<s>
VideoCore	B-General_Concept
is	O
a	O
low-power	O
mobile	O
multimedia	O
processor	O
originally	O
developed	O
by	O
Alphamosaic	O
Ltd	O
and	O
now	O
owned	O
by	O
Broadcom	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
Its	O
two-dimensional	O
DSP	B-Architecture
architecture	O
makes	O
it	O
flexible	O
and	O
efficient	O
enough	O
to	O
decode	O
(	O
as	O
well	O
as	O
encode	O
)	O
a	O
number	O
of	O
multimedia	O
codecs	O
in	O
software	O
while	O
maintaining	O
low	O
power	O
usage	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
The	O
semiconductor	B-Architecture
intellectual	I-Architecture
property	I-Architecture
core	I-Architecture
(	O
SIP	O
core	O
)	O
has	O
been	O
found	O
so	O
far	O
only	O
on	O
Broadcom	O
SoCs	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
The	O
ARM	B-Architecture
processor	I-Architecture
core	O
has	O
a	O
high	O
IPS	O
per	O
watt	O
figure	O
(	O
and	O
thus	O
dominates	O
the	O
mobile	O
phone	O
market	O
)	O
,	O
but	O
requires	O
video	O
acceleration	O
coprocessors	O
and	O
display	O
controllers	O
for	O
a	O
complete	O
system	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
Specialised	O
co-processors	O
may	O
be	O
optimised	O
for	O
throughput	O
over	O
latency	O
(	O
more	O
cores	O
and	O
data	O
parallelism	B-Operating_System
,	O
but	O
at	O
a	O
lower	O
clock	O
speed	O
)	O
,	O
and	O
have	O
instruction-sets	O
and	O
memory	O
architectures	O
designed	O
for	O
media	O
processing	O
(	O
e.g.	O
</s>
<s>
saturation	B-Algorithm
arithmetic	I-Algorithm
,	O
and	O
handling	O
of	O
specialised	O
data	O
formats	O
)	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
The	O
VideoCoreIV-AG100-R	O
found	O
in	O
the	O
Raspberry	B-Operating_System
Pi	I-Operating_System
1	O
,	O
2	O
and	O
3	O
,	O
is	O
documented	O
to	O
fully	O
support	O
OpenGL	B-Application
ES	I-Application
2.0	O
and	O
OpenVG	B-Library
1.1	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
A	O
QPU	O
is	O
a	O
16-way	O
single	B-Device
instruction	I-Device
,	I-Device
multiple	I-Device
data	I-Device
(	O
SIMD	B-Device
)	O
processor	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
"	O
Each	O
processor	O
has	O
two	O
vector	O
floating-point	O
ALUs	B-General_Concept
which	O
carry	O
out	O
multiply	O
and	O
non-multiply	O
operations	O
in	O
parallel	O
with	O
single	O
instruction	O
cycle	O
latency	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
Internally	O
the	O
QPU	O
is	O
a	O
4-way	O
SIMD	B-Device
processor	O
multiplexed	O
4×	O
over	O
four	O
cycles	O
,	O
making	O
it	O
particularly	O
suited	O
to	O
processing	O
streams	O
of	O
quads	O
of	O
pixels	O
,	O
"	O
according	O
to	O
Broadcom	O
's	O
VideoCore®	O
IV	O
3D	O
Architecture	O
Reference	O
Guide	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
in	O
the	O
Raspberry	B-Operating_System
Pi	I-Operating_System
)	O
does	O
not	O
support	O
S3	O
Texture	O
Compression	O
(	O
S3TC	O
)	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
Of	O
video	O
compression	O
algorithms	O
currently	O
in	O
wide	O
use	O
,	O
