ARM launches Mali center for graphics developers

With 24 hardware licensees including Broadcom, LG Electronics, Mediatek, ST-Ericsson and STMicroelectronics, Mali technology is the most widely-licensed GPU architecture in the world. With the proliferation of Mali technology-powered silicon from the world’s foremost silicon suppliers, the online Mali Developer Center will help speed the development and delivery of compelling graphics and multimedia experiences for the broad range of applications based on the Mali architecture.

Developers and middleware providers within the expanding Mali ecosystem are working closely with ARM and its OEM and silicon Partners to reduce the time-to-market and total cost of bringing advanced graphics content to a wide variety of digital devices, from feature phones and smartphones, through to netbooks, game consoles, personal navigation devices, automotive dashboards, set-top boxes and digital TVs.

The Mali Developer Center encourages innovation and is set to be the catalyst for the proliferation of high-quality content and applications to meet demands for the next generation of devices. Developers are provided with early access to advanced Mali hardware, enabling compelling graphics content to run across multiple OEM platforms and through an ever-wider array of high performance consumer devices ahead of market availability.

“Getting devices with cutting edge user experiences and high-end graphics content to market, is often delayed by late changes in OEM specifications, affecting the characteristics and functionality of the target platform,” said Fredrik Ademar, CTO, TAT. “The Mali Developer Center will have a great positive impact in allowing us to develop advanced graphics solutions, taking full benefit of the Mali architecture ahead of the availability of a device to the wider market.”

“The Mali Developer Center will act as a catalyst for the development of next-generation user interfaces, gaming, browsing and navigation,” said Lance Howarth, general manager, ARM Media Processing Division. “With developers crying out for better access to OpenGL ES and OpenVG resources for some time, we see the Mali Developer Center becoming an effective hub for accelerated development of highly advanced graphics. Allowing access to the complete Mali graphics stack and the ARM Mali ecosystem, the portal will advance innovation, drive down development costs and reduce time to market, making next-generation graphics a reality.”

“The Mali Developer Center heralds a step change in graphics development,” said Min-Ho Ahn, VP of engineering, Digital Aria. “Even for companies such as DigitalAria with expertise in embedded graphics, developing stunning 3D User Interfaces with a dynamic look and feel in full HD resolution is a challenging task. Thanks to the combination of the advanced performance of Mali GPUs and the invaluable resources and support provided via the Mali Developer Center portal, we will be able to develop software more cost-effectively and reduce time-to-market.”

“ST-Ericsson is strongly committed to enable next-generation user experiences for mobile devices. As a key member of the Mali community, we will work closely with ARM and the Mali ecosystem to deliver advanced graphic capabilities in our platforms and accelerate innovation,” said Teppo Hemia, head of 3G Multimedia Business Unit , ST-Ericsson. “By providing developers with easier access to tools, hardware and other resources, the Mali Developer Center will drive innovation to the benefit of the whole ecosystem.”

The online portal will enable graphics and embedded applications developers, as well as middleware providers, to access to a comprehensive range of support levels and free tools, information resources, hardware and a community forum to speed pre-integration into Mali GPU-based platforms. This will significantly reduce development costs and shorten time to market of cutting-edge graphics on any device with a screen. Essentially it will reduce the total cost of graphics ownership for the whole value chain.