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Mali-400 MP

Mali-400 MP Image (View Larger Mali-400 MP Image)
The world's first OpenGL® ES 2.0 conformant multi-core GPU provides 2D and 3D acceleration with performance scalable up to 1080p resolutions, while maintaining ARM® leadership on power and bandwidth efficiency.
 


Why Mali-400 MP?

With support for 2D vector graphics through OpenVG™ 1.1 and 3D graphics through OpenGL ES 1.1 and 2.0, the Mali™-400 MP provides a complete graphics acceleration platform, based on open standards.

Scalable from 1 to 4 cores the Mali-400 MP enables a wide range of different use cases, from mobile user interfaces up to smartbooks, HDTV & mobile gaming, to be addressed with a single IP. One single driver stack for all multi-core configurations simplifies application porting, system integration and maintenance. Multicore scheduling and performance scaling is fully handled within the graphics system, with no special considerations required from the application developer

The provision of an industry standard AMBA® AXI interface makes integration of Mali-400 MP into system-on-chip designs straight-forward, and also provides a well-defined interface for connecting to other bus architectures. ARM is in the unique position to provide an optimized compute platform that uses ARM Cortex™ processors, Mali GPU and ARM CoreLink™ CCI-400 technologies. This heterogeneous approach means that a range of applications is more efficiently processed when shared between the CPU and the GPU. This makes full use of the inherent capabilities of each system component to achieve the best possible balance of power and performance.

Mali-400 MP has a fully programmable architecture providing high-performance support for both shader-based and fixed-function graphics APIs. It provides class leading anti-aliasing capabilities ensuring optimal image quality, with virtually no performance overhead. A wide range of third party applications, middleware and tools support through the ARM Mali ecosystem program. These are pre-validated with other ARM hardware and software products, as well as a wide array of third party applications and content.


FeaturesBenefits
Advanced tile-based deferred rendering and local buffering of intermediate pixel statesReduced memory bandwidth overhead and lower power consumption
Efficient alpha blending of multiple layers in hardwareUnlimited number of blended layers without additional bandwidth consumption or unexpected performance drops
Full Scene Anti-Aliasing (FSAA) using rotated grid multi samplingSignificantly higher quality and performance than alternative oversampling methods
Integrated MMU based on standard ARM MMUAllows virtualization of GPU memory resources and fine-grained memory protection
Fully autonomous GPUEnables maximum parallelization of CPU and GPU tasks
Independent CPU and GPU power managementMaximize battery life, minimize heat dissipation
Fully optimized production quality software driversMaximum efficiency with low memory fragmentation, reduced integration time and cost, reduced support burden

Performance


FeatureValueDescription
Area4.7mm2Single core Mali™-400 MP with 32kB L2 cache. Actual (post layout) silicon area, all memories included
Frequency240MHz
395MHz
in 65nm LP
in 65nm GP
Throughput30M tri/s and up to 1.1G pix/s at 275MHz
44M tri/s and up to 1.6G pix/s at 400MHz
Achievable performance in triangles and pixels per second

Specifications


FeatureValueDescription
Anti-Aliasing4xAA
16xAA
4x Multi-Sampling with virtually no performance drop
16xAA outperforming all implementations of comparable quality
API SupportOpenGL ES 1.1/2.0
Full support for next-generation and legacy 2D/3D graphics applications
Bus InterfaceAMBA® AXICompatible with a wide range of bus interconnect and peripheral IP
L2 Cache8KB - 256KBConfigurable L2 cache optimized for graphics data traffic
Memory SystemMMUMemory Management Unit
Multi-Core Scaling1 to 4 coresA single IP covering a wide range of markets and price/performance points

Related Products


Mali Developer Resources
Deploying graphics applications and content on Mali™-400 MP based systems is greatly eased by the wide range of 3rd party development tools, middleware and existing demonstration applications along with the wide availability of Mali-400 MP development boards.
Shader Authoring ToolsShader Development Studio, Offline Shader Compiler and Shader Library
Performance Analysis ToolPerformance data capture and analyzer for tuning the shader performance
Texture Compression ToolCompressing textures to reduce system load
User Interface EngineA rich framework to develop OpenGL ES 2.0 User Interfaces and applications
Asset Conditioning ToolConditioning graphics assets to improve the application performance
OpenGL® ES 1.1 EmulatorEnabling developers to develop and test their OpenGL ES 1.1 applications ahead of hardware availability
OpenGL ES 2.0 EmulatorEnabling developers to develop and test their OpenGL ES 2.0 applications ahead of hardware availability

Processor IP
ARM1176JZF-SThe highest performance uni-processor in the Classic ARM processor family. Widely licensed for a vast array of applications it is used in today's leading-brand mobile handsets, set-top boxes, digital TVs, high-end photo frames and many other applications.
ARM11 MPCoreThis processor was the first to introduce multicore technology and continues to be licensed for a wide array of applications including mobile handset, navigation devices, and Smartbook applications.
Cortex™-A5The smallest, lowest power ARM multicore processor capable of delivering the Internet to the widest possible range of devices: from ultra low cost handsets, feature phones and smart mobile devices, to pervasive embedded, consumer and industrial devices.
Cortex-A8The ARM Cortex-A8 processor has the ability to scale in speed from 600MHz to greater than 1GHz, meeting the requirements for power-optimized mobile devices needing operation in less than 300mW; and performance-optimized consumer applications requiring 2000 Dhrystone MIPS.
Cortex-A9Available as either a single core or configurable multicore processor, the Cortex-A9 processor can scale across a wide variety of applications making it an ideal solution for designs requiring high performance in low power or thermally constrained cost-sensitive devices.

System IP
System IP provides the interconnect and peripheral components enabling Mali-400 MP to deliver its full performance potential within energy efficient SoC designs
AMBA AXI Interconnect and PeripheralsSystem IP generators, level-2 cache control, memory controllers and peripherals compatible with the AMBA AXI standard.

Physical IP
Physical IP Platforms deliver process optimized IP, for best-in-class implementations of the Mali-400 graphics processor at 90 nm, 65 nm and below
Standard Cell Logic LibrariesAvailable in a variety of different architectures ARM Standard Cell Libraries support a wide performance range for all types of SoC designs. Designers can choose between different libraries and optimize their designs for speed, power and/or area
Memory Compilers and RegistersA broad array of silicon proven SRAM, Register File and ROM memory compilers for all types of SoC designs ranging from performance critical to cost sensitive and low power applications
Interface LibrariesA broad portfolio of silicon-proven Interface IP designed to meet varying system architectures and standards. General Purpose I/O, Specialty I/O, High Speed DDR and Serial Interfaces are optimized to deliver high data throughput performance with low pin counts

Want to learn more about ARM and Mali? Read our Multimedia Blogs, follow ARMMultimedia on Twitter, see the latest from ARM on Facebook and connect with ARM on LinkedIn

Visit the ARM Mali Developer Center- an online portal for a growing community of developers, technology partners, software vendors and content companies to create a thriving community around Mali embedded graphics IP. Members can benefit from a wealth of information though the forum and can access a range of materials including tools, sample code, development boards, drivers and documentation.

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