GPU cores with native HDR support in consumer AI chips
Imagination Technologies has shrunk its graphic processor unit (GPU) cores for consumer AI chips using RISC-V and ARM processor cores
The IMG CXM family of GPU cores ranges from the CXM-2-64 for wearable devices, SmartHubs or mainstream set-top boxes with HDR high dynamic range support, to the CXM-4-64 and the CXM-4-128 for high end digital TVs. All can be used with Imagination’s NNA neural network accelerator.
The CXM-2-64 handles two pixels per clock with 64FLOPS performance. The CXM-4-128 supports four pixels per clock for 128FLOPS.
The GPU cores support for 10bitsRGBA / YUV for a HDR graphical user interface with images with less visible banding. 4xMSAA efficiently smooths the outlines of texts and images. A key part of the design is the latest version Imagination’s Tiny Frame Buffer Compression. TFBCv2 supports both lossy and lossless compression and has an additional compression level (37.5%) for improved design flexibility.
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“These new CXM GPUs are a significant step up from our widely licensed IMG BXE and BXM range,” James Chapman, Chief Product Officer, Imagination Technologies. “We’ve taken that highly scalable, area efficient architecture, boosted its performance density and added key features, such as native support for HDR, that will transform user experiences and propel our customers to success in the consumer market. I expect to see CXM GPUs deployed in devices as diverse as wearables and premium 8K DTVs.”
The IMG CXM includes the Vulkan 1.3 API and has been optimised for several leading CPU architectures including ARM AXI bus and RISC-V ACE-Lite bus. Imagination points to GPUs shipping in multiple RISC-V projects, and it has its own Catapult range of RISC-V cores.
Dr. Charlie Su, CTO and President of Andes Technology says: “The RISC-V ecosystem is growing rapidly. To continue its growth and showcase the many possible ways it can be deployed, we partnered with Imagination to provide a quick and easy path to validated GPU and CPU IP blocks that can reduce SoC design time, risk, and cost for our customers. With Imagination’s flexibly designed GPU, and our AndesCore high-performance, low-power RISC-V CPU, we are able to satisfy the requirements for display-oriented SoC in a short time and generate the optimum configuration.”
