This weeks JPR TechWatch reports on many things including the two-track roadmap for OpenGL ES: OpenGL ES 1.x and OpenGL ES 2.x. OpenGL ES 1.x is designed for resource restrained platforms like embedded and some handsets. OpenGL ES 2.x is designed for platforms that can take advantage of programmability. (
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JPR Techwatch)

NEC has become a Khronos Contributing Member while 3D Incorporated of Japan; AIT (Alpha Imaging Technology), Brogent, Quanta Computer, MediaTEK and VIA of Taiwan; Gomid and Magic Eyes of Korea; and Tata Elxsi of India have become OpenGL ES 1.0 Adopters, enabling them to test their products for conformance with the OpenGL ES 1.0 specification.

Khronos Developer University will be held April 08, 2005 04:51:54 in Tokyo at SGI’s Office in Japan. In addition to presentations on how to develop for OpenGL ES 1.1, there will also be presentations and demos for OpenGL ES 2.0 (with programmable shaders) and OpenVG for vector graphics acceleration.

At the CELL presentation at GDC, Sony announced that the Playstation 3 will use the OpenGL ES 2.0 API for rendering of shaders using NVIDIA’s Cg. They also discussed C++ tools to make game development manageable and described the specs for the CELL processor (a 64-bit IBM Power processor and eight “synergistic processing units” capable of handling separate computing tasks).

TI and Imagination announced a collaboration to work with third parties to optimize tool chains, graphics stacks and content for mobile phones. The goal is to enable developers to achieve console-quality performance and game-play experience on mobile devices using the TI’s OMAP platform and Imagination’s PowerVR MBX OpenGL ES 3D graphics accelerator.

The winning entries from the OpenGL ES Coding Challenge have been posted. Entries were in the categories of Demos/Fx, Games and Tutorials. All entries include source code under open source licenses.

The presentations from the San Francisco Khronos Developer University event are now online. Presentations cover the three tracks of: General OpenGL ES, OpenGL ES Platform-Specifc Development, and Industrial uses of OpenGL ES. If you were unable to attend this DevU session, these presentations will be very useful.

Used as an additional processor to the Mali110 or Mali55, single pipeline 2D/3D/Video IP rasterizer cores, the MaliGP (geometry processor) provides integer, floating-point and the 3D graphics functionality specified in the OpenGL API needed to make immersive gaming on the mobile phone a reality.

Mobile gaming device vendor Gizmondo will launch its OpenGL ES accelerated device in the UK on March 19. OpenGL ES acceleration for 3D gaming is via the NVIDIA GoForce 3D 4500. The Gizmondo console has a GSM/GPRS handset built in, is a portable media player, offers head-to-head gaming over a Bluetooth link, has an integrated GPS antenna and delivers high-quality OpenGL ES-accelerated 3D gaming.

Qualcomm has added BREW publisher and developer support for the creation of wireless 3D games optimized for its multimedia platform chipsets. The MSM Enhanced Multimedia Platform chipset provides support for industry-standard OpenGL ES 3D APIs, enabling fully featured, high-performance 3D games for 3G CDMA2000 and W-CDMA devices. In late 2005 the first MSM6550-powered phones are expected to hit the market. Leading BREW publishers and developers that have announced their plans to support 3D gaming on the upcoming OpenGL ES-enabled MSM6550 chipset include: Activision, ATARI, Bandai, Capcom Entertainment, Com2uS, Digital Bridges, Digital Chocolate, Eidos, Fathammer, Gameloft, HI Corp, Hudson Entertainment, Ideaworks3D, iFone, Infospace Mobile, IN-FUSIO, JAMDAT, Konami Digital Entertainment, Machineworks Northwest, MFORMA, Mobliss, Namco America, Sandcastle Games, SkyZone Entertainment, Sony Pictures Mobile, Sorrent, Square Enix, Superscape PLC, TAITO CORPORATION, Tecmo Mobile, THQ Wireless, Upstart Games and Walt Disney Internet Group.

Falanx Microsystems, Inc. the developer of mobile graphics IP cores for System-on-Chip (SoC) semiconductor manufacturers, has submitted their Mali55 and Mali110 IP cores to the Khronos OpenGL ES conformance process. Falanx expects both products to successfully pass the conformance process for OpenGL ES 1.0 and OpenGL ES 1.1, making both Mali cores officially certified to use the OpenGL logo. OpenGL ES 1.1 certification means that SoC manufacturers will be assured seamless integration of components with the latest functionality to restrain costs and quicken time to market.

AT GDC Bitboys will demo their new
G12 vector graphics hardware accelerator that renders SVG content through a prototype OpenVG 1.0 API. This demonstration will show SVG/OpenVG rendering with full anti-aliasing at 100 frames per second on QVGA resolution, offering a 100-fold speed improvement over software-based rendering. The G12 will also be shown at the
Developer University on March 10.

Six companies - Atsana, Hantro, Infineon Technologies, QNX, Quantum3D and Sky Mobilemedia have recently become Khronos Contributing Members while
Freescale Semiconductor has joined as a Promoting Member. The companies span the full range of consumer and industrial markets from cell phones to games consoles to automobiles and aircraft.

This year at GDC and
ESC in San Francisco, OpenGL ES and OpenVG move from interesting APIs to real-world implementations with exciting content. On the consumer side there will be hot demos from ATI, NVIDIA, Hybrid, PowerVR, Bitboys, Falanx, TI, and FutureMark. On the Avionics side look for ALT Software, Seaweed Systems and Quantum3D. All of these names are recognizable from their work on desktop OpenGL. As OpenGL ES and OpenGL come closer together with
OpenGL ES 1.2 and 2.0, the same level of high-quality visuals and content can be expressed on desktop, mobile, or embedded systems.