FROM
THE EDITOR
This week, ARM went to Barcelona and sent back an announcement of a new graphics stack that enables portable, high-performance, 2D graphics to be developed and deployed on a wide range of mobile devices. The new Mali-SVG-t (and friends) put the software cap on the company’s graphics processing unit (GPU) IP cores. Our latest feature has the details.
Also this week, we have a contributed article from Todd Brian of Mentor Graphics on power management techniques in embedded multi-core devices. Portable devices are already going multi-core in a big way, and the problem of power consumption is felt more in the mobile world than in any other segment of electronics. While a multi-core architecture is inherently more power-friendly than a uni-core one, you won’t realize those benefits unless you have a disciplined approach to power management. Todd’s article gives us a rundown.
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Kevin
Morris – Editor
Embedded Technology Journal
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ARM Mobilizes Graphics
Mali 2D Standards Buffet
First, JSR184 was out there all by itself, carrying the Mali mantra to the masses – bringing smart feature phones fancy graphics capabilities formerly found only on immobile devices like computers and gaming consoles. Now, ARM has fleshed out the Mali software/middleware family with JSR226, JSR287, and SVG-t. What does this alphabet soup of standards designations mean?
For starters, let’s remember that ARM is an IP company. Their business is based on licensing processor IP (and all of the goodies that surround processor IP) primarily to mobile handset developers. As handsets get more complex, we end up needing a lot more sophisticated processors, co-processors, peripherals, software to support those peripherals… the list is almost endless, as is the opportunity for a company like ARM. Now that our typical mobile phone user is expecting features like streaming video delivered to the palm of his or her hand, companies like ARM are racing to provide the infrastructure to make that possible. [more]
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Utilizing Power Management Techniques in Embedded Multicore Devices
by Todd Brian, Mentor Graphics Corporation
There are many accepted reasons that support a move to multicore design in portable devices: scalability, specialty cores, increased performance, and reduced power consumption are just a few. This article, however, takes the approach that there is only one true reason why multicore makes an attractive platform for portable devices.
Before we explore that one reason, let’s debunk a couple of the more common reasons about multicore. For example, scalability is often cited a key reason to move to multicore because if one core is not fast enough then one can add another. If this were true, then we’d have to accept the fact that we cannot find a reasonably faster processor within that processor’s architectural family. For most devices, there are faster chips and chips with greater throughput within the same family. Not only that, but Moore isn’t dead yet, despite what the press says. So we do have the technology to double frequency and create more powerful processors within a uni-core chip family (at least a few more times). [more]
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