Khronos Group Announces New OpenVG Open Standard for Handheld Vector Graphics Acceleration

Business Wire, July 6, 2004

TOKYO -- Khronos Group

--Industry Leaders 3Dlabs, Bitboys, Ericsson, Hybrid Graphics, Imagination Technologies, Nokia, Motorola, PalmSource, Symbian and Sun Microsystems Found New Working Group and Invite Open Industry Participation

The Khronos(TM) Group today announced the formation of the new OpenVG(TM) working group to define a royalty-free, cross-platform API (application programming interface) that will provide a low-level hardware acceleration interface for vector graphics libraries such as Flash and SVG. Already in development, OpenVG is targeted primarily at handheld devices that require portable acceleration of high-quality vector graphics for compelling user interfaces and text on small screen devices, while enabling hardware acceleration to provide fluidly interactive performance at very low power levels.

The OpenVG working group has been founded and promoted by a number of Khronos Members including 3Dlabs, Bitboys, Ericsson, Hybrid Graphics, Imagination Technologies, Motorola, PalmSource, Symbian and Sun Microsystems; and the working group is being chaired by a representative from Khronos Member Nokia. Under the Khronos participation framework, the initial work undertaken by these companies is now open and available to any Khronos member who wishes to participate in the OpenVG working group. OpenVG is on a fast-track development schedule with first draft specifications expected at the end of 2004. www.khronos.org/openvg/

The Khronos Group has successfully developed the market-driving, open standard graphics OpenML(R) and OpenGL(R) ES APIs since 2000. Today, in addition to the announcement of OpenVG, Khronos also announced the formation of a second new API: the OpenMAX(TM) initiative that will standardize access to media processing primitives, used extensively in graphics libraries and video codecs such as OpenGL ES and MPEG-4. Khronos invites any company with interest to join as a member and participate in the development of any of these standards. Please go to http://www.khronos.org/members/index.html for more information.

Developers, editors or analysts with an interest in learning more about Khronos Group Standards and the effect they are having on the digital media industry are invited to an in-depth briefing with Khronos President and OpenGL ES Work Group Chairman, Neil Trevett, at EXPO COMM WIRELESS JAPAN, July 21-23, 2004, or see demos of Khronos APIs in action on the Khronos Stand #1022 on the North American Pavilion. Please email briana@goldstandardgroup.com for an appointment or more information. See http://www.khronos.org/news/events.html#wirelessjapan04 for information on the Khronos Member Demos.

Vector graphics are widely used on today's desktop through packages such as Flash and SVG. Handheld devices have an urgent need for the smooth and fluidly scalable 2D that high-quality vector graphics provide to create high-quality user interfaces and ultra-readable text on small displays devices. SVG Tiny, SVG Basic and Flash Mobile are designed for mobile devices, and OpenVG supports these by defining a low-level hardware acceleration layer for vector graphics operations that will enable graphics silicon to provide great performance for these packages at very low power-levels. The working group is also ensuring that OpenVG can be seamlessly integrated with the 3D graphics of OpenGL ES to create a fully integrated 2D and 3D graphics acceleration environment.

"OpenVG fills a distinct gap in the standards spectrum, as accelerated vector graphics is an idea whose time has come; and it is fascinating that the catalytic force came from within the handheld space," said Neil Trevett, president of the Khronos Group and senior vice president of market development at 3Dlabs. "We invite the industry to join us and help create OpenVG to realize its maximum potential. It could become the 2D API of choice for platforms that care about display quality, and creates a new opportunity for graphics vendors to add significant acceleration to handhelds; well beyond 3D for gaming."

"OpenVG will be one of the key APIs to help manage the high demand for rich graphics on mobile devices," says Koichi Mori, chairman of OpenVG working group, Senior Research Engineer, Nokia. "2D vector graphics have been and will be essential in a variety of applications from enterprise to entertainment. OpenVG plays a key role in facilitating a hardware vector graphics solution and it will bring a superior user experience with accelerated vector graphics."

"Graphics acceleration has become a key requirement in advanced mobile phones," said Bill Pinnell, Multimedia Product Strategist, Symbian. "It is vital that we have industry standards not just for 3D, but also for 2D graphics acceleration. Symbian is helping the Khronos Group define the OpenVG API to better enable advanced graphics applications and user interface designs."

"Hybrid sees OpenVG as a crucial graphics technology for mobile phones and other embedded devices," says Ville Miettinen, CTO of Hybrid Graphics. "Hybrid is a leading provider of mobile graphics technology, and already sees a strong demand in the market for a low-level 2D vector graphics standard. Hybrid will make an OpenVG implementation available as soon as the standard is complete." See http://www.hybrid.fi/main/openvg/index.php for info on Hybrid's work on OpenVG.