Talk:Mali (processor)

Open GL in the chart
As we can see, Tegra K1 will support Open GL ( not the ES version). and probably in the future all arm based gpu will also support Open GL and not only Open GL ES. So I think its good that it will be noticed now that there is also possibility for Open GL support. Tegra K1

MP vs. MP2 vs. MP4
What the difference between these trailing model numbers? The number of GPU cores? Maybe these should be added the table if someone knows definitively?--Castaa (talk) 05:30, 2 March 2013 (UTC)

Yes, its the number of cores. Alawadhi3000 (talk) 20:07, 26 May 2013 (UTC)

FYI
Just a heads up about what is coming down the pike:

"OpenGL ES 3.0 “Haiti” to be released this summer" Source: http://www.androidauthority.com/opengl-es-3-0-haiti-to-be-released-this-summer-98192/

No need to update the page until it gets released. --Guy Macon (talk) 04:36, 25 April 2013 (UTC)

DirectX?! Not actually used, as such?
What does DirectX in the context of Mali mean? See:. Does it mean that it's capable of the same things as DirectX? You could say that that hardware is DirectX capable even if there is no DirectX driver. However is there any DirectX driver available? I know ARM has been used with Windows RT but I think only without Mali hardware. DirectX is also "emulated" in Linux with Wine I think by some translation to OpenGL? comp.arch (talk) 12:20, 19 February 2014 (UTC)


 * First of all, its not DirectX but Direct3D, and you are right, through so-called "software renderer" even some x86 or ARM or MIPS CPU can achieve OpenGL support. See e.g. Mesa 3D. Because of that, I would guess, that we (at least me) declare Mali to support or not support a rendering API based on the available device drivers. But to avoid false declarations, citations would be nice. User:ScotXW t@lk 13:39, 23 June 2014 (UTC)

display controller, video acceleration
Mali SIP blocks from ARM do not comprise
 * a display controller. I believe that statement, a citation, preferably from ARM, would still be nice.
 * What about video acceleration SIP block, for doing the video codec calculations, such as Unified Video Decoder, Video Codec Engine, PureVideo, Intel Quick Sync Video, CedarX, Texas Instruments Ducati?
 * What about 2D acceleration? Distinct silicon for 2D acceleration was abandoned long time ago by ATI/AMD, Nvidia and Intel, 2D acceleration is done on the 3D acceleration silicon. Is this so with the Mali? User:ScotXW t@lk 13:51, 23 June 2014 (UTC)

Usage
The 'Usage in SoCs' column of the variants table and 'Implementations' section are redundant. In particular the 'Implementations' list is a bit obtuse in my opinion. I believe these should be combined. Any thoughts? Dbsseven (talk) 18:53, 31 October 2016 (UTC)

Hello Dbsseven, including them to the table with exemple 1

exemple 2

would be better maybe. :

Unknowcontributor (talk) 19:35, 31 December 2016 (UTC)

Late to the party by 5 years, but I've removed the implementation column from the variants table. Things are much more readable now.

As for collapsing, it would be nice for the implementation table to be partially collapsible for easier navigation, but I'm struggling with the table markup enough as it is. -Arzg (talk) 00:33, 7 July 2021 (UTC)

External links modified
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Fillrate & GFLOPS. Per core?
Which configuration (MP1, MP4...) are performance numbers assigned? One core or maximum chip configuration, p.e. MP8 (8-core)? Suggestion: We should give performance all numbers per single core. If you need performace for MP2 chip (dual-core), just multiple them by two. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Tomkan1 (talk • contribs) 09:10, 11 December 2017 (UTC)

Gflops performance number is already per core Unknowcontributor (talk) 09:15, 11 December 2017 (UTC)

External links modified
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Mali G31 (2019) model upgrade
According to the site below, the G31 is upgraded for 2019, from 28nm to 12nm, and from 650Mhz to 850Mhz. https://www.cnx-software.com/2018/10/21/comparison-s905x-s905x2-s905x2-processors/ — Preceding unsigned comment added by 174.140.111.29 (talk) 00:14, 11 December 2019 (UTC)

Various issues with the model table
The table has a few issues that stand out to me. One, the microarchitecture section is inaccurate/misleading. While the overall architecture names (Midgard, Bifrost) are correct, the marketing names of the GPUs do not correspond to the actual versions of the architectures (1st gen, 2nd gen). In reality the correspondence is as follows:

Mali T6xx and Mali T720 -- Version 4

Mali T760 and Mali T860 -- Version 5

Mali G71 and G72 -- Version 6

Mali G31, G51, G52, and G76 -- Version 7

Mali G57, G58, G77, G78 -- Version 9

Yes, this is hopelessly out of order. No, I don't know why the chips are named the way they are. This is visible in the features we list -- T720 is closer to T600 than to T760, and T760 is closer to T820 than to T720. Ideally the real versions could be listed, but I'm not aware of a single source that lists all of this, and certainly not a secondary source. I think it's best to just leave off the "nth gen" comments, since they're generating confusion. (And these are architecture major versions ... there are also smaller changes between G71 and G72 or between T820 and T860 that even this mapping ignores. Better not open that can of worms.)

Second, the die size column is almost entirely empty. I'd be in favour of deleting it as the table is already much, much too big for comfortable reading. Same goes for bus width.

Third, dedicating a column to OpenVG and Direct3D each doesn't make much sense to me ... It's trivial information, seeing as OpenVG is dead and no Mali drivers for Direct3D were ever made public. Arm's own documentation nowadays ( https://developer.arm.com/-/media/Arm%20Developer%20Community/PDF/Mali%20GPU%20datasheet/Arm%20Mali%20GPU%20Datasheet%202021.pdf?revision=d3378de8-806b-4920-897c-e295509847b3 ) just lists versions for OpenGL ES, OpenCL, and Vulkan, which are the three APIs actually in use with Mali.

Fourth, the fused-multiply add column seems redundant? It's an API requirement for APIs supported in Midgard/Bifrost/Valhall. It isn't for APIs supported in Utgard. I don't see a compelling reason to highlight it ... and again, the table is overcrowded. Similarly the usage column is redundant to the APIs. Compute kernels are supported in ES3.1 or OpenCL, both of which are supported by Midgard and newer, neither of which are supported in Utgard... not that you couldn't run compute kernels on the Utgard geometry processors if you were sufficiently motivated ;-)

The good news is that most of these issues can be solved by pressing backspace. I like having a useful table of Malis here, and I do think the useful information is in the table. Just need to remove some of the noise to emphasize the signal.

COI disclosure: I'm the lead for the Panfrost driver for Mali GPUs. As such I have a COI for the "Lima and Panfrost" section of the article which I am refraining from editing. I do not believe this constitutes a COI for the rest of the page. Arzg (talk) 20:57, 20 June 2021 (UTC)

I've corrected some of these, will wait to see if those edits are controversial before the rest -Arzg (talk) 14:48, 6 July 2021 (UTC)

TOPs
It would be great if the TOPs (for AI this is relevant) would be added per GPU type. WritersBlok (talk) 06:21, 3 June 2024 (UTC)