Renesas Mobile previews the brand new APE6 processors with PowerVR Series6 graphics at MWC 2013

// February 25th, 2013 // Multimedia, PowerVR Developers, PowerVR Graphics

At MWC 2013, Renesas Mobile is showcasing the APE6 ultra-high performance application processor integrating Imagination’s PowerVR Series6 Rogue graphics engine, the industry’s leading GPU IP solution. Renesas Electronics has been one of Imagination’s long-standing partners, having licensed our PowerVR graphics for over 15 years. The company is a Japan’s largest semiconductor manufacturer with R&D and sales operations in around 20 countries.

NEC Corporation, one of Renesas’ main stockholders, was also PowerVR’s initial licensee, releasing Series1 and Series2 products as the OEM graphics on some Compaq models and PCI cards from vendors such as Matrox. For example, the second generation PowerVR chip codenamed ‘CLX2’ was integrated by NEC in Sega’s Dreamcast gaming console.

Renesas Mobile recently announced the extension of its licensing agreement for PowerVR cores and has been previewing its SoCs at MWC in Barcelona. The Tokyo-based company declared it would initially deploy Imagination’s Series5XT and Series6 graphics technologies in its mobile and embedded platforms for high-performance smartphones, tablets, and in-car infotainment, but that these systems would also be used by Renesas Electronics in its SoC line-ups for other consumer markets.

The PowerVR Series5XT and Series6 GPU families offer partners like Renesas the opportunity to take full advantage of the unrivaled graphics and compute efficiency to keep expanding into their current markets but also move into new territories easily, thanks to Imagination’s wide API and OS support. Renesas Mobile’s products can therefore deliver advanced graphics performance for complex UIs running at 4K resolutions and beyond, ultra-fast gaming and rich graphics applications like augmented reality.

APE5R and APE6: it all starts with high-end graphics

The Renesas Mobile division have had a long history of releasing platforms targeting the application processor space. Their designs are used in hundreds of different handsets for DoCoMo and SoftBank like the Kyocera HONEY BEE 101K – which at launch, was the fastest Android phone on the Japanese market.

The APE5R provides a high-performance, low-power implementation of Imagination’s multi-core PowerVR Series 5XT MP graphics technology.

The next generation R-Mobile APE6 SoC uses a PowerVR Series6 ‘Rogue’ GPU for a complete multimedia, LTE-capable solution. The APE6 platform has been on display at Imagination’s booth at MWC 2013, running a series of OpenGL ES 3.0 applications as well as a demonstration of Rightware’s latest Kanzi Studio demo.

The “Let’s Get Away” concept application makes planning your vacation simple and fun. You start with a city and then build your holiday from there, based on recommendations and a large database of exciting places to visit. Developed in collaboration with RKS, the demo is running on various platforms integrating Imagination’s PowerVR Series5XT and Series6 GPUs, featuring fully integrated multimedia hardware acceleration.

MP5232 and MP6530: no smartphone left behind

In 2012, Renesas Mobile introduced the first integrated LTE triple-mode platform optimized for fully-featured, high volume smartphones named MP5232. It featured a PowerVR SGX graphics engine, supporting OpenGL ES 1.1/2.0, OpenVG, DirectX and OpenCL.

Its highly-praised successor, the MP6530, is a quad-core processor with a PowerVR Series5XT MP GPU and a FDD/TDD Class 4 LTE/DC-HSPA+/EDGE/GPRS/GSM modem on a single piece of silicon. Supported operating systems include Google’s Android™ platform as well as various Linux tool chains. Renesas has also included other multimedia and graphics software packages, making the MP6530 a truly ultra-low power platform that has been optimized for longer battery life with power management features across all SoC components, including Imagination’s PowerVR GPU.

 

R-Car H1 and R-Car H2: a powerful GPU will get you a long way

Renesas have also been using Imagination’s PowerVR graphics processor in their R-Car line-up of SoC designed for the next generation of dashboards and infotainment systems. The advantage of using PowerVR across all these key markets, from mobile to automotive, is that our graphics IP families are backwards compatible with older generations. Therefore, the same code can run on all PowerVR-based products supporting the OpenGL ES API.

Released in 2011, the R-Car M1 uses a PowerVR SGX540 GPU, offering low power consumption for next-generation dashboard-mounted car navigation systems and supporting advanced human machine interfaces (HMI).

Renesas followed that up with the R-Car H1 which enables a complete solution for next-generation systems with high-end navigation requirements. Integrating Imagination’s PowerVR SGX543MP2 graphics processing unit (GPU) and delivering up to 40 GFLOPS, the R-Car H1 SoC offers one of the best graphical performances in the embedded market. The OpenGL ES 2.0 and OpenVG 1.1 support make it a perfect platform to develop next-generation car infotainment systems, including digital dashboards and rich infotainment systems.

As 2013 becomes the turning point of embedded graphics performance and OpenGL ES 3.0 emerges as the new standard for mobile graphics, users expect the same level of performance across all their devices and products. Renesas is therefore expanding its roadmap with the R-Car H2 30K DMIPS SoC. Built on a 28nm process and featuring an innovative architecture, it includes Imagination’s PowerVR Series6 GPU which gives it the competitive edge it requires to fully support advanced operating systems such as Linux, Windows Automotive Embedded or QNX.

Choose the industry’s best: Imagination’s PowerVR Series5/5XT and Series6 GPUs

Thanks to the new architectural features of the PowerVR Series6 family, system designers integrating Imagination’s ‘Rogue’ cores have access not only to the unrivalled GFLOPS performance and superior fillrates delivered by all our GPUs but can also rely on a flexible roadmap, driven by the most passionate graphics engineering team in the world. Our PowerVR Insider ecosystem of over 38,000 third party developers create hundreds of thousands of apps optimised for PowerVR-enabled devices and continue to push the boundaries of ultra-realistic graphics and super-responsive applications.

Imagination also has the OpenGL ES know-how to provide matured drivers as well as original performance tuning tools through our PowerVR Graphics SDK. Our DevTech team offers analysis and optimization of customer applications, with various testing being performed based on use cases.

This is what makes partnerships like the one we’ve had with Renesas endure, as we are constantly providing long term support across all mobile, embedded and automotive offerings.

If you want to find out more about Imagination (@ImaginationPR and @PowerVRInsider) and Renesas – including its Renesas Mobile (@RenesasMobile) division, follow us on Twitter and keep coming back to our blog. Make sure you also visit our stand at various events we attend every year to experience first-hand the most exciting demos from our ecosystem of silicon partners and application developers.