Firefox OS optimised for chip featuring MIPS & Power VR

24th March 2015

Barney Scott

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Datasheet

Imagination Technologies has announced that an experimental version of Firefox OS from Mozilla has been ported to run on a reference tablet incorporating a 1.2 GHz dual-core MIPS CPU and a PowerVR SGX540 GPU. This is the same Ingenic JZ4780 chip as can be found inside the recently-launched Creator CI20 microcomputer, and the reference tablet will also support Android 4.4 KitKat.

To mark the occasion, ImgTec is offering 15 reference tablets to open source developers, in a giveaway hosted on the company blog. The company is also including a free WebGL SDK hosted on GitHub (containing several examples) that developers can run out of the box on devices equipped with MIPS CPUs or PowerVR GPUs.

For a chance to experience Firefox OS on one of these MIPS-based tablets, all you need to do is click one (or all) of the options in the Rafflecopter widget, hosted on ImgTec's website. To visit, click here.

Featuring a 9.7” screen of 1024x768 resolution, the tablet is a compact device sporting relatively small bezels. The headphone socket, a Micro USB and a Mini HDMI port, two physical buttons (sleep/wake and back) and a DC power input are on the top edge, along with the microphone, and the volume controls, whilst a pair of stereo speakers sits at the bottom on the front.

Hardware specifications include a 1.2GHz dual-core, MIPS32-based Ingenic JZ4780 processor featuring a PowerVR SGX540 GPU, a H.264/VP8-capable video decoder (up to 1080p at 30fps), and 802.11 b/g/n Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 4.0 support. The tablet also features front and rear cameras which suit WebRTC-based video conferencing or casual photo taking and HD video recording. In addition, developers have full access to the Firefox Marketplace so they can easily create, test and publish cross-platform HTML5 apps.

Firefox OS is built entirely on web-powered technologies and is emblematic of what can be achieved using HTML5 core technologies. Firefox OS is based on Gecko, a rendering engine designed by Mozilla to push pixels on mobile screens using a relatively new technology called WebGL. WebGL is a graphics API from the Khronos Group that delivers native performance inside apps written using web-friendly technologies.