ARM unveils the Mali D71, trying to push 4K 120Hz on mobile?

[WMGroomAK]

As we are pushing higher resolutions on to our phones and mobile devices with higher refresh rates, ARM has introduced their next iteration of the Mali Advanced Display Processor in the form of the D71.  This new processor is based on their Komeda architecture and some of the main benefits it's supposed to present is the ability to handle 4K 120Hz, provide a 'wide range' of HDR support and consume about 70% of the power of the DP-650 while providing twice the pixel throughput.  

https://www.pcper.com/news/General-Tech/ARM-Introduces-Mali-D71-Advanced-Display-Processor

Quote

One area that has needed an upgrade for a while is in the display capabilities cooked into the latest ARM processors. The needs of upcoming phones to display 4K resolutions at 120 Hz for high end devices that can also support VR capabilities are great. Previously units have been limited to 4K/30 or in higher end phones 4K/60 capabilities. With VR being a push in mobile as well as other features that require high resolution displays and high refresh rates, it was imperative for ARM to update their technology on this front.

Previously known as “Cetus”, ARM is introducing the three different functional units that comprise their latest display technology.  The Mali-D71 is based on the new Komeda display architecture and it can handle the aforementioned 4K resolution at 120 Hz. The second portion is the MMU-600 which is a memory management unit which is tightly coupled with the D-71 to provide high bandwidth and low latency memory accesses to achieve that 4K/120 spec.  Finally the Assertive Display 5 unit helps the D-71 provide HDR support across a wide range of specifications

The new display processor is highly associated with the latest Mali GPU cores, but with enough work a 3rd party licensee could adapt it to another GPU architecture. This is obviously not the most efficient way of using this technology as it is regarded as a turnkey solution for the Mali GPU products. ARM has developed the software stack for both Andriod and Linux, and if needed it can develop Windows based drivers to fully leverage the features of this latest product. It is easily attached to 3rd party panel interfaces.

The D-71 is somewhat unique in that it adds a tremendous amount of features and speed, but is highly area efficient as compared to previous products. It takes up about half the size of the previous DP-650 unit, but because of the overall design and specialized hardware support in D-71 it features twice the pixel throughput at about 70% of the power consumption. This is an excellent example of inspired design overcoming previous generation limitations.

https://www.anandtech.com/show/11983/arm-announces-new-malid71-display-processor-and-ip-blocks

Unfortunately, even though ARM has the technology for the D-71, MMU-600 and Assertive Display 5 available to partners, Anandtech has listed that these will rprobably not appear in devices until early 2019... Still it is nice to think that mobile devices will get some kind of performance upscaling even if it is supposed to be a year and a half away...

[tsk]

Yes, I need that 120Hz mobile screen in my life. After using the screen on the iPad pro going back to 60Hz is even sadder than it is on the desktop. 

[ScratchCat]

2 hours ago, tsk said:

Yes, I need that 120Hz mobile screen in my life. After using the screen on the iPad pro going back to 60Hz is even sadder than it is on the desktop. 

But the human eye cannot see above super amazing wonderful cinematic 24 fps!   /s

 

The reduction in area is probably most important, if they can manufacture it cheaply we could see a swarm of new 120Hz android phones next year, the technology is now available and "because apple has done it" with the iPad Pro many will copy , just like with the headphone jack where there was little to no gain but still it is being removed.

[Belgarathian]

2019's a bit late.... 

[Guest]

The only company that comes to my mind that would use it is Sony.

Edit: To clarify, I'm referring to the 4k120Hz aspect

[Drak3]

7 hours ago, tsk said:

Yes, I need that 120Hz mobile screen in my life. After using the screen on the iPad pro going back to 60Hz is even sadder than it is on the desktop. 

Gaming not withstanding, my playing around with the 120Hz iPad Pro against 60Hz iPads and other tablets/phones, 120Hz has been largely worthless. Basically no benefit in drawing or flipping through the home screens as far as I've been able to tell.

[WMGroomAK]

19 minutes ago, Drak3 said:

Gaming not withstanding, my playing around with the 120Hz iPad Pro against 60Hz iPads and other tablets/phones, 120Hz has been largely worthless. Basically no benefit in drawing or flipping through the home screens as far as I've been able to tell.

Yeah, my understanding is that they are looking at 120 Hz more for the potential VR aspects...  

[Drak3]

Just now, WMGroomAK said:

Yeah, my understanding is that they are looking at 120 Hz more for the potential VR aspects...  

Then they need to upgrade alot more than just the GPU

[Drak3]

@WMGroomAK Also

29 minutes ago, Drak3 said:

Gaming not withstanding,

Huh.

[Doobeedoo]

Very nice. Was wondering about 4K120Hz on earlier today after Razer Phone was shown though. It's quite a jump and seeing high refresh rate is awesome, be it VR or games. Even simple movements, scrolling will be nice. I can see Sony potentially doing such, they brought 4K so we may see it with 120Hz too in future. 

[Bananasplit_00]

thats neat, now if phone companies could have a phone with this, a 5000mah battery AND a headphone jack that would be nice... but we all know that they are retarded and that the last two, or at least last one wont happen...