August 6, 2012 -- ARM today announced the second generation of the ARM Mali-T600 Series graphics processing units (GPUs), providing a dramatically improved user experience for tablets, smartphones and smart-TVs. Each of the products features a 50% performance increase* and are the first to include Adaptive Scalable Texture Compression (ASTC), a texture-compression technique that originated from ARM. ASTC significantly optimizes GPU performance and increases battery life in devices, enabling an always-on, always-connected experience, adopted by the Khronos Group.

Based on the Mali Midgard architecture, the second generation of the Mali-T600 Series comprises three GPUs: the Mali-T624, Mali-T628 and Mali-T678. Each product has been tuned to provide optimal performance and energy-efficiency for different end-devices. The Mali-T624 and Mali-T628 products provide market-leading graphics and GPU compute to smartphones and smart-TVs, while the Mali-T678 has been optimized to address the demands of the rapidly growing tablet market.

ARM continues to invest in GPU compute capabilities by applying ARM Cortex technology to the Mali GPU architecture. GPU compute enables greater control when balancing tasks between the CPU and GPU, allowing performance of the right task by the most efficient architecture. This enables improved energy-efficiency for current and new math intensive activities, such as:

Computational photography comprising computational methods of enhancing or extending digital photography. Multi-perspective views allowing multiple views from different positions. Real-time photo editing on mobile devices.

"The newly announced Mali-T600 series is essential for graphic performance improvement, and also for the future strategy of GPU Computing," said Mitsugu Naito, Executive Vice President, IP and Technology Development Unit, Fujitsu Semiconductor, Ltd. "Through our Subscription License with ARM for ARM IP products, we are able to share our product roadmap and deliver ARM-based platform SOCs promptly to our customers. The new Mali-T600 series will be added to our SOC-development platform portfolio and we plan to adopt the Mali-T600 series into our products as a key IP solution to enable improved GPU computing."

"Increasingly, consumers are demanding similar performance across their connected devices to access their personal information and content. This improved user experience is demanded across a range of devices, including smartphones, tablets and smart-TVs," said Andrew Chang, Vice President, MediaTek. "MediaTek is working closely with ARM to ensure that we provide high-performance, energy-efficient solutions that address these demands. The second generation the ARM Mali-T600 GPU will allow us to address these markets through technology leadership in graphics and GPU compute."

"Innovation happening in smart connected devices is not only in the computing area but also in the graphic area where smartphone and tablet manufacturers are seeking differentiation for their products. This relies on leading edge and innovative technologies from SOC vendors like Nufront," said Rock Yang, Vice President Marketing, Nufront. "Nufront is focusing on mobile computing and communication SOC design, leveraging advanced technologies from ARM. Using advanced technologies, such as Adaptive Scalable Texture Compression featured in the second generation of Mali-T600 GPUs, we can address the demands of the market and provide significant benefits to device manufacturers."

More about the second-generation Mali-T600 Series GPUs

Each of the second-generation Mali-T600 Series GPUs features a 50% performance increase compared to first-generation Mali-T600 products (based on industry standard benchmarks), on the same silicon process. This 50% increase has been facilitated by a combination of frequency improvements, such as optimizing the register transfer level (RTL) for increased performance, and micro-architectural improvements so that graphics are executed more efficiently. The design of each new product addresses different performance points:

The Mali-T624 GPU offers scalability from one to four cores, while the Mali-T628 from one to eight cores provides up to twice the graphics and GPU compute performance of the Mali-T624, extending the graphics potential for smartphones and smart-TVs. These products provide breathtaking graphical displays for advanced consumer applications, such as 3D graphics, visual computing and real time photo editing for smartphones and smart-TVs. The ARM Mali-T678 GPU offers the highest GPU compute performance available in the Mali-T600 Series of products, delivering a four-fold increase when compared with the Mali-T624 GPU through features such as increased ALU support. This brings a wide range of performance points to address the vibrant tablet market. The Mali-T678 offers energy-efficient high-end visual computing applications, such as computational photography, multi perspective views and augmented reality.

Posted by: John Miklosz