ARM Mali GPUs Go For OpenGL ES 3.1 Compliance

Written by Michael Larabel in Arm on 7 June 2014 at 09:15 AM EDT. 3 Comments
ARM
ARM has already submitted their results of their graphics driver for several Mali graphics processors for OpenGL ES 3.1 certification by the Khronos Group.

Just yesterday the Khronos Group put out their OpenGL ES 3.1 conformance tests for this latest mobile-focused OpenGL specification that was unveiled back at GDC.

ARM has already put out a new blog post (thanks to markg85 for the tip) that they're submitting their conformance results for several popular Mali GPUs. "Conformance has just been submitted for the highly successful and market proven Mali-T604 and Mali-T628 GPUs as well as for the latest released high-end GPU, the Mali-T760. The first two power the graphics capabilities of bestseller products such as, but not limited to, the Samsung Galaxy S5, Galaxy Note 3, Google Nexus 10 and Galaxy Note Pro 12.2, while the Mali-T760 is expected to become available in commercial products within the next few months. Conformance will soon be submitted for our latest mid-range GPU, the Mali-T720 as well."

The post went on to say, "One of the key features of OpenGL ES 3.1 is the support for compute shaders. Developers can now use the compute capabilities of the GPU without having to use a different compute API and worry about the interoperability between graphics and compute. Seamlessly integrated in a single API, compute shaders can post-process the frame buffer output and implement astonishing visual effects with higher efficiency and lower complexity. It is also worth mentioning here that ARM has adopted GPU Compute from its very first steps and is creating a vibrant ecosystem of developers who are providing a number of innovative applications for Mali GPUs and establishing them as the de facto architecture for mobile GPU Compute."

As mentioned in the Phoronix post yesterday, generally only the Intel team is the one that invests in the conformance certification with Khronos while the other open-source drivers (at least up to now) do not bother. When Intel's driver is ready with compute shaders, etc, they'll likely go again for OpenGL ES 3.1 compliance after being the first driver to do OpenGL ES 3.0.

Embedded below is a video of an ARM Mali in action with OpenGL ES 3.1 support.

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Michael Larabel is the principal author of Phoronix.com and founded the site in 2004 with a focus on enriching the Linux hardware experience. Michael has written more than 20,000 articles covering the state of Linux hardware support, Linux performance, graphics drivers, and other topics. Michael is also the lead developer of the Phoronix Test Suite, Phoromatic, and OpenBenchmarking.org automated benchmarking software. He can be followed via Twitter, LinkedIn, or contacted via MichaelLarabel.com.

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