SiliconArts ray tracing IP for mobile devices

[Ailuros]

http://www.xbitlabs.com/news/graphi...Processing_Technology_for_Mobile_Devices.html

http://www.siliconarts.com/

Is it just me or is isn't it way too early for ray tracing IP for the mobile space?

 

[Pottsey]

Perhaps it’s a translation problem and they are working on mobile IP, not that the IP silicon is ready. Apparently the specs are pretty low as well with low resolution support and low amount of rays.

 

[Laurent06]

BTW does anyone know what Imgtec is doing with Caustics IP? I know they still seem to support OpenRL but are they doing anything with the IP itself?

 

[Ailuros]

Perhaps it’s a translation problem and they are working on mobile IP, not that the IP silicon is ready. Apparently the specs are pretty low as well with low resolution support and low amount of rays.

https://sites.google.com/a/siliconarts.co.kr/siliconarts-inc/newsroom

Here are some of the press releases on siliconarts' homepage. Apparently LG Electronics has invested in the company. No idea in what kind of development stage the IP really is, yet they apparently held a demonstration of the RayCore in April this year at the Korea Graphics World 2012 conference.

Their own material claims 36m rays/core, scalable up to 6 cores and therefore 216m rays with a maximum resolution of 2k*2k. I'm not that familiar with ray casting in general, but for embedded I wouldn't expect any miracles either, especially just yet.

I'm still with the same question mark however, where ray tracing would be useful at this point for the mobile market. Maybe for the less foreseeable future when mobile games start using some ray tracing portions; I couldn't imagine anyone doing advanced modelling on a mobile device though not now and not in the future.

 

[Ailuros]

BTW does anyone know what Imgtec is doing with Caustics IP? I know they still seem to support OpenRL but are they doing anything with the IP itself?

http://withimagination.imgtec.com/i...cessing-an-insider-look-at-the-hsa-foundation

Imagination has had a clear vision of what heterogeneous platforms should be. We’ve taken this concept and implemented it in an entire line of IP cores: PowerVR Series5/5XT and Series6 GPUs, multi-threaded Meta CPUs, PowerVR Series3 video encoders and decoders and Ensigma UCCP Series2 RPUs. And as we continue to make progress in ray-tracing technologies, we intend to bring RTUs (ray-tracing units) to the party as well.

I haven't followed third party newsblurbs about RTUs as close, but I'd guess they intend to release dedicated ray tracing hw (IP?) somewhere down the line. I could be wrong but it didn't sound like a solution for the embedded space but rather a higher end solution targeting professional markets.

I doubt they had enough time from the point where IMG acquired Caustic graphics to integrate ray tracing relevant IP into Series6, at least not in the core variants that have taped out already.

 

[tangey]

BTW does anyone know what Imgtec is doing with Caustics IP? I know they still seem to support OpenRL but are they doing anything with the IP itself?

I think they already have/on the point of having an add-in board for workstations. I think they need to wait for much smaller process technology to get a viable soc solution.

 

[Pottsey]

Just came across this video on their Facebook page. It is far more impressive then the main website videos, but not sure if I should be impressed or not. It is one of the better ray traced game engines I have seen but still only 800x480 and looks to be around 15fps with 4 cores. Large noticeable slowdown in reflective areas.

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=165572953488692