| Q&A |
 Andrew
Humber
Senior PR Manager, Handheld
and Embedded Products
NVIDIA Corporation
April 2006
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"GoForce
5500 supports such 3D features as 5 way multitexture
and 40-bit non integer colour - the GoForce 5500 is
actually capable to delivering pixel shading effects
beyond the PSP"
<
Siege OpenGL ES Demo |
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| Q1 |
Why
has nVidia recently acquired Hybrid Graphics? |
| A1 |
Hybrid
is widely respected within the handheld industry and its software
business is expanding rapidly with significant growth potential
- and NVIDIA wishes that business to expand. Secondly, both
companies understand that a ubiquitous handheld graphics and
media software platform is necessary to enable and grow the
overall market for handheld graphics and NVIDIA is committed
to enabling Hybrid’s continuing key role in developing
and driving that platform’s evolution. Lastly, Hybrid’s
software solutions provide NVIDIA with an extended market reach
to the entire handheld market. |
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| Q2 |
Today,
only high end smartphones can display 3D content. Will this
technology be available soon on middle range cellphones? |
| A2 |
NVIDIA
is working hard to enable 3D across as wide a range of wireless
devices as possible but unfortunately we are unable to pre-announce
any specific wins. However it is worth noting that the market
is at the beginning of a very interesting transition. Out of
the approximately 900 million phones that will be sold in the
world this year, it is a fair assumption to say that most, if
not all, will have basic (1MP or less) camera functionality
- this is a fundamental change in the last couple of years.
A much smaller percentage of those 900 million phones will have
2MP cameras, some video capture and playback capabilities, even
some 3D functionality like the Sony Ericsson W900i. Over time
you'll see the larger volume curve move our way, as mass market
devices start to incorporate more and more multimedia features
and the TAM or total area market for 3D and multimedia grows
rapidly. What this means for consumers is that over the next
couple of years, more and more phones will be capable of delivering
a compelling multimedia experience, including real 3D games. |
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| Q3 |
What
kind of quality level can 3D graphics reach on a smartphone
? Can we expect "Console-like" 3D quality? |
| A3 |
Absolutely
- the GoForce 5500 supports such 3D features as 5 way multitexture
and 40-bit non integer colour - the GoForce 5500 is actually
capable to delivering pixel shading effects beyond the PSP and
as you can see from OpenGL ES demos like Siege from the developer
Denied Reality, we can already produce some pretty stunning
imagery. |
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| Q4 |
It
seems that digital imaging (photo) and video (video conference/TV)
are evolving faster on mobile phones than 3D capabilities. Do
you think that this trend will change? |
| A4 |
 Without
a doubt, but imaging and video aren't really evolving faster,
they've simply been around a lot longer in phones. Because of
this, they have hit their development stride and are now acclerating
at high speed. Digital imaging has been mass market in small
handheld cameras for over a decade, and has existed in phones
since 2000 when Sharp launched the first camera phone. 3D technology
has got to the stage now where it can truly match the expectations
of consumers and we are going to see 3D become the next critical
capability for phones. We are on the cusp of showing the industry
that great 3D applications drive more consumer data usage, increase
ARPU for operators, and create a completely new user experience
on the phone. |
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| Q5 |
Does
Hybrid Graphics Framework accelerate game developpement? |
| A5 |
Yes!
The Hybrid Graphics Framework helps to abstract away the dffierences
between platforms. As you know there are a lot of variations
in mobile phone design from the operating system to the CPU.
Hybrid's framework lets you test out acceleration and performance
on different setups with greater ease. |
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| Q6 |
What
are the benefits of using Hybrid's implementation of JSR184
and OpenGL ES? |
| A6 |
In a nutshell, performance and compatiiblity are the two key
reasons for using Hybrid's implementation of these standards.
The engineers at Hybrid are experts at low level optimizations
and squeezing the very best performance from a CPU and GPU.
They have been writing reference rasterizers for years, and
have strong relationships with all the major 3D hardware vendors.
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| Q7 |
In
the field of 3D for cellphones, OpenGL ES seems to be the major
API, will nVidia also support Direct 3D for mobile phone ? |
| A7 |
We
are delivering what our customers are requesting, and right
now we are receiving requests for OpenGL ES. However, NVIDIA
has always maintained, across all of our product groups, that
when there is significant market demand for an API or new standard
then we will be amongst the first to support it. |
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| Q8 |
What
are the benefits of v. 2.0 of Open GL ES? Does it make sense
to use those new technologies (FSAA, Vertes/Pixel Shaders) on
small screen devices? |
| A8 |
 There
are numerous benefits to developers in Open GL ES 2.0, and NVIDIA
has actually already included most of these benefits with our
1.X version with combiner extensions. And yes, shaders and AA
do make sense on small screens, after all poor image quality
shows up on any size of screen. A wireless device doesn't have
enormous amounts of processing power for lots of triangles so
you make up for that with textures. But as you are also limited
in memory sizes, you need to find other ways to make the most
of your code, and pixel shaders can deliver stunning visual
effects with a much smaller footprint.also help. |
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| Q9 |
How
did you solve power consumption issues due to the integration
of a 3D chip? |
| A9 |
Interestingly
enough, you could say that the integration of a handheld GPU
solves part of the power consumption problem itself. Software
based solutions are power hungry so through implementing a hardware
strategy you are already facing less power restrictions. NVIDIA's
nPower technology is a combination of architecture and design
methodologies that delivers advanced power saving techniques
and dedicated algorithms for great features and performance
with minimal battery drain - an example of these techniques
would be the turning off of portions of the chip that are not
being used. In some situations we can burn as little as 1/20th
of the power used by equivalent software based solutions and
as an example of that, the Sony Ericsson W900i that utilizes
the GoForce 4800 chip can run 4 hours of video playback, that's
2 more hours than a video iPod, which is great especially if
you want to make a phone call after you've watched your movie! |
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