PowerVR is a division of Imagination Technologies (formerly VideoLogic) that develops hardware and software IP for 2D and 3D rendering, and for video encoding, decoding, and associated image processing. In the late 1990s they competed heavily with 3dfx in the 3D accelerator market for desktop PC's and game consoles, but both companies were forced from this market by the rise of OpenGL, Direct3D and the ATI and NVIDIA cards that better supported these technologies. Since then, the PowerVR technology has been aimed primarily at the low-power market and are now found inside many mobile devices such as palmtops and cellphones. PowerVR accelerators are not manufactured by PowerVR, but instead the IP is licensed to other companies such as NEC, Intel, TI, and Samsung. For the 2006 film, see Intellectual Property (film). ... 3dfx Interactive was a company which specialized in the manufacturing of cutting-edge 3D graphics processing units and, later, graphics cards. ... A graphics/video/display card/board/adapter is a computer component designed to convert the logical representation of visual information into a signal that can be used as input for a display medium. ... The Nintendo GameCube is an example of a popular video game console. ... OpenGL (Open Graphics Library) is a standard specification defining a cross-language cross-platform API for writing applications that produce 2D and 3D computer graphics. ... Direct3D is part of Microsofts DirectX API. Direct3D is only available for Microsofts various Windows operating systems (Windows 95 and above) and is the base for the graphics API on the Xbox and Xbox 360 console systems. ... ATI Technologies Inc. ... The American multinational Nvidia Corporation (NASDAQ: NVDA) (pronounced ) specializes in the manufacture of graphics-processor technologies for workstations, desktop computers, and handheld devices. ... For the 2006 film, see Intellectual Property (film). ... NEC Corporation (Jp. ... Intel redirects here. ... Texas Instruments (NYSE: TXN), better known in the electronics industry (and popularly) as TI, is an American company based in Dallas, Texas, USA, renowned for developing and commercializing semiconductor and computer technology. ... Samsung Group is one of the largest South Korean business groupings. ...

Implementations

Sega Dreamcast

The second generation PowerVR2 chip found a market in the Sega Dreamcast console between 1998 and 2001. As part of an internal competition at Sega to design the successor to the Saturn, the PowerVR2 was licensed to NEC and was chosen ahead of a rival design based on the 3dfx Voodoo 2. Thanks to the performance of the PowerVR2, several Dreamcast games such as Quake III Arena could rival their PC counterparts in quality and performance. However, the success of the Dreamcast meant that the PC variant, sold as Neon 250, appeared a year late to the market and was at that time mid-range at best. The Dreamcast , code-named Dural, Dricas and Katana during development) is Segas fifth and final video game console and the successor to the Sega Saturn. ... This article is about the video game company. ... The Sega Saturn ) is a 32-bit video game console, first released on November 22, 1994 in Japan, May 11, 1995 in North America and July 8, 1995 in Europe. ... Quake III Arena or Quake 3, abbreviated as Q3A or Q3, is a multiplayer first-person shooter computer and video game released on December 2, 1999. ...

KYRO and KYRO II

Kyro II.

In 2001, STMicroelectronics adopted the third generation PowerVR3 for their STG4000 "KYRO" and STG 4500 "KYRO II" (right) chips. The STM PowerVR3 KYRO II, released in 2001, was able to rival the costlier ATI Radeon DDR and NVIDIA GeForce 2 GTS in benchmarks of the time, despite not having hardware transform and lighting. Unfortunately, as games were optimised for hardware transform and lighting, the KYRO II lost its performance advantage and is not supported by most modern games. Image File history File links Size of this preview: 594 × 600 pixelsFull resolution (800 × 808 pixel, file size: 130 KB, MIME type: image/jpeg) File history Legend: (cur) = this is the current file, (del) = delete this old version, (rev) = revert to this old version. ... Image File history File links Size of this preview: 594 × 600 pixelsFull resolution (800 × 808 pixel, file size: 130 KB, MIME type: image/jpeg) File history Legend: (cur) = this is the current file, (del) = delete this old version, (rev) = revert to this old version. ... STMicroelectronics is an international leading supplier of semiconductors. ... ATI Radeon is a brand of graphics processing units (GPU) that has been manufactured by ATI Technologies since 2000 and the successor to their Rage line. ... The GeForce 2 (codenamed NV15) was the second generation of GeForce graphics cards by NVIDIA Corporation. ... Transform and Lighting is a computing term used in computer graphics, generally used in the context of hardware acceleration (Hardware T&L). Transform refers to the task of converting coordinates in space, which in this case involves moving 3D objects in a virtual world and converting 3D coordinates to a...

