Vivante Demonstrates The First OpenGL ES 3.0 Production Silicon to Successfully Run Rightware Basemark ES 3.0 Benchmark

SUNNYVALE, Calif., April 30, 2013 /PRNewswire/ — Vivante Corporation, a world-wide leader in multicore graphics, GPU Compute, and vision processing technologies for mobile and embedded platforms, today announced it became the first mobile GPU vendor to publicly and successfully demonstrate Basemark ES 3.0 in customer silicon. This milestone was achieved and demonstrated at last week’s DESIGN West, The Embedded System Conference, in San Jose where Freescale Semiconductor’s i.MX6Q Application Processor with Vivante’s GPU was running the Basemark ES 3.0 benchmark flawlessly.

Vivante is again a front runner in implementing the latest graphics API standards in real silicon products, giving its customers early access to the latest graphics technologies that bring dynamic realism to 3D applications like Basemark ES 3.0. New features in APIs incorporated as part of the standard or through extensions can be brought to life by developers on Vivante hardware, allowing applications and products to be differentiated in the marketplace with the latest graphics API standards from the Khronos™ Group. The company also ships the world’s smallest and extreme low power, high precision OpenGL ES 3.0 core available in configurations less than 2 mm 2 (total final silicon footprint including all required cache memory with TSMC 28LP process)*.

Basemark ES 3.0 contains a rigorous set of tests that stress the GPU to determine how efficient and balanced the GPU architecture is versus the latest API standards. The test also measures the effectiveness of the GPU in accelerating real world applications that consumers use daily across a spectrum of devices. According to Rightware, some major ES 3.0 features used in the benchmark include:

  • Instanced Rendering: Allows an application to render multiple instances of a single mesh or object with a single draw call. This feature is ideal for rendering repeated objects in scenes for items like buildings, trees, or grass.
  • Transform Feedback: Adds life-like realism to a 3D scene using advanced particle effects such as smoke. The GPU re-uses geometry data that has already been processed so subsequent rendering calls do not need to go through the graphics pipeline again for each individual image.
  • Multiple Render Targets (MRT): Rendering can be now done on multiple render targets simultaneously. By rendering a single set of geometry attributes to each RT, you can render to separate off-screen buffers and combine them to create amazing effects which previously needed multiple passes on the same geometry.
  • Occlusion Queries: Determines which and how many pixels are visible during a set of draw calls for an object. This is generally used for giving 3D scenes vivid effects like adding lens flare to the image.
  • Primitive Restart: Makes it possible to render separate sequences of primitives like triangle or line strips in a 3D scene without having to create multiple draw calls.

Being the first vendor to successfully demonstrate Basemark ES 3.0 on shipping silicon reinforces Vivante’s position as a leader in mobile GPU design. It also puts Vivante’s customers ahead of the curve as the new API rapidly proliferates. Support of the latest 3D API with high precision and high quality rendering gives its partners the extra edge they need to create products with stunning user experiences.

In addition to the OpenGL ES 3.0 features in the benchmark listed above, the full line of Vivante OpenGL ES 3.0 products also include:

  • Updated GPU pipeline that includes high precision modes for realistic 3D graphics using dynamic shader effects and high fidelity rendering accuracy, bringing PC quality graphics to mobile form factors.
  • Multi-context support of graphics and GPU compute for OpenCL – OpenGL ES 3.0 interoperability to unleash special effects that bring game play and applications to life.
  • Support of new texture compression (ASTC, ETC2 / EAC) and pixel formats supported by the specification.
  • Additional features include support for 3D textures, texture arrays, sRGB textures, R/RG textures, NPOT textures, FP textures, depth textures, vertex textures, seamless cube maps, and sampler objects.

About Vivante Corporation
Vivante Corporation, a leader in multi-core GPU, OpenCL™, CPC Composition Engine and Vector Graphics IP solutions, provides the highest performance and lowest power characteristics across a range of Khronos™ Group API conformant standards based on the ScalarMorphic™ architecture. Vivante GPUs are integrated into customer silicon solutions in mass market products including smartphones, tablets, HDTVs, consumer electronics and embedded devices, running thousands of graphics applications across multiple operating systems and software platforms. Vivante is a privately held company headquartered in Sunnyvale, California, with additional R&D centers in Shanghai and Chengdu. For more information, visit http://www.vivantecorp.com .