Integrated media IP suite targets mobile market

The highly configurable and scalable IP suite enables ARM partners to develop diverse media SoCs, and is comprised of the Mali-V550 video accelerator, the Mali-DP550 display processor and the Mali-T800 GPU family.

A system-level approach to media IP enables power savings through system-wide adoption of bandwidth saving technologies such as ARM Frame Buffer Compression (AFBC). Other advanced technologies proven in prior Mali GPUs such as Adaptive Scalable Texture Compression (ASTC), Transaction Elimination and Smart Composition are now utilised across all Mali media IP blocks for even greater energy savings. The Mali-V550 and Mali-DP550 processors also benefit from features such as Motion Search Elimination technology that reduces bandwidth by up to 35%. This leads to a more energy-efficient mobile device that is better equipped for the increasingly complex content demands of users.

As mobile user content continues to diversify, manufacturers face an ongoing challenge to deliver the perfect device at the right price point. The ARM Mali Media IP suite addresses this challenge by offering a scalable solution to meet a wide range of performance and cost requirements. The ARM Mali-T800 GPU family includes the Mali-T820, Mali-T830 and Mali-T860 GPUs.

In a performance and energy-efficiency comparison using the same configuration and process node:

• The Mali-T820 GPU is optimised for entry-level products, achieving up to 40 percent more performance density compared to the Mali-T622 GPU
• The Mali-T830 GPU strikes the perfect balance of performance and efficiency, delivering up to 55 percent more performance than the Mali-T622 GPU
• The Mali-T860 GPU is for the most demanding consumers who want a great visual experience on their mobile device, providing high performance and 45 percent more energy-efficiency compared to the Mali-T628 GPU

The ARM Mali-T800 GPU family supports the latest APIs including OpenGL ES 3.1, DirectX 11, OpenCL and RenderScript and includes advanced features such as lossless compression with AFBC and Smart Composition for input bandwidth reduction. The Mali-T820 and Mali-T830 offer up to four shader cores, scaling to 16 shader coresin the Mali-T860.

The High Efficiency Video Coding (HEVC) standard has matured. Content in this format is now ready and suitable to migrate from software implementations to hardware implementations. The Mali-V550 video processor fully supports the HEVC standard to deliver compressed HD video at higher bit rates while retaining low energy consumption and secure content delivery features. 

Benefits and features of the Mali-V550 include:

• Scalability to 1080p/60fps on a single core and up to 4k120 on eight cores
• First video IP from ARM with multi-standard codecs including HEVC (H.265) for both encode and decode on a single core
• Multiple stream support for simultaneous encode and decode
• Motion Search Elimination, an energy saving feature that dynamically turns motion search on or off in the video encoder.

The Mali-DP550 delivers enhanced capabilities for offloading tasks such as composition, scaling, rotation and image post-processing from the GPU on to a dedicated processor in order to maximise device battery life. 

Benefits and features of the Mali-DP550 include:

• Support for up to seven layers of composition for image rendering optimisation, that enables users to benefit from more dynamic and immersive user interfaces
• A co-processor interface enabling easy integration with ARM partners’ IP blocks
• Configuration flexibility to support a range of resolutions

The ARM system-level design approach delivers immediate benefits for OEMs and silicon manufacturers with components providing interfaces to the ARM DS-5 Streamline performance analyser. This enables developers to identify bottlenecks across the entire system by showing the interaction of software with processors, graphics processors and system IP. This seamless software stack provided by the ARM ecosystem delivers high quality drivers that will enable a quicker time to market and lower development costs for ARM’s partners.

The ARM Mali media IP suite is available for immediate licensing and initial consumer devices are expected to appear in late 2015 and early 2016.