ARM: Smartphone is still a piece of fat, has been prepared for the VR, AR do foot-ARM,VR, virtual reality-IT information
The past few days, Chinese mobile phone manufacturer Meizu and mobile phone chip maker Qualcomm cell phone patent incident was up to my ears. Maybe many people have such a doubt, that Meizu did not use Qualcomm chips, but why give money to Qualcomm? Behind these seemingly complicated relationship, it is necessary to mention Qualcomm patents, and a Qualcomm ARM behind the mountains.
In fact, included in all Terminal mobile phone chip maker Qualcomm phone bottom is based on ARM instruction set of the processor product research and development. You can see a variety of mobile chips, such as Apple, Samsung Exynos and Qualcomm Snapdragon, and so on, almost every paragraph contains the ARM core patented technologies or combined ARM design custom chips again, either directly using the public version of the design of CPU and GPU cores.
Simply said that theARM does not in itself produce mobile chips, but mobile devices sold today, AMR and be able to receive a license fee . Can say ARM instruction set and architecture provided by the company, plays an important role in mobile processors manufactured.
According to the latest figures, current smartphones equipped with ARM architecture processors have exceeded 3 billion units, ARM architecture chips have occupied the entire mobile market share of around 95% .
ARM is so valued the Smartphone market, James Bruce, Director of global marketing ARM mobile market recently attended the ARM Tech shares on the Day, ARM Smartphone seen as a very important future innovation portal.
This means that, on future mobile markets in the ARM observed, smartphones will serve as an important entry, access to many new applications, including machine learning, computer vision, the Internet of things, wearable, a lot of digital processing equipment and application of AR/VR, became the core of individual application control and access.
However, the current is not the top of the Smartphone market, there are a lot of restrictions and limitations, waiting for the ARM to challenge and overcome.
Battle mobile marketing Smartphone is still a piece of fat
Keynote at the ARM Tech Day, James Bruce share a set of data, compared with the 2009 first Android phone, mobile GPU performance up to 300 times times, calculating capacity 100 times, clarity up to 24 times, Internet Exchange increased 20 times, the sensor increased 5 times .
Design, you can see the high-end smartphone from HTC Nexus ONE to the Huawei Mate8, thin 45% of the fuselage, the screen has an area of 42%. Clearly, the rapid evolution of Smartphone features, is constantly to surprise and delight consumers. From the standpoint of chip maker, ARM will face more challenges.
Like, phone Shang camera effect of upgrade and VR/AR, new application of birth, are on CPU and GPU of requirements increasingly high; intelligent phone increasingly thin, border increasingly narrow, in limited space in the how achieved performance and power of balance; Modems aspects, face more carrier aggregate, need support more channel, power control challenge is big; USB-C let intelligent phone even received various peripherals Shang, the fingerprint recognition technology let intelligent phone can Dang wallet, even can Dang car key, Security requirements come.
As chip maker ARM feel this responsibility, in order to meet the needs of demanding experience from end-consumers, preserve existing market share, at the same time pioneering wearable, mobile virtual reality (VR), new markets such as Internet, ARM seems to have been prepared for all the challenges.
On the ARM Tech Day, ARM also publishes the latest new mobile processor chip architecture Cortex-A73 and Mali-G71 graphics engine that corresponds to the schema for a comprehensive analysis.
Return to smart phones as an important innovation portal, Cortex-A73 and Mali-G71 both of which improves support for mobile virtual reality, based on a corresponding schema design and manufacture of the chip is expected to be used in 2017 the largest smartphone manufacturer launched its flagship models, it also means that mobile VR experience to a new level.
Mobile chips "benefiting" VR/AR has opened a door
In addition to the Smartphone market, ARM is also very optimistic about the market for wearable devices. Although, after after the first year, wearable and not much improvement, but ARM firmly believes that wearable still at a relatively early stage, when there is no truly large-scale commercial.
The puzzle of wearable safety is an important factor in the development of, James Bruce that this ARM, is both a challenge and an opportunity: in terms of security, high-end IP ARM to ARM TrustZone Technology as a secure base, SoC provides Bank trust levels for billions of devices.
Although ARM will regularly update its chip architecture every year, but this year no doubt support for VR is the ARM architectural design concept of a new mobile chip.
Although, some high-end smartphones can provide consumers with mobile VR experience, but there are still shortcomings.
For example, delay is to move the VR a key problem to be solved because the VR immersion requires high processor performance. Second, compared to the existing mobile PC VR and VR, almost does not support interactive, which means that the user cannot be mobile immersive VR experience. Furthermore, even if the manufacturer has done all it can to improve the cell phone display screen resolution, but when the distance from the screen when a user's eyes only an inch, the user is able to see a single pixel. In short, want real virtual reality experience for consumers, smart phone manufacturers need to raise the performance level.