STM's STG5000 chip was based upon the PowerVR4, which did include hardware T&L but it never came to commercial fruition. Transform and Lighting is a computing term used in computer graphics, generally used in the context of hardware acceleration (Hardware T&L). Transform refers to the task of converting coordinates in space, which in this case involves moving 3D objects in a virtual world and converting 3D coordinates to a...

Technology

The PowerVR chipset uses a unique approach to rendering a 3D scene, known as Tile Based Deferred Rendering (often abbreviated as TBDR). As the polygon generating program feeds triangles to the PowerVR driver it stores them in memory in triangle strip format. Unlike other architectures, polygon rendering is not performed until all polygon information has been collated for the current frame – hence rendering is deferred. Tiled Rendering the process of subdividing a scene by a regular grid in image space, to facilitate the use of limited hardware rendering resources later in the pipeline. ... Diagram of four triangles, 1, 2, 3, and 4, with vertices A, B, C, D, E, and F. A triangle strip is a series of connected triangles, sharing vertices, allowing for faster rendering for computer graphics. ... In film, video production, animation, and related fields, a frame is one of the many still images which compose the complete moving picture. ...

In order to render, the display is split into rectangular sections in a grid pattern. Each section is known as a tile. With each tile is associated a list of the triangles that visibly overlap that tile. Each tile is rendered in turn to produce the final image.

Tiles are rendered using a process similar to ray casting. Rays are cast onto the triangles associated with the tile and a pixel is rendered from the triangle closest to the camera. The PowerVR hardware typically calculates the depths associated with each polygon for one tile row in 1 cycle. In computer graphics, Ray-casting is a pseudo-3D rendering technique, a special case of ray tracing. ...

The advantage of this method is that, unlike with a more traditional z buffered rendering pipeline, work is never done determining what a polygon looks like in an area where it is obscured by other geometry. It also allows for correct rendering of partially transparent polygons independent of the order in which they are processed by the polygon producing application. (This capability was only implemented in Series 1 and 2. It has been removed since for lack of API support and cost reasons.) More importantly, as the rendering is circumscribed to a tile at a time, the whole tile can be in fast onchip memory, which is flushed to video memory before passing on to render the next tile. Under normal circumstances, each tile is visited just once per frame. Z-buffering is a term in computer graphics which refers to management of image depth coordinates in 3-d graphics, mainly used in hardware, more seldom in software. ...

PowerVR is not the only pioneer of tile based deferred rendering, but the only one to successfully bring a TBDR solution to market. Microsoft also conceptualised the idea with their abandoned "Talisman" project. Gigapixel, a company that developed IP for tile based deferred 3D graphics, were bought by 3Dfx, who were subsequently bought by Nvidia. Nvidia has no official plans to pursue tile based rendering at present. Talisman was a Microsoft project to built a new 3D graphics architecture based on quickly compositing 2D sub-images onto the screen. ...

Intel uses a similar concept in their integrated graphics solutions. However, their method, coined Zone Rendering, does not perform full hidden surface removal (HSR) and deferred texturing, therefore wasting fillrate and texture bandwidth on pixels that are not visible in the final image. In 3D computer graphics, hidden surface determination is the process used to determine which surfaces and parts of surfaces are not visible from a certain viewpoint. ...

Recent advances in hierarchical z buffering have effectively incorporated ideas previously only used in deferred rendering, including the idea of being able to split a scene into tiles and of potentially being able to accept or reject tile sized pieces of polygon.

PowerVR chipsets

Places where PowerVR technology and its various iterations have been used are:

Series 1 (NEC)

Series 2 (NEC)

The Dreamcast , code-named White Belt, Black Belt, Dural, Dricas, Vortex, Katana, Shark, and Guppy during development) is Segas last video game console and the successor to the Sega Saturn. ... The Sega NAOMI (New Arcade Operation Machine Idea) is a development of the Sega Dreamcast technology as a basis for an arcade system board. ... In 2000, Sega debuted the NOAMI 2 arcade system board at JAMMA. NOAMI 2 offered improved graphics performance; by substituting the graphics-assembly of the previous NAOMI board with a new assembly composed of two PowerVR CLX2 GPUs and a VideoLogic Elan chip (for geometry transformation and lighting effects). ...

