Imageon (previously ATI Imageon) was a series of media

coprocessor A coprocessor is a computer processor used to supplement the functions of the primary processor (the CPU). Operations performed by the coprocessor may be floating-point arithmetic, graphics, signal processing, string processing, cryptography or ...

s and mobile

chipset In a computer system, a chipset is a set of electronic components on one or more integrated circuits that manages the data flow between the processor, memory and peripherals. The chipset is usually found on the motherboard of computers. Chips ...

s produced by ATI (later

AMD Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. (AMD) is an American multinational corporation and technology company headquartered in Santa Clara, California and maintains significant operations in Austin, Texas. AMD is a hardware and fabless company that de ...

) in 2002–2008, providing graphics acceleration and other multimedia features for handheld devices such as

mobile phone A mobile phone or cell phone is a portable telephone that allows users to make and receive calls over a radio frequency link while moving within a designated telephone service area, unlike fixed-location phones ( landline phones). This rad ...

s and

Personal Digital Assistant A personal digital assistant (PDA) is a multi-purpose mobile device which functions as a personal information manager. Following a boom in the 1990s and 2000s, PDAs were mostly displaced by the widespread adoption of more highly capable smar ...

s (PDAs).

later sold the Imageon mobile handheld graphics division to

Qualcomm Qualcomm Incorporated () is an American multinational corporation headquartered in San Diego, California, and Delaware General Corporation Law, incorporated in Delaware. It creates semiconductors, software and services related to wireless techn ...

in 2009, where it was used exclusively inside their Snapdragon SoC processors under the

Adreno Adreno is a series of graphics processing unit (GPU) semiconductor intellectual property cores developed by Qualcomm and used in many of their SoCs. History Adreno is an integrated graphics processing unit (GPU) within Qualcomm's Snapdrago ...

brand name.

History

Many of the Imageon processors were simply camera, multimedia, and display ISP's. Most only provided basic acceleration for 2D graphics, photo, video and audio encoding and decoding. However, they still played an essential role in enabling broad adoption of multimedia (camera and video) capabilities in featurephones, having shipped over 100 million Imageon processors by the start of 2006, and 200 million by early 2007. Since few of the early Imageon models offered full 3D hardware acceleration, ATI partnered with various middleware companies to offer software 3D rendering capabilities instead, such as the X-Forge 3D SDK produced by FatHammer, as used on the Symbian platform, and on the Tapwave Zodiac. In 2006, ATI acquired BitBoys, adding additional talent and experience with vector graphics to their mobile and handheld graphics team. After

's acquisition of ATI in 2006, AMD licensed their mobile graphics technology to Qualcomm in April 2007 who integrated it into their Snapdragon processor family under their

brand name. AMD subsequently sold off the mobile handheld graphics division to Qualcomm in 2009 for $65M following an earlier sale of the Xilleon branch to

Broadcom Broadcom Inc. is an American multinational corporation, multinational designer, developer, manufacturer, and global supplier of a wide range of semiconductor and infrastructure software products. Broadcom's product offerings serve the data cen ...

. AMD retained the Imageon name and provided support for existing customers, although no future Imageon products were introduced. However, as a result of company restructuring, AMD divested the handheld chipset business starting from the second quarter of 2008, thus the line is deemed officially discontinued. In total, the Imageon line-up was used in over 50 different mobile device models, and AMD claimed to have shipped nearly 250 million Imageon units to customers since 2003.

Products

2D Products

3D Products

Physical Products

Imageon 100

This was a display co-processor for handheld devices released in January 2002, offering both a 2D graphics engine and MPEG decoding support, supporting displays up to 320x240 (or 800x600 if additional RAM is provided). This processor was used in the Toshiba Pocket e740 to assist with video decoding, but required the use of specific software to provide a benefit.

