Ray tracing technology uses light modelling for realism
PowerVR Ray Tracing technology is now available for licensing from Imagination Technologies. The intellectual property (IP) enables realistic 3D graphics for any market, says the company.
PowerVR Ray Tracing technology uses light modelling techniques for realistic image rendering that can be integrated into graphics processing units (GPUs) across mobile, automotive, server and other markets.
The PowerVR Ray Tracing architecture is an efficient method of processing billions of rays per second (Gigarays, or GRays). According to Imagination, it makes it realistic for SoC manufacturers to offer ray tracing capable hardware within a range of power and thermal envelopes. The technology is particularly suited to adding realistic ray traced light, shadow and transparency capabilities to traditional GPUs and can even be used to create full ray tracing solutions.
Ray tracing available today is used for PC and consoles but does not offer the efficiency required for mobile, augmented reality (AR) or automotive applications, explains Imagination. Its approach is to design the architecture from the ground up for power efficiency with the ability to scale from battery-powered embedded designs to large-scale server farms.
“We are confident that ray tracing is going to happen across many applications, and in a 5G world it is likely to be very disruptive. Our ray tracing architecture matches much larger and less power efficient solutions gigaray for gigaray,” said Nigel Leeder, executive vice president, PowerVR.
Imagination PowerVR Ray Tracing technology available for licensing today includes patents, architecture, GPU integration references and standards-based application program interface (API) support for easy application integration.
Imagination holds over 220 patents and applications based on its ray tracing technology.
Imagination’s PowerVR Ray Tracing IP technology is available now for licensing. It can be used in conjunction with a wide range of GPU architectures, including Imaginations’ PowerVR graphics cores.
Imagination offers a broad range of silicon IP which includes the key processing blocks needed to create the SoCs that power all mobile, consumer and embedded electronics. Its software IP, infrastructure technologies and system solutions enable its customers to get to market quickly with complete and highly differentiated SoC platforms. Imagination’s licensees include many of the world’s leading semiconductor manufacturers, network operators and OEMs/ODMs who are creating some of the world’s most iconic products.
