Imagination Technologies has developed drivers for its PowerVR MBX mobile 3D graphics chip that enable OpenGL ES support on devices running Linux, the company said this week.

It also said the chip will now host HI Corp's mobile phone-oriented 3D rendering engine, Mascot Capsule Engine Micro3D Edition 4.

Imagination is less well-known than the likes of Nvidia and ATI, but it's been pursuing 3D graphics acceleration for at least as long as they have. Its PowerVR tile-based rendering technology was originally pitched at the desktop, even found its way into Sega's Dreamcast console, but of late the company has been focusing on the mobile arena, offering its technology to chip makers under licence, ARM-fashion. Indeed, ARM is able to sub-license PowerVR MBX on Imagination's behalf.

The PowerVR MBX core has been licensed by Intel, Philips, Samsung, Sunplus and Texas Instruments, and shipped as Intel's PXA 2700G - the graphics co-processor partner to its XScale PXA270 CPUs - inside TI's OMAP 2410 and 2420 chips, and similarly integrated into Renesas' SuperH processors.

The TI chip is expected to be be used in Nokia's N-Gage 2, while Dell's Axim x50v high-end wireless PocketPC uses the Intel part.

The core provides desktop-level graphics functionality, Imagination said, including skinning, full-screen anti-aliasing, support for 32-bit precision internally, transform and lighting, Dot3 per-pixel lighting, curved surface support, and texture compression. ®

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