Imagination demonstrates latest Stereoscopic 3D (S3D) graphics and display technologies

The demonstrations, at an Imagination event at the British Embassy in Seoul Korea on June 10th 2010, make use of the powerful rendering capabilities of Imagination’s POWERVR SGX graphics acceleration family and the video decode and enhancement capabilities of the POWERVR VXD video decoder and FRC frame rate conversion IP cores.

The high performance POWERVR SGX graphics acceleration cores are ideally suited to S3D graphics, either using single or multi-processor cores for resolutions up to full 1080P HD, and are capable of supporting all commonly used S3D formats such as frame sequential, side-by-side, top-bottom and interlaced.

Using SGX it is possible to quickly upgrade existing 3D content to deliver full S3D, bringing new realism to 3D games and navigation, and exciting new possibilities for user interfaces in a wide range of applications.

The POWERVR SGX tile-based deferred rendering architecture is ideally suited to deal with the increased demands of S3D – which include twice the geometry processing workload and commensurate increases in fill/texturing workload. The scalable nature of the SGX architecture and its ability to efficiently support multiple contexts ensure that the best possible S3D user experience can be achieved using SGX powered devices while maintaining SGX’s unique low power, high performance credentials.

Says Tony King-Smith, VP marketing, Imagination: “The additional workload required for S3D places significant additional demands on the graphics processor – and POWERVR SGX is more than up to the task. Given that the performance demands are significantly higher for S3D than conventional 3D applications, we felt it important to show our technology delivering full S3D experiences today using currently shipping silicon. As a result of our demonstrations we look forward to seeing S3D as another key feature used by a broader base of applications for mobile phones, DTVs, STBs and other products in the next few years.”

Imagination is also demonstrating its POWERVR FRC frame rate conversion cores providing advanced image enhancement and a seamless S3D viewing experience with no frame judder.

FRC270 is the world’s smallest FRC (Frame Rate Conversion) solution, capable of full HD at 240Hz. It has been optimised to provide full stereo 1080P60 output from typical 1080P24 stereo sources (e.g. Blu-ray 3D - Profile 5.)

Continues King-Smith: “We are demonstrating today’s FRC technology providing enhancement of S3D video content at HD resolutions as proof that the current FRC270 is well suited to that task. We anticipate growing demand for our FRC solutions to complement our video decoding IP offerings for S3D.”

The multi-stream video decoding capabilities of Imagination’s POWERVR VXD also make it ideally suited to both active and passive S3D, where the realistic 3D effect is created using two fields, each containing almost identical images. However, VXD is capable of going far beyond the requirements of S3D video (where the two streams are in identical source formats) by being able to decode multiple streams of differing formats for applications such as dual screen output of multiple video sources or picture in picture HD. This enables the capabilities of VXD video decoders to be far more useful across many applications compared to other S3D video decode solutions that are only designed to decode S3D content.

VXD support for further capabilities useful for S3D applications, including key new technologies such as H.264 MVC (Multiview Video Coding), which enables multiple view point television, advanced S3D video imaging and immersive teleconferencing are expected to debut later in 2010.

Imagination is engaging with lead partners for this technology now.