Open 3D-Graphics Spec For Devices Nears Release

An anonymous reader writes "LinuxDevices.com reports that version 1.0 of the Khronos Group's OpenGL ES (embedded subset) graphics API spec for embedded devices is now ready for final review and ratification by Khronos Group members, a process which should lead to its public release in July 2003. OpenGL ES is described as a light-weight, royalty-free embedded graphics standard that provides 3D-capable graphics API profiles for a broad range of embedded systems and devices, including handheld wireless devices, automotive and avionics displays, and multimedia consumer devices such as advanced digital TVs, set-top boxes, and game consoles."

Comments

The only one to win here

[ObviousGuy]

The only company on the Primary Contributor list that has anything to gain from this is ATI whose chips are nowhere to be found in the embedded space.

The other companies involved look like they just want to have a piece of the pie in case this takes off. Considering that you can put WinCE on these devices for a very nominal licensing fee and have DirectX support out of the box, many device makers will have already chosen against OpenGL. Likewise, Java has a good enough graphics library for phone-like devices.

This is probably great for truly embedded systems like flight computers, but for general purpose devices like telephones, automotive computers (Navigation systems, etc), or PDAs there just doesn't seem to be a real market for OpenGL.

Re:The only one to win here

[ocelotbob]

The only company on the Primary Contributor list that has anything to gain from this is ATI whose chips are nowhere to be found in the embedded space.

Not totally true. ATi's graphics are found in the Gamecube, which, while not embedded, is in the consumer-grade hardware sector, which is one of the main focuses of this group. Since ATI helped originate the specs, chances are, people looking to build devices with 3d framebuffers are going to look to them for the chips to make it happen. Same goes for PDAs. Just like the line between micro- and mini- computer was wiped out, the ever-increasing power of PDAs is going to mean that people are going to start to want them to display full-screen 3-d accellerated graphics; might as well provide a good open specs for folks to work on now so they just have to wait a short while for the hardware to get here.