How Games Are Driving a Mobile Graphics Revolution

One of the biggest challenges companies like Qualcomm and Nvidia faced as they developed graphics processors for mobile devices was to provide advanced processing without draining a battery within 20 minutes. While graphics cards for personal computers often required beefed-up power supplies and cooling fans, Qualcomm calculates that its latest chips render a scene nearly as complex as those found in desktop computer games but use less than 1 percent as much energy as a desktop graphics processor.

Because the mobile market is so huge, chip makers can make investments that they couldn't afford for smaller targets. Market researcher iSuppli says that last year 295 million smart-phone handsets were shipped, compared with 27.2 million dedicated handheld gaming devices such as the Nintendo DS. The result has been a positive feedback loop: better hardware leads to more advanced games, which in turn stoke the demand for better hardware. Progress has been so rapid that mobile devices are moving toward the kind of graphic performance normally associated with video-game consoles and high-end PC systems. For example, last spring Sony Ericcson introduced the Xperia Play phone, which is capable of playing games designed for the original PlayStation console, and Apple says the iPhone4S contains a graphics processor from Imagination Technologies that is seven times faster than that of the iPhone 4.

Indeed, as mobile graphics power increases, growing numbers of users are likely to play some of their favorite mobile games on their big-screen TVs, by hooking up the handsets through a cable. In terms of the graphic capabilities available, says Wuebbling, "on the mobile side, for gaming, we're where PCs were 10 years ago."

business impact Part of our Business Report:

The Business of Games

Long a multibillion-dollar industry in their own right, video and computer games are now affecting a...expand broad range of businesses. The appetites of game players are driving social and mobile technologies. Games are being used to train and manage employees, as well as to encourage customer loyalty and reduce health-care costs.

Exploiting the Fun FactorAdvertisers Follow Audiences into GamesWhy Microsoft Embraced Gamingsee 16 more »

View the Original article