Now the ARM from the latest release of both Cortex-A73 and Mali-G71 chips, ARM mobile processor architecture can be provided by the company to help all Smartphone manufacturers to solve this technical problem.
According to statistics, compared with the previous-generation Cortex-A72, 30% Cortex-A73 greater efficacy and performance by 30%. And the next-generation image processing engine Mali-G71 performance 50%, also increased by more than 20% , this will surely improve the mobile-chip support for VR. In particular the effectiveness of promotion is essential, because in the end mobile VR display will not make much difference, power consumption will be the main factors that affect the user experience .
Despite the ARM CPU core design is the most famous, but the GPU mobile graphics kernel development never stops, but also increased the GPU and multi-engine research and development investment. New third generation of Mali-G71 is the first to use the ARM architecture of Bifrost products. And compared to the previous generation Mali GPU, Mali-G71 graphics performance 50%, functions 20%, performance per square millimeter of increased 40%.
In addition, in order to improve the mobile experience and development of VR, ARM their high-end series of Mali have already begun to support new Vulkan API. ARM said that Vulkan will help further develop Mali GPU performance series, as well as for Mali VR/AR products will be a better experience.
For VR developers to further tap the Mali property, ARM has also introduced Mali VR SDK helps developers quickly create VR applications, while delivering high performance and visual experience.
In addition to providing hardware and technologies suitable for VR, ARM has developed a technology for VR content--Enligten dynamic global illumination techniques .
Technical challenges for present fiery VR industry, ARM their latest products is well prepared.
It is undeniable that almost every electronic device in the world today need to chip in addition to the above mentioned smart phones, wearable, including VR equipment and so on, from televisions to automobiles to the music player, and bright prospects for development ARM of the Internet of things.
As previously mentioned, current smartphones equipped with ARM architecture processors have exceeded 3 billion units, ARM architecture chips have occupied the entire mobile market share of around 95%. It can be said that ARM in the mobile market now occupy an absolute advantage.
ARM：智能
手机依旧是块肥肉，已为VR、AR做足准备 - ARM,VR,虚拟现实 - IT资讯
这几日，中国国产手机厂商魅族与手机芯片巨头高通就手机专利事件闹得不可开交。或许很多人都存在着这样一个疑问，那就是魅族并没有使用高通芯片，但为何要给高通钱？这些看似复杂关系的背后，就必须要提到高通专利，及高通背后的大山ARM。
