, director of multimedia technology marketing, Imagination, says: “After many years of research, it is now becoming practical to implement vision systems in consumer-grade devices. Visual information is the highest bandwidth, most information-rich way in which we can interact with the world. Of course analyzing and using visual data has the potential to absorb almost unlimited computing resources and huge amounts of bandwidth. We’re rolling out these new GPUs with high system efficiency and performance to support user experiences related to computational photography, computer vision, virtual reality, augmented reality, and other advanced visual experiences, all while extending battery life.”

Jon Peddie, president, JPR Research, says: “Many chips today don’t have a dedicated vision processor, but companies can achieve remarkable performance for vision and computational photography using the GPUs they would already be using for advanced UIs and other functions. Imagination’s new Series7XT Plus builds on the company’s highly scalable portfolio of PowerVR GPUs with optimized solutions for vision and compute applications, and adds to the company’s growing set of offerings for computer vision. Imagination is always focused on technology leadership, and these GPUs are no exception.”

A feature set optimized for vision processing and computational photography
Initial Series7XT Plus GPUs include the GT7200 Plus GPU with 64 ALU cores, and the GT7400 Plus GPU with 128 ALU cores. The GPUs are designed to offer improved in-system efficiency, improved power efficiency and reduced bandwidth for vision and computational photography in consumer devices, mid-range and mainstream smartphones, tablets and automotive systems such as advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS), infotainment, computer vision and advanced processing for instrument clusters.

The new GPUs include new feature set enhancements with a focus on next-generation compute:

• Up to 4x higher performance for OpenVX/vision algorithms compared to the previous generation through improved integer (INT) performance (2x INT16; 4x INT8)
• Bandwidth and latency improvements through shared virtual memory (SVM) in OpenCL 2.0
• Dynamic parallelism for more efficient execution and control through support for device enqueue in OpenCL 2.0

Ensuring the best real-world performance, power and bandwidth
As part of its continued focus on ensuring the best real-world performance in customers’ silicon products, Imagination has tuned the new Series7XT Plus GPUs to achieve further improvements in in-system performance and efficiency, with an eye on latency, fabric, memory controller and memory characteristics. The improvements are based on system performance modelling with extensive emulator based analysis and GPU IP tuning, as well as market and customer input. Improvements include:

• Support for the latest bus interface features including requestor priority support
• Doubled memory burst sizes – matching the latest system fabrics, memory controllers and memory components
• Tuned size plus improved cache efficiency which leads to ~10% reduced bandwidth

In addition, Imagination has made significant micro architectural improvements to improve power efficiency.

Imagination is uniquely positioned to help its partners build innovative vision systems, with its in-depth knowledge of imaging processors, GPUs, video encoders and embedded CPUs, as well as its expertise in heterogeneous processing and compute APIs such as OpenCL and RenderScript, along with OpenGL ES 3.2 and Vulkan for 3D graphics, and emerging higher level APIs for vision applications such as OpenVX™. Solutions like Imagination’s Imaging Framework for Android provide supporting infrastructure for computations being done on the new GPUs.

Software and tools support
Imagination provides developers with free access to the cross-platform PowerVR SDK, designed to support all aspects of 3D graphics application development; as well as tools and utilities that ease development of 3D graphics and GPU compute applications. Developers can join the PowerVR Insider community, download the SDK for free and interact through developer forums at http://community.imgtec.com/developers/powervr/.

Physical Design Optimization Kits (DOKs) for Imagination’s PowerVR Series7XT Plus GPUs will also be available, offering customers the flexibility to optimize for power, performance and area (PPA). Imagination DOKs are comprised of optimized reference design flows, tuned libraries from partners, characterization data and documentation.

Availability
PowerVR Series7XT Plus GPUs are available for licensing now. Imagination has already licensed these new cores to lead partners, including tier-ones. Contact info@imgtec.com for more information.

To access Imagination’s press kit for International CES 2016, please visit: https://imgtec.com/press-kit/. Email tradeshows@imgtec.com to arrange a personal meeting in Imagination’s suite at the Las Vegas Convention Center.

About PowerVR GPUs
Imagination’s PowerVR graphics processors (GPUs) are the de facto standard for mobile and embedded graphics and GPU compute. The PowerVR GPU family leads the market in technological capability, roadmap breadth and ecosystem, and is by far the most adopted and shipped technology of its kind. PowerVR graphics IP comprises a comprehensive portfolio of the industry’s leading GPUs, supporting a broad range of applications. See: http://www.imgtec.com/powervr/graphics.asp.

Editor’s Notes:
* Based on a published Khronos specification, PowerVR Series7XT Plus is expected to pass the Khronos Conformance Testing Process. Current conformance status can be found at www.khronos.org/conformance.

**Based on an internal draft Khronos specification, which may change prior to final release. Conformance criteria for this specification have not yet been established.

About Imagination Technologies
Imagination is a global technology leader whose products touch the lives of billions of people across the globe. The company’s broad range of silicon IP (intellectual property) includes the key processing blocks needed to create the SoCs (Systems on Chips) that power all mobile, consumer and embedded electronics. Its unique software IP, infrastructure technologies and system solutions enable its customers to get to market quickly with complete and highly differentiated SoC platforms. Imagination’s licensees include many of the world’s leading semiconductor manufacturers, network operators and OEMs/ODMs who are creating some of the world’s most iconic products. See: www.imgtec.com.