20 November, 2013, CAMBRIDGE, UK and SANTA CLARA, CALIFORNIA - ARM®, the world's leading semiconductor IP supplier and Amlogic, a leading fabless semiconductor company providing advanced solutions for a wide range of consumer applications, today announced the launch of a system on chip (SoC) developed to deliver advanced graphics performance and Ultra High Definition resolutions to class-leading consumer electronics. Based on a six-core ARM Mali™-450 MP graphics processing unit (GPU) and a quad-core ARM Cortex®-A9 central processing unit (CPU), both implemented with ARM Artisan® Physical IP, the AML8726-M8 boasts the highest number of cores seen to date in an ARM Mali-450 MP GPU.
The AML8726-M8 SoC will be deployed later next year in high-end Digital Televisions (DTVs), Set Top Boxes and Smart IP TVs, among other consumer devices. The innovative six-core GPU implementation has been specifically designed to supply the graphics performance needed to bring ultra-high screen resolutions and complex content to consumers while effectively controlling memory bandwidth and system power consumption.
The ARM Mali-450 MP GPU is an enhanced version of the hugely successful ARM Mali-400 MP GPU which brings top-of-the range 2D and 3D graphics acceleration to consumer electronics. Linear performance scaling and a focus on maximizing processing efficiency, even when rendering at four times Full Scene Anti-Aliasing (4xFSAA), ensures superior image quality and provides a perfect solution for 2K and 4K screen resolutions.
"The DTV space continues to drive forward the resolutions and user experiences in the largest consumer screens," said Pete Hutton, executive vice president and general manager, Media Processing Division, ARM. "Amlogic's AML8726-M8 is a great example of how the latest ARM Mali GPU and ARM Cortex processor technologies are combining to deliver the superior graphics and processing that is the foundation for the next generation of consumer devices.
"Thanks to an integrated configurable L2 cache with shared memory access, multiple levels of power management and a combination of immediate-mode and tile-based rendering, it is also able to coherently control memory bandwidth and lower overall system power consumption. The ARM Mali-450 MP GPU provides double the fill-rate and geometry throughput of the ARM Mali-400 MP GPU - while being a fast, low-risk route to market thanks to the maturity of the underlying design and compatibility with the same DDK that is used by the ARM Mali-400 MP GPU.