Imageon 3200

The 3200 series was announced in November 2002, and was targeted for use in PDAs, featuring a 2D graphics engine, multimedia playback (MJPEG/JPEG) capabilities, and additional peripheral functions. This processor supported displays up to 320x480. The Imageon 3220 was used in the HP iPAQ hx4700. Ati-w4200-tapwave-zodiac

Imageon 4200

The ATI W4200 was used in the Tapwave Zodiac gaming handheld PDA, announced in May 2003. Featuring 8MB of RAM, the W4200 was exclusively a 2D graphics and multimedia accelerator, so Tapwave licensed the X-forge software 3D engine to provide 3D graphics capabilities. This product was also found in the Sigmarion 3

Palmtop A handheld computer, also called a palmtop computer, is a term that has variously been used to describe a small-sized personal computer (PC) typically built around a clamshell design, clamshell form factor and a laptop-like Computer keyboard, keyb ...

Imageon 22x0 series

These models were primarily 2D graphics and multimedia accelerators, combined with image signal processor ( ISP) functions. They improved upon the Imageon 100 and 3200, by offering support for capture of photos and videos from digital camera sensors, as well as supporting multimedia (MPEG4) playback, and higher resolution display screens. The capabilities varied from model to model. Models include the Imageon 2200, 2240, 2250, 2260, 2262, and later, the 2282, and 2182. These processors were used in numerous popular Motorola feature-phones, such as the Motorola Razr V3 LG SV360 PCB Back

Imageon 2300

Announced in January 2004, the Imageon 2300 introduced full 3D hardware acceleration (100M-pix/sec), in addition to 2MP camera support, and multimedia (MPEG4) playback. Having full hardware 3D support enabled

OpenGL ES OpenGL for Embedded Systems (OpenGL ES or GLES) is a subset of the OpenGL computer graphics rendering application programming interface (API) for rendering 2D and 3D computer graphics such as those used by video games, typically hardware-accelerate ...

1.0 and JSR184 gaming on mobile devices via software engines such as Micro3D by Mascot Capsule. These chips were used in the LG KV3600, and in the LG SV360, which were marketed as 3D gaming phones "offering a console-like gaming experience and ergonomics". This model competed primarily with the Intel 2700G and GoForce 4500.

Imageon 2282 / 2182

The 2282 and 2182 models were released later on, and enabled additional support for playback of various audio codecs, including AMR, AAC, MP3, Real Audio, WMA and MIDI, as well as support for 3MP camera image sensors. An Imageon 2284 was reportedly used in the HTC X7500, but no details on this model were publicly shared by ATI.

Imageon 2380 / 2388

The 2380 and 2388 processors extend the 3D capabilities of the 2300 to support

1.1+, as well as additional multimedia playback codecs such as MPEG4 H.264, AAC LC and aacPlus.

Imageon 2192

Introduced with processing support for up to 3.1MP camera sensors.

Imageon TV & Multimedia Processors

Imageon TV. Announced in February 2006, as the first Imageon product in the line featuring Digital Video Broadcasting - Handheld (

DVB-H DVB-H (digital video broadcasting - handheld) is one of three prevalent mobile TV formats. It is a technical specification for bringing broadcast services to mobile handsets. DVB-H was formally adopted as ETSI standard EN 302 304 in November 2 ...

) signal receiving support, allowing handhelds devices to receive digital broadcast TV (DVB-H) signals and enables watching TV programs on these devices, the chipset includes tuner,

demodulator Demodulation is the process of extracting the original information-bearing signal from a carrier wave. A demodulator is an electronic circuit (or computer program in a software-defined radio) that is used to recover the information content from ...

, decoder, and a full software stack. In 2008 AMD launched several additional non-3D multimedia processors under the Imageon brand, including the D160 mobile TV decoder, M180 media processor, M210 audio decoder, A250 applications processor, and Z180 vector graphics (OpenVG 1.x) processor. The A250 applications processor supported 8MP camera sensors, SD video, dual displays, vector graphics and DVB decoding. The M210 audio decoder enabled Multi-band equalizer,

Automatic gain control Automatic gain control (AGC) is a closed-loop feedback regulating circuit in an amplifier or chain of amplifiers, the purpose of which is to maintain a suitable signal amplitude at its output, despite variation of the signal amplitude at the inpu ...

, 99 db

signal-to-noise ratio Signal-to-noise ratio (SNR or S/N) is a measure used in science and engineering that compares the level of a desired signal to the level of background noise. SNR is defined as the ratio of signal power to noise power, often expressed in deci ...

