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Quantum3D Announces IG178 COTS, Software-Based GPU for Safety-Critical Applications
Quantum3D Announces IG178 COTS, Software-Based GPU for Safety-Critical Applications
Quantum3D, Inc. | 07 Mar 2008
Quantum3D®, Inc., a leading provider of Commercial, Off-the-Shelf (COTS) open-architecture, realtime visual computing solutions for the Visual and Sensor Simulation and Training (VSST) and Embedded Visual Computing (EVC) markets, today announced the release of IGL178™, the industry’s first, entirely software-based, FAA DO-178B Level-A certifiable OpenGL® Safety Critical (SC) and OpenGL Embedded Systems (ES) Graphics Processing Unit (GPU).
IGL178 enables avionics and other safety-critical visual computing application developers to deploy industry-standard realtime OpenGL ES and SC applications on virtually any embedded system or display device, including systems not equipped with hardware-accelerated GPUs. IGL178 also enables GPU-equipped systems for which safety-critical certifiable drivers are not available to host certified applications by eliminating un-trusted driver code. With its ability to support high-fidelity, high-performance realtime 2D and 3D graphics and video applications on a wide range of systems and operating environments, IGL178 is well suited for development and deployment of new classes of low-cost, obsolescence-proof avionics, weapon systems and other advanced-display applications, including Primary and Multi-Function Displays (PFDs and MFDs), Heads-Up Displays (HUDS), Standby Instruments and Soft Controllers. IGL178 also features unique capabilities that make it ideal for new applications, including scaleable Avionics Application Standard Software Interface (ARINC 653)-partitioned safety-critical and multilevel-secure workstation applications.
Implemented by the Quantum3D IData® team and optimized for avionics and other safety- and mission-critical embedded visual computing applications, IGL178 is an efficient, small-footprint, comprehensive software implementation of OpenGL ES and SC that features extensive optimizations to provide high-performance, high-fidelity, precision software-based rendering. A key benefit of IGL178 is that it offers application developers a scalable solution for embedded graphics that supports both CPU-accelerated and GPU-accelerated graphics subsystems with a single industry-standard API so that applications may be readily deployed across multiple platform types with minimal time and development expense.
"IGL178 addresses many of the biggest problems facing the safety-critical embedded graphics industry today—COTS GPU scalability, certifiability and obsolescence," said Ross Q. Smith, Quantum3D President and Co-Founder. “By enabling the usage of industry-standard OpenGL ES and SC on virtually any platform, IGL178 allows developers in all embedded markets to employ common tool chains and common software to deploy long-lifecycle, high-fidelity, precision 2D and 3D graphics and video-intensive applications on essentially all embedded visual computing platforms, even those without dedicated hardware graphics acceleration, as well as address new challenges like MLS workstation and ARINC 653 partitioned applications."
IGL178 Fundamentally Addresses Merchant GPU Obsolescence and Certifiability
While desktop or embedded merchant GPUs can provide powerful performance for visual computing applications, they also have significant limitations—especially for avionics, medical device and military applications where safety-critical certification and long-lifecycle support is required. Modern merchant GPUs are designed for volume PC and cell phone applications where features, performance and cost are the most important design factors. Merchant GPUs, in general, are not designed to meet the rigorous hardware verification requirements of FAA DO-254 or similar standards. Because of the complexity required to meet the needs of demanding video games and similar applications, the design of merchant GPUs makes such certification efforts resource and cost prohibitive for the GPU manufacturers and virtually impossible to conduct as a post-design effort. In addition, this same GPU complexity, combined with the limited volume of safety-critical and mission-critical applications compared with consumer applications, also results in limited availability and often expensive software development efforts to produce drivers that are suitable for FAA DO-178B Level-A or similar software certifications. Moreover, the short service life of merchant GPUs (typically one to three years, with five years for automotive components) requires expensive and frequent lifetime buys for end-of-life components when such components are employed on long-lifecycle (10- to 20-year) programs such as avionics systems. Also, application-specific requirements, such as video alpha blending, alpha-out channels, strict time partitioning, precision anti-aliasing, support for unique display formats and use with FPGAs, DSPs and multi-core designs, may be difficult or exceedingly expensive to implement with COTS GPUs. IGL178, by exploiting the available performance and capability of modern, embedded CPUs, fundamentally addresses merchant GPU limitations while still providing the capabilities and performance required for a wide variety of embedded visual computing applications.
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