such	O
as	O
H.263	B-Algorithm
,	O
H.264/MPEG	B-Application
-4	I-Application
AVC	I-Application
,	O
MPEG-4	B-Algorithm
,	O
MPEG-2	B-Algorithm
,	O
MPEG-1	B-Algorithm
,	O
H.265	B-Algorithm
,	O
Daala	B-Application
,	O
Theora	B-Algorithm
,	O
VP8	B-Algorithm
and	O
VP9	B-Algorithm
,	O
Broadcom	O
's	O
VideoCore	B-General_Concept
products	O
support	O
hardware	O
acceleration	O
of	O
some	O
operations	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
Instruction	B-General_Concept
set	I-General_Concept
written	O
with	O
video	O
processing	O
in	O
mind	O
from	O
the	O
start	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
For	O
example	O
,	O
saturation	B-Algorithm
arithmetic	I-Algorithm
so	O
that	O
the	O
sum	O
of	O
two	O
bright	O
pixels	O
does	O
not	O
'	O
wrap	O
around	O
 '	O
into	O
dark	O
values	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
An	O
array	O
of	O
graphics	B-Architecture
processing	I-Architecture
units	I-Architecture
for	O
parallel	B-Operating_System
computing	I-Operating_System
of	O
video	O
data	O
at	O
relatively	O
low	O
clock	O
speed	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
Very	O
high	O
integration	O
puts	O
CPU	O
,	O
GPUs	B-Architecture
,	O
memory	O
and	O
display	O
circuitry	O
on	O
a	O
single	O
chip	O
,	O
removing	O
the	O
power	O
burden	O
of	O
driving	O
fast	O
off-chip	O
buses	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
The	O
VideoCore	B-General_Concept
I-based	O
VC01	O
provides	O
video	O
and	O
multimedia	O
capabilities	O
to	O
various	O
Samsung	O
phones	O
,	O
including	O
SCH-V540	O
,	O
SCH-V4200	O
,	O
SCH-V490	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
The	O
VideoCore	B-General_Concept
II-based	O
VC02	O
/	O
processor	O
provides	O
video	O
capabilities	O
for	O
Apple	O
's	O
5th	O
generation	O
iPod	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
The	O
VideoCore	B-General_Concept
III-based	O
processor	O
provides	O
video	O
,	O
still	O
and	O
3D	O
graphics	O
capabilities	O
for	O
the	O
Nokia	B-Language
N8	I-Language
.	O
</s>
<s>
The	O
VideoCore	B-General_Concept
IV	O
processor	O
improves	O
on	O
the	O
VideoCore	B-General_Concept
III	O
with	O
support	O
for	O
1080p	O
encode	O
and	O
decode	O
,	O
along	O
with	O
higher	O
resolution	O
camera	O
support	O
and	O
faster	O
2D	O
and	O
3D	O
graphics	O
,	O
all	O
at	O
very	O
low	O
power	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
It	O
is	O
used	O
in	O
the	O
Nokia	B-Language
808	I-Language
PureView	I-Language
,	O
some	O
versions	O
of	O
Roku	O
hardware	O
and	O
the	O
Raspberry	B-Operating_System
Pi	I-Operating_System
(	O
2835/2836	O
models	O
for	O
versions	O
1/2	O
accordingly	O
)	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
The	O
VideoCore	B-General_Concept
IV	O
processor	O
supports	O
for	O
1080p	O
encode	O
and	O
decode	O
,	O
improved	O
2D	O
and	O
3D	O
graphics	O
with	O
dual-core	B-Architecture
ARM	B-Application
Cortex-A9	I-Application
CPU	O
in	O
BCM28155	O
chipset	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
