Imagination launches IMG CXM, the smallest GPU to bring effortless user interfaces into homes

New RISC-V compatible IMG CXM cores with native support for HDR driving down costs in the DTV and wider consumer market

May 23, 2023 -- Imagination Technologies is bringing seamless visual experiences to cost-sensitive consumer devices with the new IMG CXM GPU range which includes the smallest GPU to support HDR user interfaces natively.

Consumers are looking for visuals on their smart home platforms that are as detailed, smooth, and responsive as the experience they are accustomed to on mobile devices. At the same time, ambitious content providers are aligning the look and feel of their applications’ user interfaces with their cinematic content, by integrating advanced features such as 4K and HDR.

Three new configurations extend the range of performance options already available in Imagination’s GPU family of products targeting the consumer space:

• CXM-2-64: the smallest GPU to support native HDR applications, suitable for wearable devices, smart home hubs, or mainstream set-top boxes.
• CXM-4-64: an efficient core ideal for integrating into smart home hubs, set-top boxes or mainstream DTVs.
• CXM-4-128: a performance dense option for premium DTVs.

James Chapman, Chief Product Officer, Imagination Technologies, says, “These new CXM GPUs are a significant step up from our widely licensed IMG BXE and BXM range. We’ve taken that highly scalable, area-efficient architecture, boosted its performance density, and added key features, such as native support for HDR, that will transform user experiences and propel our customers to success in the consumer market. I expect to see CXM GPUs deployed in devices as diverse as wearables and premium 8K DTVs.”

IMG CXM GPUs feature optimisations specific to the consumer market:

• Smoother images

Support for 10bits RGBA / YUV deliver an HDR graphical user interface with images with less visible banding. 4xMSAA efficiently smooths the outlines of texts and images.

• Advanced bandwidth management

TFBCv2, the new generation of Imagination’s Tiny Frame Buffer Compression, delivers higher-quality lossy / lossless compression and an additional compression level (37.5%) for improved design flexibility.

• Market leading performance density

IMG CXM GPU range boasts nearly a 50% uplift in performance density compared to the IMG BXM range, opening up more performance in the same silicon area.

The IMG CXM is supported by cutting-edge software that supports the latest API trends, including Vulkan 1.3, and has been optimised for several leading CPU architectures including Arm and RISC-V application processors. Imagination GPUs are the perfect addition to RISC-V projects and are silicon-proven, shipping in multiple products across a wide range of use cases.

Dr. Charlie Su, CTO and President of Andes Technology says: “The RISC-V ecosystem is growing rapidly. To continue its growth and showcase the many possible ways it can be deployed, we partnered with Imagination to provide a quick and easy path to validated GPU and CPU IP blocks that can reduce SoC design time, risk, and cost for our customers. With Imagination’s flexibly designed GPU, and our AndesCoreTM high-performance, low-power RISC-V CPU, we are able to satisfy the requirements for display-oriented SoC in a short time and generate the optimum configuration.”

Imagination will be demonstrating TFBCv2 this week at the 2023 RISC-V Con Shanghai and 2023 RISC-V Con Beijing events, hosted by Andes Technology Corporation.