Press Release
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Phone: +81-422-60-3480
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Digital
Media Professionals Unveils gPICAh
New Graphics
IP Core
Next Generation 3D/2D Graphics Solution for Embedded
Devices
PICA has been developed based on DMP's
business strategy for embedded systems announced in July 2005. PICA realizes a
flexible, scalable, and innovative hardware architecture to meet broad demand
for SoC (System on Chip) applications for the rapidly growing
"21st-century Digital Consumer Market," such as amusement machines,
car infotainment systems, mobile phones, game consoles, and digital appliances.
DMP plans to start licensing for PICA from the fall of 2006. In addition, DMP
offers OEM chip development service based on its chip development capabilities
proven in the launch of ULTRAY2000 in 2005.
gThe market for embedded SoC graphics
chips should grow to $2.8 billion worldwide by 2010,h said Dr. Jon Peddie,
President of the respected market research firm, Jon Peddie Research in
Tiburon, Cal. "Our model, which includes handheld game consoles, auto
infotainment, mobile phones and PDAs, and miscellaneous other devices like
video media players, gaming machines, and toys, is based on a very conservative
average sales price, so the market may be even better."
The internal bus structure of PICA, which
conforms with OCP (Open Core Protocol) supported by OCP-IP, assures IP
interoperability and design costs and risks can be reduced. DMP's unique
technology (Development Code Name: MAESTRO-2G), which can be implemented as a
3D extension module, achieves high-performance and reduces content sizes and
memory bandwidth for the embedded applications. In addition, high-quality
visual effects which could not be achieved in digital consumer products before
can be achieved through a quick and easy programming.
The
software development environment contains low-level drivers (libraries),
emulators supported on PCs, and a suite of authoring support tools for the
seamless workflow from major CG tools. In addition, these development tools are
compliant with OpenGL ES and OpenVG, which are industry-standard APIs created
by The Khronos Group, enabling reuse of existing software assets. DMP's
graphics solutions including 2D/3D with solid support for hardware and software
allow customers to design and develop products optimized to their applications
in minimal lead time. DMP is also a member of Futuremark's Benchmark
Development Program, and is participating in the development of OpenGL ES
industry-standard benchmark software.
"DMP's membership in our Benchmark
Development Program underscores their commitment to enabling stunning OpenGL
and OpenVG graphics solutions within the embedded applications market,h said
Tero Sarkkinen, Executive Vice President, Sales and Marketing, Futuremark
Corporation. "To further highlight DMP's support of embedded product
graphics, we've executed a custom-made, real-time 3D graphics demo for the PICA
platform to show its impressive performance attributes, a milestone that has
been virtually impossible to accomplish before the availability of PICA."
Screenshots from the demo jointly
developed by DMP and Furturemark Corporation for PICA are available to be downloaded
from the Futuremark website:
http://www.futuremark.com/companyinfo/pressroom/productpictures/dmpmikage/
Their press release is also available at:
http://www.futuremark.com/companyinfo/pressroom/pressreleases/49357/
"DMP's PICA has tremendous potential.
I expect that the combination of MascotCapsule, the most widely used real-time
3D drawing engine in the mobile industry, and PICA, which will enable the
provision of advanced graphics solutions for the digital consumer market, will
play a key role in providing new solutions, including factors for
differentiating among standard platforms, and new contents that will be enabled
in such solutions," commented Kazuo Kawabata, President and CEO of HI
CORPORATION.
"I'm confident that the combination
of MatrixEngine, which has earned a good reputation for efficient and low-cost
3D contents production and 3D multimedia communications, and the superior
expressiveness and drawing capabilities of DMP's PICA will meet all of the
needs in the amusement and vehicle system market,h said Toru Hayashi, President
of NETDIMENSION CORPORATION.
DMP is a contributing member of The
Khronos Group, a member-funded industry consortium focused on the creation of
open standard, royalty-free APIs, and plays key roles in creating industry
standards, such as by developing OpenGL ES and OpenVG compliant products
together with participation in Khronos' working groups.
PICA Graphics IP Core Configuration
-
PICA200:
3D graphics IP core for next-generation
embedded devices. Comprising a maximum of four programmable vertex processors,
a maximum of four rendering pipelines, and 3D extension module (MAESTRO-2G).
- PICA-FBM iFrame Buffer ManagementjF
An image post-processing module. A
standard configuration is the combination of PICA200 and PICA-FBM. However,
licenses can be granted for the PICA-FBM only as a 2D graphics IP core.
- PICA-VG (Vector Graphics)F
A
vector graphics module compliant with OpenVG. Can be used as a PICA-FBM add-on
module (licenses scheduled to be granted from the end of 2006).
Main Features of PICA Graphics IP Core
- Customizable
The number of vertex processors, the
number of rendering pipelines, implementation of MAESTRO-2G optional modules,
and memory configuration (external/internal) are all customizable through using
building-block architecture in line with demand for target SoC functionality,
performance and cost. In addition, this can also be used to flexibly respond to
the unique, overall system-level integration needs of each customer, such as
meeting the requirements for the target platform, including most embedded CPUs,
OS, video codecs, and any semiconductor-manufacturing process.
- High-Quality and High-Performance 3D
Drawing
Enables the fast execution of simple
procedures to achieve realistic 3D visual effects using a variety of hardware
shading and their combinations by implementing a 3D extension module
(MAESTRO-2G).
- Beautiful and High-Performance 2D Drawing
PICA-FBM
(image post-processing module) quickly generates high-quality images for the
final output to screens, through full-scene anti-aliasing, multi-layer
compositing (maximum of eight layers), a resizing function, a color and spacing
conversion function, a scrolling function, etc. Furthermore, PICA-VG (vector
graphics module) will enable the development of high image quality,
operability, excellent 2D maps, and skin UIs, etc.
- Small Contents Size and Memory Bandwidth Reduction
Enables
the production of small-sized and reduced-memory bandwidth contents with OpenGL
ES standard texture compression functionality, polygon subdivision
functionality and procedural textural functionality in the 3D extension module
(MAESTRO-2G), and through implementing PICA-VG.
- High Speed Animation
Enables the execution of skin animation
without overburdening the CPU using the programmable vertex processor (up to
four). Provides solid support for increasing the speed and quality of character
animation, which is becoming an important element in the amusement field.
###
About
Digital Media Professionals Inc.
Digital
Media Professionals Inc.(DMP) is the world-class leader bringing 3D/2D graphics
solutions to the market from
DMP is a contributing member of The
Khronos Group, a member-funded industry consortium focused on the creation of
open standard, royalty-free APIs, and plays key roles in creating industry
standards, such as by developing OpenGL ES and OpenVG compliant products
together with participation in Khronos' working groups.
The
company name, logo, ULTRAY, PICA, and product logos are all registered
trademarks of Digital Media Professionals Inc. Rights to other registered
trademarks or other trademarks belong to their respective owners. The terms
described herein are subject to change without notice.