It	O
is	O
used	O
in	O
the	O
Samsung	O
Galaxy	O
S	O
II	O
Plus	O
,	O
Samsung	B-Application
Galaxy	I-Application
Grand	I-Application
and	O
Amazon	B-Application
Fire	I-Application
TV	I-Application
Stick	I-Application
.	O
</s>
<s>
The	O
VideoCore	B-General_Concept
V	O
processor	O
supports	O
2160p60	O
decode	O
and	O
transcode	O
or	O
dual	O
1080p60	O
encode/decode	O
,	O
features	O
improved	O
codec	O
support	O
(	O
H.265	B-Algorithm
)	O
,	O
DDR3	O
and	O
DDR4	O
support	O
,	O
USB	O
3.0	O
,	O
PCIe	O
,	O
Gigabit	O
Ethernet	O
and	O
802.11ac	O
on	O
a	O
dual-core	B-Architecture
ARM	B-Architecture
Cortex-A15	O
Brahma15	O
dual	B-Architecture
core	I-Architecture
CPU	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
SoC	B-Architecture
GPU	B-Architecture
CPU	O
Max	O
display	O
Utilizing	O
devices	O
Microarchitecture	B-General_Concept
Freq	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
(	O
MHz	O
)	O
Instruction	B-General_Concept
set	I-General_Concept
Microarchitecture	B-General_Concept
Cores	O
Freq	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
(	O
MHz	O
)	O
VC01	O
VideoCore	B-General_Concept
1	O
colspan	O
=	O
"	O
4	O
"	O
CIF	B-Application
BCM2702	O
(	O
VC02	O
)	O
VideoCore	B-General_Concept
2	O
colspan	O
=	O
"	O
4	O
"	O
SD	O
PAL/NTSC	O
BCM2705	O
(	O
VC05	O
)	O
VideoCore	B-General_Concept
2	O
colspan	O
=	O
"	O
4	O
"	O
SD	O
PAL/NTSC	O
BCM2091	O
VideoCore	B-General_Concept
4	O
colspan	O
=	O
"	O
4	O
"	O
Unspecified	O
BCM2722	O
VideoCore	B-General_Concept
2	O
colspan	O
=	O
"	O
4	O
"	O
SD	O
PAL/NTSC	O
BCM2724	O
VideoCore	B-General_Concept
2	O
colspan	O
=	O
"	O
4	O
"	O
SD	O
PAL/NTSC	O
BCM2727	O
VideoCore	B-General_Concept
3	O
colspan	O
=	O
"	O
4	O
"	O
HD	O
720p	O
BCM11181	O
VideoCore	B-General_Concept
3	O
colspan	O
=	O
"	O
4	O
"	O
HD	O
720p	O
BCM2763	O
VideoCore	B-General_Concept
4	O
colspan	O
=	O
"	O
4	O
"	O
Full	O
HD	O
1080p	O
BCM2820	O
VideoCore	B-General_Concept
4	O
ARMv6	O
ARM1176	O
1	O
600	O
Full	O
HD	O
1080p	O
BCM2835	B-Operating_System
VideoCore	B-General_Concept
4	O
250	O
ARMv6	O
ARM1176	O
1	O
700	O
Full	O
HD	O
1080p	O
BCM2836	O
VideoCore	B-General_Concept
4	O
250	O
ARMv7	O
Cortex-A7	B-Application
4	O
900	O
Full	O
HD	O
1080p	O
Raspberry	B-Operating_System
Pi	I-Operating_System
2	O
BCM2837	O
VideoCore	B-General_Concept
4	O
300	O
ARMv8	O
Cortex-A53	O
4	O
1200	O
Full	O
HD	O
1080p	O
Raspberry	B-Operating_System
Pi	I-Operating_System
3	O
BCM11182	O
VideoCore	B-General_Concept
4	O
colspan	O
=	O
"	O
4	O
"	O
Full	O
HD	O
1080p	O
BCM11311	O
VideoCore	B-General_Concept
4	O
ARMv7	O
Cortex-A9	B-Application
2	O
Full	O
HD	O
1080p	O
BCM21654	O
VideoCore	B-General_Concept
4	O
ARMv7	O
Cortex-A9	B-Application
+	O
Cortex-R4	O
1+1	O
Full	O
HD	O
1080p	O
BCM21654G	O
VideoCore	B-General_Concept
4	O
ARMv7	O
Cortex-A9	B-Application
1	O
up	O
to	O
1000	O
HD	O
720p	O
BCM21663	O
VideoCore	B-General_Concept
4	O
ARMv7	O
Cortex-A9	B-Application
1	O
up	O
to	O
1200	O
HD	O
720p	O
BCM21664	O
VideoCore	B-General_Concept
4	O
ARMv7	O
Cortex-A9	B-Application
