Imagination Announces New Series 6 Architecture GPUs

Imagination Technologies, a brand opposed by many Linux users due to their often troublesome Linux graphics drivers provided by many Imagination PowerVR licensees, is out at CES this week with new Series 6 architecture graphics processors.

On the high-end is a new Imagination PowerVR Series 6XT architecture that delivers 50% better performance and improved power management. The new Imagination 6XT also offers PVR3C triple compression technologies, UltraHD deep color, and improved GPU compute support. Imagination claims their new high-end offering consumes the least memory bandwidth in the industry while delivering the best performance per mm2 in size and the best performance per mWatt.

The Series 6XT architecture supports OpenGL ES 3.0 and the first three models in the 6XT family are the GX6250, GX6450, and GX6650. Details on the new high-end 6XT graphics cores that are available for licensing can be found via this press release.

At the lower-end of the spectrum if the PowerVR Series 6 architecture for entry-level mobile and consumer segments. These low-end Series 6 cores still do OpenGL ES 3.0 and OpenCL but are less powerful and don't offer the leading performance-per-Watt. The new Series 6XE low-end and more affordable cores include the PowerVR Series 6XE G6050, G6060, G6100, and G6110.

Details on the lower-end Series 6 graphics cores can be found from this press release.

At least now with Intel's Atom SoCs (Bay Trail+) sporting their own in-house HD Graphics cores and no longer being reliant upon Imagination and other ARM SoC vendors having better options with ARM's Mali and other graphics cores that are more Linux-friendly (and in some cases, more open-source friendly), we're seeing less SoCs these days relying upon PowerVR graphics. Still, it would be nice to see Imagination more open-source friendly given the failed reverse-engineering project that was the Free Software Foundation's high priority driver project. For those after high-performance graphics with open-source drivers in the ARM space, the best option right now without a doubt is Qualcomm's A2xx/A3xx-based SoCs with Freedreno.