Why Nintendo chose DMP’s PICA200 GPU for the 3DS – technical details and insight
So, we have got ourselves a winner… the Nintendo 3DS will be the first handheld gaming platform to provide a full stereoscopic 3D gaming experience without any need of those pesky 3D glasses. Let’s face it, nobody likes to wear those clown looking goggles, but we have to, because in order to experience stereoscopic 3D (s3D from now on…) with the technology that is mainly available for consumers (passive filtering of s3D), spectators are compelled to adopt some form or the other 3D image splitting for either eyes.
That is where Nintendo came to the rescue. The all new Nintendo 3DS has a revolutionary new technology that will produce complete s3D for the user with the help of a new graphics IP core from Digital Media Professionals (DMP), named PICA200, and a display screen that can produce two different images of a scene for stereoscopic vision.
These were the primary reason for going Open Chip Protocol (OCP 2.2) specification for the development process. The biggest advantage of using OCP is to utilize the core optimization (for better Maestro performance regarding the device needs), resource pre-fetching, better memory access etc. and being an open standard, OCP also provides good understandability for both IP provider and x manufacturer.