Series 3 (STMicro)

Series 4 (MBX)

With KYRO 3 (2D/3D AIB) products shelved due to STMicro closing its graphics division, PowerVR concentrated on the portable market with its next design, the low power PowerVR MBX. It, and its SGX successors, have become the de facto standards for mobile 3D, having been licensed by seven of the top ten semiconductor manufacturers including Intel, Texas Instruments, Samsung, NEC, NXP Semiconductors, Freescale, Renesas, and Sunplus, and in use in many high-end cellphones including the Apple iPhone, Nokia N95, Sony Ericsson P1, and Motorola RIZR Z8. Intel Corporation (NASDAQ: INTC, SEHK: 4335), founded in 1968 as Integrated Electronics Corporation, is an American multinational corporation that is best known for designing and manufacturing microprocessors and specialized integrated circuits. ... Texas Instruments (NYSE: TXN), better known in the electronics industry (and popularly) as TI, is an American company based in Dallas, Texas, USA, renowned for developing and commercializing semiconductor and computer technology. ... Samsung Group is one of the largest South Korean business groupings. ... For other uses, see NEC (disambiguation). ... For other uses of NXP, see NXP (disambiguation). ... American corporation Freescale Semiconductor, Inc. ... Renesas Technology Corp. ... For the line of Internet appliances, see iPhone (Linksys). ... N95 redirects here. ... The Sony Ericsson P1 is the successor of the P990. ... The Motorola RIZR Z8 (pronounced riser) is a mobile phone from Motorola. ...

Products that have MBX on board, but do not necessarily use it:

Freescale i.MX31 -- MBX Lite + FPU + ARM1136

• Garz & Fricke Adelaide

Freescale i.MX31C -- MBX Lite + FPU + ARM1136

Freescale MPC5121e -- MBX Lite + VGP Lite + PowerPC e300 The PowerPC 5000 family is a series of Power Architecture microprocessors from Freescale (previously Motorola) designed for automotive and industrial microcontroller and system on a chip (SoC) use. ... The PowerPC e300 is a family of 32-bit Power Architecture microprocessor cores developed by Freescale for primary use in system-on-a-chip (SoC) designs with speed ranging up to 667 MHz, thus making them ideal for embedded applications. ...

• CherryPal cloud computer
• LimePC range (UMPC, HandheldPC, PalmPC, LimePC HDTV set)
• PhaedruS SystemS CSB781

Intel CE 2110 -- MBX Lite + XScale

• ASUS Set-Top Boxes
• Digeo Moxi Multi-Room HD Digital Media Recorder
• Digeo Moxi Mate
• Digital Video Networks Set-Top Boxes
• OKI Next Generation Hybrid STB
• ZTE Set-Top Boxes

Marvell 2700G (was Intel 2700G) -- MBX Lite (as a companion to the Marvell (was Intel) XScale processor PXA27x) Intel 2700G (Marathon) is a low power (50mW max) graphics co-processor for the XScale PXA27x processor and is built on PowerVR MBX technology. ...

• Advance Tech M.A.G.I.C.
• Advantech UbiQ-350
• Advantech UbiQ-470
• [Anders Electronics UMR-X10]http://www.anders.co.uk/displays_families.asp?prodLineID=4136
• Compulab CM-F82 (PowerPC Module)
• Dell Axim X50v
• Dell Axim X51v
• Dresser Wayne iX
• Gigabyte GSmart t600
• Palm Foleo
• Pepper Pad
• PFU Systems MediaStaff DS

NXP Nexperia PNX4008 -- MBX Lite + FPU + ARM926 The Axim x50v is a new model of Dell Axim Pocket PC. It has a 3. ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... The Palm Foleo mobile companion was a Linux-based subnotebook announced by Palm Inc. ... Photo of a Pepper Pad 2. ...

• Sony Ericsson M600 and M608c
• Sony Ericsson P1i and P1c
• Sony Ericsson P990 and P990c
• Sony Ericsson W950i and W958c
• Sony Ericsson W960i and W960c

NXP Nexperia PNX4009 -- MBX Lite + FPU + ARM926 Sony Ericsson M600 (sold as M600i model in some markets and originally labelled M608c in other markets) is a 3G smartphone based upon the UIQ 3 platform (which is built upon Symbian OS 9. ... Sony Ericsson P990 is a smartphone and the successor of Sony Ericsson P910. ... Sony Ericsson W950 is a Symbian based smartphone using the UIQ 3. ...

• Sony Ericsson G700 and G700c
• Sony Ericsson G700 Business Edition
• Sony Ericsson G702
• Sony Ericsson G900
• Sony Ericsson G902

Renesas SH3707 -- MBX + VGP + FPU + SH-4

• Sega Aurora

Renesas SH7770 (SH-Navi1) -- MBX + VGP + FPU + SH-4A, Renesas unidentified -- MBX + SuperH Aurora is a highly integrated, video gaming, hardware platform that Sega Sammy developed to power amusement devices like their pachinko/pachislot machine displays and arcade games and to also be sublicensed to outside manufacturers who are looking to build multimedia handheld and embedded systems. ...

