Google Plans Vulkan API Support for Android, Imagination Shows a Demo

Vulkan graphics API is the successors to OpenGL and OpenGL ES API, which will support multi-threaded rendering, move some of the complexity to the applications, and simplify graphics drivers, which may not be a bad things since these tend to be closed source, and bugs may be hard to get fixed. Google, which is now a subsidiary of a new company called Alphabet,  has recently announced that Vulkan will be implemented in future versions of Android, although OpenGL ES will still be supported, so developers can select their preferred graphics API for their apps, as Vulkan will be more complex for application programmers than OpenGL ES. Separately, Imagination technologies showcased their Vulkan driver for PowerVR Rogue GPU on the Nexus Player powered by an Intel SoC including a PowerVR G6430 GPU, and compare the Vulkan demo to the same demo using OpenGL ES 3.0 drivers. The difference between Vulkan and OpenGL […]

Meet Vulkan, The Successor of OpenGL and OpenGL ES 3D Graphics APIs

So far embedded systems are typically using SoCs with GPU supporting OpenGL ES, a subset of the full fledge OpenGL API used in desktop computers and workstations. These royalty-free standards are defined by Khronos Group non-profit organization, and as features in the embedded space and traditional computers merge, the group has now revealed the next-generation OpenGL specs will be called Vulkan. The new API will run on GPUs supporting OpenGL ES 3.1 or greater, take less CPU resources than its predecessors, and support multiple command buffers that can be created in parallel. More work will be required at the application level, but direct GPU control by the drivers will apparently result in less memory copies improving performance, or at least off-loading the CPU. It might be transparent to developers using game engines. GPU drivers will also be less complex. Vulkan will also use the new SPIR-V language shared with OpenCL […]

3D Graphics Acceleration in Linux on Allwinner A80 based Cubieboard4

Allwinner A80 is a powerful octa-core processor found in development boards and TV boxes such as Cubieboard4 or Tronsmart Draco AW80. Some early Ubuntu images and instructions had already been released for A80 Optimusboard and Draco AW80, but none of these featured GPU drivers for 3D acceleration, which to be honest, has limited advantages in Linux desktop distributions since desktop environments and most apps require full OpenGL support, i.e. not only OpenGL ES, and the only ARM SoC that can provide OpenGL support without external graphics card is Nvidia Tegra K1 SoC. Having said that GPU drivers would pave the way for smooth OpenELEC / Kodi user interface support in Allwinner A80 Linux distributions. That’s only one part of the puzzle, since the GPU normally handles the user interface, while the VPU takes care of video decoding. The good news is that CubieTech release updates images for their Cubieboard4 (CC-A80) […]

TyGL OpenGL ES 2.0 Backend for WebKit Speeds Up Web Rendering by Up to 11 Times

ARM, Szeged University in Hungary, and Samsung Research UK have been working on TyGL, a new backend for WebKit accelerated with OpenGL ES2.0, and developed and tested on ARM Mali-T628 GPU found in Samsung ARM Chromebook. It will typically provide 1.5 to 4.5 times higher performance, but in the best cases, it can achieve up to eleven times the performance of a CPU-only rendered page. The key features of TyGL include: Web rendering accelerated by GPU – Batching of draw calls delivers better results on GPUs. TyGL groups commands together to avoid frequent state changes while calling the Graphics Context API. Automatic shader generation – TyGL generates complex shaders from multiple shader fragments, and ensures the batches fit into the shader cache of the GPU. Trapezoid based path rendering – Work in progress. It will leverage GPU capabilities such as the Pixel Local Storage extension for OpenGL ES. No software […]

Some Projects on Nvidia Jetson TK1 Development Board: Nintendo Emulator, USB3 Webcam, and Robotics

Nvidia Jetson TK1 is a development board powered by the company’s Tegra K1 quado core Cortex A15 processor, and especially a Kepler GPU that allows for OpenGL 4.4. It has shipped to developers around April/May, and some of them have showcased their projects, or tested some hardware. Dolphin Emulator on Nvidia Jetson TK1 Dolphin is an emulator for Nintendo GameCube and Wii console that supports full HD (1080p) rendering, and run on Android, Linux and Mac OS,  and there’s also an Alpha version for Android. Ryan Houdek (Sonicadvance1), one of Dolphin’s developers, has leveraged Kepler’s OpenGL support via Nvidia’s GPU drivers, to port the emulator to the platform running on Ubuntu, but it should work as well on Tegra K1 hardware running Android such as XiaoMi MiiPad tablet.  You can watch Mario Kart: Double Dash demo running at full speed on the Nvidia board below. According to the developer, such […]

Hardkernel Unveils $179 ODROID-XU3 Development Board Powered by Samsung Exynos 5422 SoC

Remember ODROID-XU2 development board based on Exynos 5420? The bad news is that it apparently got scrapped, but the good news is that it gave birth to ODROID-XU3 development board powered by the latest Samsung Exynos 5422 octa core big.LITTLE SoC with support for Ubuntu 14.04 and Android 4.4, including GPU 3D acceleration with the company promising a full desktop experience in Ubuntu. ODROID-XU3 specifications: SoC – Samsung Exynos 5422 quad core ARM Cortex-A15 @ 2.0GHz+ quad core ARM Cortex-A7 @ 1.4GHz with Mali-T628 MP6 GPU supporting OpenGL ES 3.0 / 2.0 / 1.1 and OpenCL 1.1 Full profile System Memory – 2GB LPDDR3 RAM PoP (933Mhz, 14.9GB/s memory bandwidth, 2x32bit bus) Storage – Micro SD slot (up to 64GB) + eMMC 5.0 module socket (16, 32, or 64GB module available) Video Output – micro HDMI (Up to 1080p) and DisplayPort (up to 2160p) Audio Output – micro HDMI and […]

Nvidia to Give Away 50 Jetson TK1 Development Boards

Nvidia Jetson TK1 is a development board powered by Tegra K1 quad core Cortex A15 SoC including a 192-core Kepler GPU. This is one the the best, if not the best, ARM platform when it comes to GPU performance, GPGPU capabilities, and the only one I know of that supports OpenGL 4.4 “Desktop”, as well as Nvidia’s CUDA 6.0. You can buy the board for $192, but if you are a developer and have a project that could leverage and showcase Tegra K1 capabilities for computer vision solutions for robotics, medical devices, military, and automotive applications, you may well get one board for free via Nvidia’s Tegra K1 CUDA Vision Challenge. To apply, you need to submit your proposal via Nvidia’s TK1 vision challenge page by April 30, 2014. Please note, the contest is only open to US residents. The company will then consider the various proposals based on innovativeness, […]

Vivante Unveils Details About GC7000 Series GPU IP Family

Earlier this month, Vivante Corporation has announced several silicon partner integrations (but no names given) of its GC7000 Series GPU IP into SoCs targeting wearables, mobile, automotive, and 4K TV products, and provided some more details about its GC7000 family which supports features such as OpenGL ES 3.1 API, and hardware TS/GS/CS (tessellation / geometry / compute shader) extensions for Android. According to the company, they key benefits of their GC7000 GPU IP can be summarized as follows: True GPU Scalability – GC7000 Series products support limited silicon area to match form factor and market requirements. Products can snap to grid starting at 3.0 mm2 (28 nm) for the smallest single GPU GC7000 instance and grow in simple modular fashion for high end implementations to achieve what the company’s claims to be the the industry’s best PPA (power/performance/area). Smallest Licensable OpenGL ES 3.1 Cores with Geometry, Tessellation, and Compute Shaders […]

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