ARM isn’t just good at chiseling new processor architectures for its own ARM platform. The circuit developer also has a graphics processor family called Mali. Representatives have now revealed that it is aiming to offer performance on par with video game consoles PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 within the next 18 months.
ARM is not the first mobile GPU developer to make comparisons with video game consoles. We have vitnessed both Qualcomm an dImagine Technologies talking about console-like performance in future chips and we are perhaps most interested in the latter’s PowerVR that will be upgraded to the new Rogue architecture by the end of next year.
ARM’s Mali architecture have already shown promise where Samsung used it to make sure Galaxy S II was the most powerful smartphone on the market. The Mali-400MP circuit will be replaced by Mali-T604 that will bring OpenCL and Direct X, which will open up for more powerful GPGPU functionality.
In the interview with The Inquirer ARM points out that it has a longer development cycle than e.g. Intel who launches new products every year. ARM aims to have a new circuit every 18 months in the foreseeable future, which also means the company is planning for quite a lot of years ahead.
It is not just Moore’s law that rules the development of the ARM platfomr, says the company. Shrinking transistors is not the only thing required to lower energy consumption and the slow development in battery technology is an apparent botlleneck.
In the future we can expect more advanced energy saving technologies. Including completely dynamic circuits where exucation units of CPU and GPU can be activated and scale dynamically depending on need.
Mali-T604 is estimated to reach the market next year and it most likely Samsung that will once again be first with the new architecture.
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