• Alpine Car Information Systems
• Clarion MAX960HD
• Clarion NAX963HD
• Clarion NAX970HD
• Clarion NAX973HD and MAX973HD
• Clarion MAX9700DT
• Clarion MAX9750DT
• Mitsubishi HDD Navi H9000
• Mitsubishi HDD Navi H9700
• Pioneer Carrozzeria HDD CyberNavi AVIC-VH009
• Pioneer Carrozzeria HDD CyberNavi AVIC-ZH900MD

Renesas SH7775 -- MBX + VGP + FPU + SH-4A

Renesas SH73180 (SH-Mobile3), Renesas SH73182 (SH-Mobile3+), Renesas SH73230 (SH-Mobile3A), Renesas SH73450 (SH-Mobile3A+) -- MBX Lite + VGP Lite + SH4AL-DSP(SH-X)

• Fujitsu F702iD
• Fujitsu F901iC
• Fujitsu F902i
• Fujitsu F902iS
• Helio Hero
• Mitsubishi D702i
• Mitsubishi D851iWM (MUSIC PORTER X)
• Mitsubishi D901i
• Mitsubishi D901iS
• Mitsubishi D902i
• Mitsubishi D902iS
• Motorola MS550
• Pantech PN-8300
• SK Teletech (SKY) IM-8300

Renesas SH-Mobile G1 -- MBX Lite + VGP Lite + SH4AL-DSP(SH-X)

• Fujitsu F704i
• Fujitsu Raku-Raku PHONE III (F882iES)
• Fujitsu Raku-Raku PHONE Basic (F883i)
• Fujitsu Raku-Raku PHONE IV (F883iES)
• Fujitsu F903i
• Fujitsu F903iX HIGH-SPEED
• Fujitsu F904i
• Mitsubishi D704i
• Mitsubishi D903i
• Mitsubishi D903iTV
• Mitsubishi D904i

Renesas SH-Mobile G2 -- MBX Lite + VGP Lite + SH4AL-DSP(SH-X)

• Fujitsu F905i
• Mitsubishi D905i
• Sharp SH905i
• Sony Ericsson SO905i
• Sony Ericsson SO905iCS

Renesas SH-Mobile G3 -- MBX Lite + VGP Lite + SH4AL-DSP(SH-X)

• Fujitsu F906i
• Fujitsu F706i
• Sharp SH906i
• Sharp SH906iTV
• Sharp SH706i
• Sharp SH706ie
• Sharp SH706iw
• Sony Ericsson SO906i
• Sony Ericsson SO706i

Samsung S3C2460 -- MBX Lite + FPU + ARM926

Samsung S5L8900 -- MBX Lite + VGP Lite + FPU + ARM1176

• Apple iPhone
• Apple iPhone 3G
• Apple iPod touch
• Meizu M8 miniOne

SiRF SiRFprima -- MBX Lite + VGP Lite + MVED1 + FPU + ARM11 For the Internet appliance line, see Linksys iPhone. ... The iPod touch is a portable media player and Wi-Fi mobile platform designed and marketed by Apple Inc. ...

Sunplus unidentified -- MBX

Texas Instruments OMAP2420 -- MBX + VGP + FPU + ARM1136

• Motorola MOTO Q 9h
• Motorola MOTO Q music 9m
• Motorola MOTORIZR Z8
• Motorola MOTORIZR Z10
• NEC N902i
• NEC N902iS
• NEC N902iX HIGH-SPEED
• Nokia E90 Communicator
• Nokia N82
• Nokia N93
• Nokia N93i
• Nokia N95 (Classic, US, SoftBank X02NK Japanese, and 8 GB versions)
• Nokia N800
• Nokia N810
• Nokia N810 Wimax edition
• Panasonic P702iD
• Panasonic P702iS
• Panasonic P902i
• Panasonic P902iS
• Sharp SH702iD
• Sharp SH702iS
• Sharp SH902i
• Sharp SH902iS
• Sharp DOLCE SL (SH902iSL)
• Sony Ericsson SO902i
• Sony Ericsson SO902iWP+

Texas Instruments OMAP2430 -- MBX Lite + VGP Lite + FPU + ARM1136 Nokia E90 Communicator is a 3G smartphone made by Nokia and the latest model of the Communicator series. ... A Nokia N82 mobile phone The Nokia N82 is a mobile phone produced by Nokia. ... Nokia N93 (black and silver versions) The Nokia N93 is a smartphone by Nokia especially designed for multimedia use. ... The Nokia N93i is a smartphone by Nokia. ... N95 redirects here. ... The Nokia N800 Internet Tablet is a wireless Internet appliance from Nokia, originally announced at the Las Vegas CES 2007 Summit in January 2007. ... The Nokia N810 is a Internet appliance from Nokia, announced on 17 October 2007, the Nokia N810 and the Nokia N800 will be in production at the same time. ...