实际上，包括高通在内所有终端手机芯片厂商的手机处理器产品的底层都是基于ARM指令集研发的。大家看到的各种移动芯片，比如Apple A系、三星Exynos以及高通Snapdragon等等，几乎每一款都包含了了ARM核心专利技术，要么结合ARM的设计重新定制芯片，要么直接使用公版的CPU和GPU内核设计。
其实只是简单地说，ARM本身不出品移动芯片，但今天移动设备每售出一台，AMR就能从中收到一笔授权费用。可以说ARM公司所提供的指令集以及内核架构，在手机处理器制造上有着举足轻重的作用。
据最新数据显示，目前搭载ARM架构处理器的智能手机已经超过了30亿台，ARM架构的芯片已经占据整个移动市场95%左右的份额。
ARM之所以如此看重智能手机市场，ARM移动市场全球营销总监James Bruce在近日出席ARM Tech Day上分享到，ARM将智能手机看作是未来创新的一个非常重要的门户。
这意味着，在ARM观测到的未来移动市场上，智能手机将作为一个重要入口，接入很多新的应用，包括机器学习、计算机视觉、物联网、可穿戴、很多AR/VR的数字处理设备和应用，成为个人应用控制和访问的核心。
然而，当下的智能手机市场并非性能登顶，还有很多限制的因素与局限，等着ARM去挑战与攻克。
应战移动市场智能手机依旧是块肥肉
在ARM Tech Day上的主题演讲中，James Bruce分享了这样一组数据，与2009年第一款Android手机相比，手机的GPU性能提高300倍，计算能力提高100倍，清晰度提升24倍，互联网互通增加20倍，传感器增加5倍。
设计层面，可以看到高端智能手机从HTC Nexus ONE到华为Mate8，机身薄了45%，屏幕面积增加了42%。显然，智能手机功能的快速演进，正不断给消费者惊喜。从芯片制造商的角度来说，ARM将面临更多挑战。
比如，手机上相机效果的提升和VR/AR等新应用的诞生，都对CPU和GPU的要求越来越高；智能手机越来越薄，边框越来越窄，在有限空间中如何实现性能和功耗的平衡；Modems方面，面对多载波聚合，需要支持多通道，功耗控制挑战很大；USB-C让智能手机连接到各种外设上，各项指纹识别技术让智能手机可以当钱包，甚至可以当车钥匙，安全性的要求随之而来。
作为芯片制造商，ARM深刻感受到了这一份责任，为了满足来自终端消费者近乎苛刻的体验需求，保住既有市场份额，同时开拓可穿戴、移动虚拟现实（VR）、物联网等新市场，ARM似乎已经做好准备迎接所有挑战。
ARM Tech Day上，ARM也将最新发布的新型移动处理器芯片架构Cortex-A73以及对应的图形图像处理引擎架构Mali-G71进行了全方位解析。
回归到智能手机作为重要的创新门户上，Cortex-A73及Mali-G71两者均提升了对移动虚拟现实的支持力度，基于相应架构设计制造的芯片有望用于2017年各大智能手机制造厂商推出的旗舰机型，这也意味着移动VR体验将再上一个新台阶。
移动芯片“雨露均沾”已为VR/AR开启一道门
除了智能手机市场，ARM同样十分看好可穿戴设备市场。虽然，在历经元年后，可穿戴并没有太大的起色，但ARM坚信，可穿戴依然还处于比较早期的阶段，还没有到真正大规模商用的时候。
当前困扰可穿戴发展的一个重要因素就是安全，James Bruce认为这对于ARM而言，既是挑战也是机遇：在安全性方面，ARM高端IP以ARM TrustZone技术作为安全基础，能为数十亿设备SoC提供银行级的信赖水平。
虽然ARM每年都会定期更新其芯片架构，但无疑今年提升对VR的支持是ARM新型移动芯片的架构设计理念。
尽管，目前部分高端智能手机能为消费者提供移动VR体验，但依旧有不足之处。
比如，延迟是移动VR需要解决的一个关键问题，因为VR的沉浸感对处理器的性能要求较高。其次，目前已有的移动VR与PC VR相比，几乎不支持互动，这意味着用户无法通过移动端VR获得身临其境的体验。再者，即便制造商已经尽其所能提高了手机显示屏幕的分辨率，但当屏幕距离用户的眼睛仅仅有一英寸时，用户还是能够看到一个一个单独的像素点。总之，要想为消费者带来真正意义上的虚拟现实体验，智能手机制造厂商需要将手机性能再提高一个水平。
而现在，从ARM最新发布的Cortex-A73及Mali-G71两款芯片来看，ARM公司所提供的移动处理器架构可以帮助所有的智能手机制造厂商解决这一技术问题。
根据数据显示，和前代Cortex-A72相比，Cortex-A73功效提升30%，性能也提升了30%。而新一代的图像处理引擎Mali-G71性能提升了50%，功效也提高了20%以上，无疑这将提高移动芯片对VR的支持。特别是功效的提升至关重要，因为最终移动VR的显示将没有太大差别，功耗将成为影响用户体验的主要因素。
尽管ARM最出名的是CPU内核设计，但其GPU移动图形处理内核的发展从未停止，而且还加大了对GPU和多媒体引擎研发的投入。新Mali-G71是首个使用ARM第三代架构Bifrost的产品。和前代Mali GPU相比，Mali-G71图形性能提高50%，功效提高20%，每平方毫米性能提高40%。
此外，为了提升移动VR的开发与体验，ARM其高端Mali系列都已经开始支持全新的Vulkan API。ARM称，Vulkan将帮助开发者进一步发挥Mali系列GPU的性能，同时也将会为基于Mali系列的VR/AR产品带来更出色的体验。
为了便于VR产品开发者进一步挖掘Mali的性能，ARM还推出了Mali VR SDK，可以帮助开发者更快的创建VR应用，同时进一步提为用户带来更高的性能和视觉体验。
除了提供适合VR的硬件与技术之外，ARM还有针对VR内容开发的一项技术——Enligten动态全局光照技术。
针对当下火热的VR行业带来的技术挑战，ARM最新产品可谓是做好了充足准备。
不可否认，目前世界上的每一样电子设备几乎都需要芯片，除了上述提到的智能手机、可穿戴、包括VR设备领域等等，从电视机到汽车再到音乐播放器，物联网的发展同样使得ARM大有可为。
正如先前所提到的，目前搭载ARM架构处理器的智能手机已经超过了30亿台，ARM架构的芯片已经占据整个移动市场95%左右的份额。可以说，如今的ARM已在移动市场占据了绝对性的优势。