1	O
up	O
to	O
1000	O
HD	O
720p	O
BCM21664T	O
VideoCore	B-General_Concept
4	O
ARMv7	O
Cortex-A9	B-Application
1	O
up	O
to	O
1200	O
Full	O
HD	O
1080p	O
BCM28150	O
VideoCore	B-General_Concept
4	O
ARMv7	O
Cortex-A9	B-Application
2	O
Full	O
HD	O
1080p	O
BCM21553	O
VideoCore	B-General_Concept
4	O
ARMv6	O
ARM11	O
1	O
Full	O
HD	O
1080p	O
BCM28145/28155	O
VideoCore	B-General_Concept
4	O
ARMv7	O
Cortex-A9	B-Application
2	O
1200	O
Full	O
HD	O
1080p	O
BCM23550	O
VideoCore	B-General_Concept
4	O
ARMv7	O
Cortex-A7	B-Application
4	O
1200	O
Full	O
HD	O
1080p	O
BCM7251	O
VideoCore	B-General_Concept
5	O
ARMv7	O
ARM	B-Architecture
Cortex-A15	O
2	O
1666	O
4K	O
2160p	O
BCM2711B0	O
VideoCore	B-General_Concept
VI	O
500	O
ARMv8	O
ARM	B-Architecture
Cortex-A72	O
4	O
1800	O
Dual	O
4K	O
2160pRaspberry	O
Pi	O
4B	O
SoC	B-Architecture
Microarchitecture	B-General_Concept
Freq	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
(	O
MHz	O
)	O
Instruction	B-General_Concept
set	I-General_Concept
Microarchitecture	B-General_Concept
Cores	O
Freq	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
VideoCore	B-General_Concept
chips	O
can	O
run	O
complete	O
applications	O
-	O
they	O
are	O
not	O
simply	O
video	O
DSP	B-Architecture
chips	I-Architecture
that	O
require	O
a	O
separate	O
processor	O
to	O
supply	O
and	O
collect	O
data	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
In	O
practice	O
though	O
,	O
they	O
are	O
often	O
used	O
like	O
simple	O
accelerators	O
,	O
as	O
companies	O
usually	O
prefer	O
to	O
cautiously	O
assimilate	O
new	O
technology	O
rather	O
than	O
take	O
a	O
big	O
risk	O
in	O
porting	O
a	O
large	O
amount	O
of	O
application	O
code	O
from	O
an	O
existing	O
ARM-based	O
design	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
The	O
VideoCore	B-General_Concept
may	O
also	O
not	O
be	O
optimally	O
power-efficient	O
at	O
non-DSP	O
tasks	O
,	O
but	O
may	O
be	O
coupled	O
with	O
a	O
highly	O
efficient	O
CPU	B-Architecture
core	I-Architecture
,	O
for	O
instance	O
typical	O
non-multimedia	O
tasks	O
rarely	O
require	O
more	O
than	O
32-bit	O
bus	O
width	O
,	O
while	O
the	O
VideoCore	B-General_Concept
design	O
employs	O
multiple	O
wide-bus-width	O
cores	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
It	O
is	O
n't	O
desirable	O
or	O
practical	O
to	O
port	O
a	O
full	O
operating	O
system	O
onto	O
a	O
VideoCore	B-General_Concept
chip	O
,	O
so	O
only	O
the	O
video	O
decoding	O
need	O
be	O
offloaded	O
onto	O
a	O
video	B-Architecture
accelerator	I-Architecture
board	O
(	O
e.g.	O
</s>
<s>
Blu-ray	O
players	O
can	O
also	O
use	O
it	O
as	O
a	O
low-power	O
video	B-Architecture
accelerator	I-Architecture
.	O
</s>
<s>
Noting	O
that	O
VideoCore	B-General_Concept
chips	O
were	O
usually	O
used	O
with	O
ARM-based	O
chips	O
,	O
the	O
latest	O
chips	O
have	O
VideoCore	B-General_Concept
and	O
ARM	B-Architecture
processors	I-Architecture
.	O
</s>
<s>
On	O
28	O
February	O
2014	O
,	O
on	O
the	O
day	O
of	O
the	O
second	O
anniversary	O
of	O
the	O