, and supported over 30 audio codecs including MP3, AAC, AAC+, WMA, AC3, DTS, MIDI with SMAF support, 3D audio, MPEG-4 SLS, FLAC, as well as other 3rd party codecs. Claimed energy efficiency of about 33 mW and featuring integrated power management.

Imageon M100

The Imageon 2294 and 2298 were multimedia processors, but were later renamed under the Imageon M100 series banner. Current top-of-line product, processor includes DVD quality recording and playback, HD TV output, and supports up to a 12-megapixel camera sensor. Products include Imageon M180.

IP Products: Imageon Z4xx Series

With the growing trend of consolidating multiple IC components into one SoC, ATI began offered licensing of Imageon 3D graphics IP cores. These products were not provided as separate processors, but were delivered as IP cores for integration within other SoC or Application Processors. The Imageon Z4xx series was launched in February 2008, with the Z430 and Z460 being the first Imageon graphics processors receiving certification with OpenGL ES 2.0. The Z4xx series was advertised by AMD as being based on the Xenos graphics chip architecture used on the Xbox 360, and was even referred to as the 'mini-Xenos'.

Imageon Z4xx Specifications

*3D graphics core **OpenGL ES 2.0 support ** Unified shader model ***Programmable

vertex shader In computer graphics, a shader is a computer program that calculates the appropriate levels of light, darkness, and color during the rendering of a 3D scene—a process known as '' shading''. Shaders have evolved to perform a variety of s ...

s and

pixel shader In computer graphics, a shader is a computer program that calculates the appropriate levels of light, darkness, and color during the rendering of a 3D scene—a process known as '' shading''. Shaders have evolved to perform a variety of s ...

s **Support for

WVGA WVGA may refer to: * Wide VGA, 800×480 graphics display resolution * WVGA (FM), a radio station (105.9 FM) licensed to Lakeland, Georgia, United States * WSWG (TV), a television station (channel 43) licensed to Valdosta, Georgia, United St ...

(800×480, 848×480, or 854×480) and qHD (960x540) resolutions **Claimed on par with high-end portable game consoles in terms of performance *Vector graphics core (Imageon Z180) **Hardware

OpenVG OpenVG is an API designed for hardware-accelerated 2D vector graphics. Its primary platforms are mobile phones, gaming & media consoles and consumer electronic devices. It was designed to help manufacturers create more attractive user interfac ...

1.x rendering acceleration **Claimed 20-40x faster than software-based implementations **Support for HD resolution **16X antialiasing for fonts and vector graphics **Flash support for web application **Energy efficiency

Imageon Z4xx Licensees

The Z430 IP was licensed by

Freescale Freescale Semiconductor, Inc. was an American semiconductor manufacturer. It was created by the divestiture of the Semiconductor Products Sector of Motorola in 2004. Freescale focused their integrated circuit products on the automotive, embedde ...

and the IP core was synthesized in the i.MX515 application processor from the i.MX 5 series. The Z430 IP was also licensed by

in 2007, to improve the graphics capabilities of their Snapdragon SoC's. The Imageon Z430 was incorporated into the Qualcomm MSM7x27 and QSD8x50 series of processors, being rebranded as the

200. The Z460 IP was licensed by

STMicroelectronics STMicroelectronics Naamloze vennootschap, NV (commonly referred to as ST or STMicro) is a European multinational corporation, multinational semiconductor contract manufacturing and design company. It is the largest of such companies in Europe. ...

(later ST-NXP Wireless) in their ARM11 STn8820 ' Nomadik' SoC processor in Feb 2008, but as of 2023 no products implementing this SoC have been identified. Following negotiations in June 2008, the later NovaThor processors from ST-Ericsson instead opted to use the

Mali Mali, officially the Republic of Mali, is a landlocked country in West Africa. It is the List of African countries by area, eighth-largest country in Africa, with an area of over . The country is bordered to the north by Algeria, to the east b ...

graphics core.

Sale of Imageon division to Qualcomm

In 2009 AMD sold their entire handheld graphics division to

for $65 million, transferring all Imageon assets, IP and employees to Qualcomm. As of 2021, Qualcomm continues to produce mobile SoC's with graphics capabilities branded under the

name.

References

{{Graphics Processing Unit ATI Technologies products