Claimed to bring innovative and compelling visual computing to the next generation of consumer devices, the Mali-T604 graphic processing unit is from ARM. Delivering a five-fold performance improvement over earlier Mali graphics processors, the scaleable, multi-core processor has a tri-pipe architecture for compute-intensive functions increasingly found in interactive user interfaces and gaming. It is intended for use in consumer devices from smartphone to tablets, DTVs and automotive infotainment. The fourth-generation graphics processing unit is specifically designed to meet the needs of general purpose computing and extends API support to include Khronos OpenCL and Microsoft DirectX. Patented techniques reduce memory bandwidth consumption, by up to 30%, to improve system level energy-efficiency, says the company. The processor uses the company's Cache Coherent Interconnect (CCI-400) which, according to the company, delivers a memory coherent system with the Cortex-A15 MPCore. The processor is based on the Midgard architecture.
