ARM has presented its next generation integrated graphics circuit Mali-T604 developed under the code name Midgard. The GPU is aimed for ARM’s Cortex-A15 Eagle CPU and will bring five times the performance of current solutions found in smartphones and tablets.
Mali-T604 comes with one to four units and can be used ot just to push pixels in 3D applications but also support GPGPU applications, something that can be executed next to regular GPU calculations with the triple-shared pipeline.
Delivering up to 5x performance improvement over current Mali graphics processors, the Mali-T604 provides industry-leading graphics performance with an energy-efficient profile. The Mali-T604 enables visually rich user experiences not previously seen in consumer electronics devices, scaling from smartphones to high-end digital entertainment systems.
Mali-T604 supports OpenCL, OpenGL ES but also Microsoft’s DirectX API. One of the first manufacturers to use it will be Samsung that has already shown impressive graphical performance with its new smartphone Galaxy S. Performance is what ARM hope to increase five-fold with its new graphics circuit.
The power of the GPU can be used for e.g. edge smoothening where Mali-T604 supports up to 16x AA and where 4x antialiasing can be activated without performance losses.
When Mali-T604 will appear is uncertain, but we should look at Samsung for the first models. It will most likely limit the number of units in its smartphones, but perhaps open up for more with its coming tablets.