• ASUS M536
• Fujitsu F1100
• NEC N903i
• NEC N904i
• NEC N905i
• NEC N905iμ
• Panasonic P903i
• Panasonic P903iTV
• Panasonic P903iX HIGH-SPEED
• Samsung SGH-i550
• Samsung SGH-i560
• Samsung SGH-G810
• Sharp SH704i
• Sharp SH903i
• Sharp SH904i
• Sony Ericsson SO704i
• Sony Ericsson SO903i

Texas Instruments OMAP2530 -- MBX Lite + VGP Lite + FPU + ARM1176

Series 5 (SGX)

• PowerVR SGX (pixel, vertex, and geometry shader hardware)
  • next generation fully programmable universal scalable shader architecture
  • exceeding requirements of OpenGL 2.0 and up to DirectX 10.1 Shader Model 4.1
  • licensed to Intel, Renesas, NEC, TI (for OMAP 3), Samsung (for manufacturing), SigmaTel, Apple and others
  • 7 variants announced:
    • SGX510 (3 MPolys/sec)(withdrawn), SGX520 (7 MPolys/sec), and SGX530 (14 MPolys/sec) for the handheld mobile market
    • SGX535 and SGX540 (28 MPolys/sec) for handheld high end mobile, portable, MID, UMPC, consumer, and automotive devices
    • SGX540, SGX545, SGX 550 (100 MPolys/sec) and SGX555 for advanced consumer devices, laptop, and desktop products

Products that include the SGX: Intel Corporation (NASDAQ: INTC, SEHK: 4335), founded in 1968 as Integrated Electronics Corporation, is an American multinational corporation that is best known for designing and manufacturing microprocessors and specialized integrated circuits. ... Renesas Technology Corp. ... For other uses, see NEC (disambiguation). ... Texas Instruments (NYSE: TXN), better known in the electronics industry (and popularly) as TI, is an American company based in Dallas, Texas, USA, renowned for developing and commercializing semiconductor and computer technology. ... OMAP is a Texas Instruments proprietary microprocessor for multimedia applications. ... Leaked prototype photos of Origami Project. ...

Apple unidentified -- SGX + VXD370

Intel Canmore -- SGX + x86

Intel Sodaville -- SGX + x86

Intel System Controller Hub -- SGX535(Intel GMA 500) + VXD370

• Aigo mobile internet device
• ASUS R50A
• ASUS R70A
• BenQ S6 mobile internet device
• Clarion MiND
• CLEVO TN70M
• Compal mobile internet device
• Digifriends mobile internet device
• EB mobile internet device
• Fujitsu UMPC U2010
• Fujitsu U2020
• Gigabyte M528
• Inventec mobile internet device
• Lenovo Ideapad U8
• LG XNote B831
• NEXCOM MRC 2100
• NEXCOM MTC 2100
• NEXCOM MTC 2100-MD
• Panasonic Toughbook CF-U1
• Quanta mobile internet device
• Toshiba mobile internet device
• Viliv X5 mobile internet device
• WILLCOM D4 (Sharp WS016SH)
• Various system boards and Computer on Modules including:
  • RadiSys Procelerant Z500
  • IBASE IB822
  • Kontron nanoETXexpress-SP
  • Eurotech Catalyst
  • Congatech conga-CA
  • Portwell PEB-2736
  • MEN Micro XM1
  • LiPPERT CoreExpress-ECO COM
  • Xilinx XA Spartan-3E FPGA

Intel Moorestown -- Lincroft SoC (SGX + very low power x86)

NEC NaviEngine1 -- SGX535 + ARM11 MPCore (Quad)

• Alpine Car Information Systems (Spring 2010)

Renesas SH-Mobile 4 (in development) -- SGX + SH-4

Texas Instruments OMAP3420 -- SGX530 + Cortex-A8

Texas Instruments OMAP3430 -- SGX530 + Cortex-A8

Texas Instruments OMAP3440 -- SGX530 + Cortex-A8

Texas Instruments OMAP3515 -- SGX530 + Cortex-A8

Texas Instruments OMAP3530 -- SGX530 + Cortex-A8

• Beagle Board
• Pandora (console)

References

• PowerVR Developer Relations

External links

• Official website