Raspberry	B-Operating_System
Pi	I-Operating_System
,	O
Broadcom	O
,	O
together	O
with	O
the	O
Raspberry	B-Operating_System
PI	I-Operating_System
foundation	O
,	O
announced	O
the	O
release	O
of	O
full	O
documentation	O
for	O
the	O
VideoCore	B-General_Concept
IV	O
graphics	O
core	O
,	O
and	O
a	O
complete	O
source	O
release	O
of	O
the	O
graphics	O
stack	O
under	O
a	O
3-clause	O
BSD	O
license	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
However	O
,	O
only	O
a	O
minor	O
part	O
of	O
the	O
driver	O
was	O
released	O
as	O
open	O
source	O
;	O
all	O
of	O
the	O
video	O
acceleration	O
is	O
done	O
using	O
a	O
firmware	O
coded	O
for	O
its	O
proprietary	O
GPU	B-Architecture
,	O
which	O
was	O
not	O
open	O
sourced	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
The	O
entire	O
SoC	B-Architecture
itself	O
is	O
managed	O
by	O
a	O
ThreadX-based	O
RTOS	B-Operating_System
that	O
is	O
loaded	O
into	O
the	O
VideoCore	B-General_Concept
's	O
VPU	O
during	O
bootup	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
An	O
architectural	O
overview	O
of	O
the	O
VideoCore	B-General_Concept
based	O
system	O
was	O
compiled	O
(	O
based	O
on	O
reverse	O
engineering	O
&	O
patent	O
research	O
)	O
by	O
Herman	O
Hermitage	O
and	O
is	O
available	O
on	O
GitHub	B-Application
.	O
</s>
<s>
In	O
June	O
2014	O
,	O
Emma	O
Anholt	O
left	O
Intel	O
for	O
Broadcom	O
to	O
develop	O
a	O
free	O
driver	O
(	O
DRM/KMS	O
driver	O
and	O
Gallium3D-driver	O
)	O
for	O
VC4	O
(	O
VideoCore	B-General_Concept
4	O
)	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
The	O
freely	O
licensed	O
3D	O
graphics	O
code	O
was	O
committed	O
to	O
Mesa	B-Application
on	O
29	O
August	O
2014	O
,	O
and	O
was	O
first	O
released	O
as	O
part	O
of	O
Mesa	B-Application
10.3	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
Similar	O
mobile	O
multimedia	O
chip	O
ranges	O
include	O
Adreno	B-General_Concept
,	O
Texas	B-Device
Instruments	I-Device
OMAP	I-Device
,	O
Nvidia	B-Operating_System
Tegra	I-Operating_System
,	O
AllWinner	O
A1X	O
and	O
Freescale	B-Architecture
i.MX	I-Architecture
.	O
</s>
<s>
These	O
are	O
ARM-based	O
with	O
arrays	O
of	O
graphics	B-Architecture
processing	I-Architecture
units	I-Architecture
.	O
</s>
<s>
The	O
Broadcom	O
YouTube	B-General_Concept
page	O
has	O
videos	O
demonstrating	O
the	O
video	O
processing	O
capability	O
,	O
but	O
their	O
website	O
only	O
goes	O
as	O
far	O
as	O
providing	O
product	O
briefs	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
However	O
,	O
on	O
28	O
February	O
2014	O
,	O
on	O
the	O
day	O
of	O
the	O
second	O
anniversary	O
of	O
the	O
Raspberry	B-Operating_System
Pi	I-Operating_System
,	O
Broadcom	O
,	O
together	O
with	O
the	O
Raspberry	B-Operating_System
Pi	I-Operating_System
Foundation	O
,	O
announced	O
the	O
release	O
of	O
full	O
documentation	O
for	O
the	O
VideoCore	B-General_Concept
IV	O
graphics	O
core	O
,	O
and	O
a	O
complete	O
source	O
release	O
of	O
the	O
graphics	O
stack	O
under	O
a	O
3-clause	O
BSD	O
license	O
.	O
</s>
