ARM, a developer of microprocessor and graphics IP cores, this week said that it is seeing demand for mobile devices offering a high-definition (HD) entertainment and browsing experience rapidly increasing in Asia, as two more licensing agreements for its ARM Mali graphics processing units (GPUs) are made with mobile technology providers in the region, Rockchip and Telechips. While Asia is leading, the demand towards HD is also growing in Europe and the USA.

Leading mobile analyst house, Screen Digest, has highlighted the importance of a quality of end-user experience in mobile entertainment provision. The analyst house estimates that as high-end mobile devices become more mainstream, the mobile gaming, video and TV market will grow 300% to €8.5 billion (approximately $12 billion) by 2013 in Asia Pacific, North America and Europe.

“Today's high-end mobile devices with large screens and computer-like capabilities are big drivers for mobile content consumption and especially for mobile games and mobile video. Highly demanding applications and services such as TV, video and games on mobile devices are set to generate in excess of €8.5 billion by the end of 2013 in North America, Europe and Asia Pacific; three times more than it did in 2008. Quality of experience is key for the market to reach its full potential,” said Ronan de Renesse, senior analyst at Screen Digest.

Rockchip has licensed three ARM technologies to enable OEMs to enhance the quality of graphics and to allow complex applications to be run on portable devices without jeopardizing battery life. The China-based semiconductor developer has licensed the ARM Mali-55 GPU, the ARM926EJ-S processor and the ARM Cortex-M3 microcontroller for use in next-generation mobile phones and portable media players, offering consumers advanced media experiences while on the move.

Korea-based Telechips has extended its license of the ARM Mali-200 GPU for its multimedia applications processor, now in silicon and set to deliver high-quality interfaces and user-friendly navigation on a range of mobile and consumer electronics devices.

"Extending our relationship with ARM enables us to take further advantage of Mali graphics IP, delivering high performance OpenVG, OpenGL ES 1.1 and OpenGL ES 2.0 compliant mobile and consumer electronics solutions to our customers. The Mali-200 GPU brings cutting-edge user interfaces and navigation experiences to devices, fulfilling the increasing demands of consumers," said Jang-Kyu Lee, vice president and chief operating officer of  Telechips.

The Mali GPU family scales from Mali-55, the world’s smallest OpenGL ES graphics processor to Mali-400 MP, the highest-performance embedded multicore GPU IP on the market which supports complex applications at up to 1080p high-definition resolution, thereby addressing the widest range of performance points for all embedded graphics needs.

Mali graphics processors deliver 2D and 3D graphics providing 4x and 16x full scene anti-aliasing (FSAA) without any noticeable drop in performance, according to the company. In addition to providing content developers with programmable features in OpenGL ES 2.0, Mali products also support 2D scalable vector graphics through OpenVG for improved text, navigation, UI and web-browsing experiences.

Tags: Mali, Cortex, Rockchip, Telechips