ARM is the first mobile circuit developer that has applied for a full OpenCL ceritfication. ARM Mali-T604 is the name of the company’s next generation mobile graphics circuit that will offer the same OpenCL support as discrete graphics circuits on the PC market.
Mali-T604 will according to ARM be five times as powerful as the current Mali-400MP arkitektur. This is not a bad start since Mali-400MP in Exynos 4 Quad is currently the fastest graphics processor on the Android market, but ARM has not only improved performance. The fresh Midgard architecture will also be used in the even more powerful Mali-T658 that is not only optimized for 3D graphics, but also general computing. The support for GPGPU applications where the graphics processor is used to accelerate non-graphic workloads like file compression and video rendering has been leading in the mobile and integrated range.
“The submission of the ARM® Mali™-T604 graphics processing unit (GPU) for OpenCL™ 1.1 Full Profile conformance with Khronos*. ARM is the first GPU Intellectual Property (IP) supplier to submit conformance for Full Profile OpenCL, bringing desktop GPU computing features to the mobile, embedded and smart-TV markets,” – ARM press release
ARM says the support for the new graphics circuit is so extensive that the mobile OpenCL standard is not enough. ARM has therefore applied for certification for the same full OpenCL 1.1 standard that current discrete graphics circuits from AMD, Nvidia and Intel have. A certification that would put ARM’s Mali-T6xx GPU family on the same level of functionality as considerably more powerful and more power hungry PC circuits. How much of this that will come to good use in mobile platforms is hard to say, but technologoes like augmented reality, and video and audio editing are some of the more interesting and resource demanding areas.
Mali-T604 will most likely be found in products launching near the end of the year, and with up to four stream processors and more efficient technologies for lowering energy consumption it will be an interesting launch to follow.
