ARM Launches Second Gen Mali-T600 GPU

Max Smolaks,

Design shows 50 percent increase in performance using the same silicon process, according to ARM

ARM has launched its second generation of Mali GPUs which provide a 50 percent increase in performance when compared to the first generation of Mali chips, according to the British chip designer.

The new designs are the first to include Adaptive Scalable Texture Compression (ASTC), a graphics processing method developed by ARM. The technology has already been adopted by the Khronos Group consortium, members of which include ATI, Intel and Nvidia.

ARM said it wants its new GPUs to provide better user experience for tablets, smartphones and smart-TVs.

Same size, twice the power

The second generation of the Mali-T600 Series includes three GPUs. The Mali-T624 and Mali-T628 are designed for smartphones and smart TVs, while Mali-T678 has been optimised for tablets. The new chips offer impressive scalability – from one to eight cores.

The Mali-T600 Series expands the computational abilities of the GPU and enables greater control when balancing tasks between the CPU and GPU, allowing the system to perform every task using the most appropriate architecture.

The addition of ASTC significantly optimises GPU performance and increases battery life in devices, making energy efficient ARM chips even friendlier to a mobile device’s battery.

“People expect higher standards of visual computing on their smartphones, tablets and smart-TVs with seamless access to their digital world and personal content,” said Pete Hutton, general manager of the Media Processing Division at ARM. “GPU compute enables this as it increases the range of functions mobile devices can perform within the available battery life.”

“The newly announced Mali-T600 series is essential for graphic performance improvement, and also for the future strategy of GPU Computing,” added Mitsugu Naito, executive vice president of the IP and Technology Development Unit at Fujitsu Semiconductor.

Fujitsu will be adding the Mali-T600 series to its SoC (System on a Chip) development portfolio and plans to adopt the new silicon as a key IP solution. Samsung will also use the new GPU with its Exynos processors.

Last month, ARM Holdings reported better-than-expected quarterly results, with sales of $213 million (£135.5m), up from $190 million in the same period last year.

How much do you know about microprocessors? Take our quiz!