Be Smart

Fancy console-quality 3D gaming on your cellphone?  ARM today announced the Mali-JSR297 graphics stack software which, it claims, will allow Java programmers to use the OpenGL ES 2.0 graphics processing units in some mobile devices.  GPUs like ARM's own Mali200, which is to be found the Ericsson U500 HSPA mobile platform, can now use the same OpenGL API as the PlayStation 3 relies upon, and while this doesn't necessarily mean you'll see ports of your favourite PS3 titles appearing on your next cellphone, it does vastly open up the market for titles beyond Snake and Tetris.

"With the ARM Mali-JSR297 software, game developers now have complete control over the visual appearance of their games, enabling the creation of graphics displays on mobile phones that are similar to those seen on high-end gaming consoles and PCs" ARM press release

"One of the biggest challenges facing game developers today is the lack of tools that allow programmers to capitalize on the most powerful graphics hardware in mobile phones" David Brittain, vice president of technology, Superscape

Pre-release versions are expected to be available to manufacturers from Q3 2008, presuming successful ratification of the JSR297 standard.

[via I4U]