Graphics Category - Page 24 of 28 - CNX Software

June 4, 2012June 4, 2012 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments

Texas Instruments Showcases OMAP 5 GPU Capabilities with GLBenchmark 2.5

In February, Texas Instruments compared the browser rendering performance of its OMAP 5 platform to the Nvidia Tegra 3, and the benchmark results showed OMAP 5 was twice as fast @ 800 MHz than the Tegra 3 @ 1.3 GHz. Today, they’ve uploaded a video showing the 3D performance a tablet based on OMAP 5 (and PowerVR SGX 544-MP GPU) against a market-leading tablet (I guess it’s the Apple iPad 3 with PowerVR SGX 543 GPU) using GLBenchmark 2.5 with the following setup: 1080p resolution. On-screen and off-screen tests were conducted to compensate for the “Vysnc Limited” scenarios. (24bpp) 16bit depth tests to better represent high-end game content Power saving mode disabled and device connected to a power source. No background tasks and airplane mode “on.” The on-screen results show 38 fps for the OMAP 5 vs 34 fps for the other platform, or a 12% performance boost. Off-screen results […]

June 1, 2012June 1, 2012 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 1 Comment

Linaro 12.05 Release with Kernel 3.4 and Android 4.0.4

Linaro has just released version 12.05 based on Linux Kernel 3.4 and Android 4.0.4. This release provides lots of improvement for Origen (Samsung Exynos 4) on Android, further work has been done on big.LITTLE processing and ARMv8 work appears to have started for Ubuntu and Debian. armel vs armhf benchmarks show a massive improvement (up to 15x) when using armhf for povray (3D rendering),. but for most other tests, there is little improvement, and in some rare cases armhf is slightly slower than armel. Here are the highlights of the release: Android Created a stable Google hangout build for Origen Updated DS-5 and gator daemon to 5.10 Stress tests from big.LITTLE testing have been integrated into LAVA Completed big.LITTLE Android tasks Monkeyrunner tests for automating common Android usage have been integrated into LAVA Ordered a new power measurement device from National Instruments Updated and Origen 3.4 rc7 Completed Android HAL […]

May 29, 2012May 29, 2012 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 1 Comment

Open Source Mali 200/400 Drivers (LIMA) Demo on Android Tablet

Luc Verhaegen, the lead developer of LIMA open source project, provided an update at LinuxTag 2012 last week-end. This open-source MALI GPU driver isn’t ready for consumers yet, but the LIMA team has made some progress and showcased an OpenGL ES demos running on a Chinese tablet running Android. Luc said the tablet used for the demo is the same hardware as the Spark KDE/Vivaldi tablet, so the video demo below must be running on an AMLogic 8726-M processor with a Mali 400 GPU. The drivers already (partially) work on both Mali-200 and Mali-400 GPUs. The fragment shader instructions set is fully known and they have disassembler and assembler fully implement, but they still need to work on the compiler. The vertex shader instruction set is 80% known, they have a simple shader disassembler and are working on the assembler. You can also watch the 40 minute presentation at LinuxTag […]

February 25, 2012February 25, 2012 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 2 Comments

Binary Blobs Attack – ELC 2012

Zach Pfeffer, Android Platform Lead at Linaro, talks about (GPU) Binary Blobs and the problems they cause at Embedded Linux Conference 2012. Abstract: Binary Blobs Attack!!! Most SoC vendors distribute binary blobs with Linux kernel shims. These binary blobs enable graphics engines, DSPs and other cores on ARM and other architecture SoCs. These binary blobs tend to be tied to specific kernel versions which limits unreadability and hackability and complicates device manufactures, which slows down innovation and the introduction of new and unique computing devices. Here’s what I noted from this presentation: Most of the issues at Linaro come from (GPU) Binary blobs, they delay projects and cause projects to cost more as FAE and more engineers must be involved in solving problems. Blobs are here to stay mostly due to legal reasons (patents). Binary Blob are usually OS independent, e.g. the same binary is used in Windows and Linux, […]

February 24, 2012 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments

Metaio To Introduce Augmented City Platform at MWC 2012

Metaio has unveiled plans to add 3D Object Tracking and Visual Search to its free mobile Augmented Reality SDK for Android and iOS, part of the Augmented City platform. This SDK is optimized by major ARM chipset providers, and assembles technologies necessary for creating interactive and immersive AR experiences, such as the overlay of virtual information on building facades, city streets and almost any 3D real world object or device, says the company. Metaio Mobile SDK is specifically optimized for Texas Instruments OMAP4460/4470 and ST Ericsson NovaThor processors using respectively PowerVR SGX540, SGX544 and Mali-400 GPUs. The metaio Augmented City platform consists of diverse mobile and web software packages that use computer vision technology to insert 3D and digital information into the real world. Whereas many existing Augmented Reality (AR) platforms limit experiences to GPS mapping and the anchoring of graphics to simple, 2D surfaces, metaio platform can deliver real-time […]

February 14, 2012July 17, 2012 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments

Wayland Library: X11 Display Server Replacement for Linux

The X Window System has been implemented in Linux since the beginning and manages the graphical user interface of most Linux distributions, although some embedded systems do without X11 and use lightweight graphics libraries such as Nano-X, SDL, DirectFB etc… X11 is invisible to the end-user but does all the hard work needed to have Gnome, KDE and Unity user interfaces work properly and smoothly. However, in recent years, GNU/Linux desktop graphics has moved from having numerous rendering APIs talking to the X server which manages everything towards putting the Linux kernel in the middle with direct rending (e.g. OpenGL, VDPAU/VAAPI) with window systems taking the backstage. This new architecture provides a much-simplified graphics system offering more flexibility and better performance. The problem is that the X Window System is highly complex, a complexity that is not really needed with the newest version of the kernel. That’s where Wayland protocol comes […]

February 10, 2012February 22, 2015 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 2 Comments

ARM Mali-200 and Mali-400 GPU Open Source Driver Released

There has been a lot of controversy around GPU drivers and open source, as GPU drivers usually come with a blob (a binary file). If you have been lurking in Raspberry Pi forums you’ll know what I mean. But this will change thanks to Lima. No, not the capital of Peru but the open source graphics driver for ARM Mali GPUs (Mali-200 and Mali-400) also called Lima whose goal is stated as follows: The aim of this driver is to finally bring all the advantages of open source software to ARM SoC graphics drivers. Currently, the sole availability of binary drivers is increasing development and maintenance overhead, while also reducing portability, compatibility and limiting choice. Anyone who has dealt with GPU support on ARM, be it for a Linux with a GNU stack, or for an Android, knows the pain of dealing with these binaries. Lima is going to solve […]

February 1, 2012February 1, 2012 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments

Raspberry Pi Codecs and Graphics/Video APIs

The Raspberry Pi Foundation has announced which codecs and API would be supported in the Raspberry Pi. The Raspberry Pi board will support the following Graphics and Video API via a set of closed source libraries that give access to the GPU acceleration features: OpenGL ES 2.0 – OpenGL is a 3D Graphics API defined by the Khronos Group. OpenVG – OpenVG is a 2D vector drawing API also defined by the Khronos Group. EGL – EGL is the interface between Khronos rendering APIs such as OpenGL ES or OpenVG and the underlying native platform window system. OpenMAX IL – OpenMAX supplies a set of API’s that provides abstractions for routines used during audio, video, and still images processing. OpenMAX defines 3 layers, Raspberry Pi library will provide an interface to the IL layer, which provides an interface between media framework such as Gstreamer and a set of multimedia components. […]