AMD Display Technologies

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White Paper | AMD RADEON HD 7900 AMD RADEON HD 7800 AMD RADEON HD 7700 SERIES GRAPHICS DISPLAY TECHNOLOGIES Table of Contents April, 2012 INTRODUCTION 2 Discrete Digital Multi-Point Audio 2 Multi-display Technologies 2 Stereoscopic 3D 2 Wide Color Gamut 2 DISCRETE DIGITAL MULTI-POINT AUDIO 3 Overview 3 DDMA Applications 4 AMD Display Library SDK 5 DISPLAYPORT 1.2 6 DisplayPort 1.2 Overview 6 High Bit-rate 2 7 Stereoscopic 3D on AMD Radeon Graphics 7 Multi-Stream Transport 8 Maximum AMD Eyefinity Technology Resolution 11 High Bit-rate Audio 12 AMD HD3D TECHNOLOGY 12 AMD HD3D Technology Overview 12 Frame Sequential Displays 13 HDMI ® Stereo 3D Packed Frame 14 DisplayPort MSA Misc1 Bits 15 4K X 2K 16 Overview 16 COLOR ACCURACY 17 Overview 17 SUMMARY 19

description

Display devices have always been an integral part of the PC experience. Whether it is in the form of a desktop monitor, a notebook’s embedded panel, or the touch screen of a PC tablet, display devices play a vital role in defining the user’s visual experience. The new display technologies integrated exclusively in the AMD Radeon™ HD 7700-7900 Series are designed to deliver new and unique experiences with impressive performance in these different technologies.

Transcript of AMD Display Technologies

Page 1: AMD Display Technologies

White Paper | AMD RADEON™ HD 7900 AMD RADEON™ HD 7800 AMD RADEON™ HD 7700 SERIES GRAPHICS DISPLAY TECHNOLOGIES

Table of Contents

April, 2012

INTRODUCTION 2

Discrete Digital Multi-Point Audio 2

Multi-display Technologies 2

Stereoscopic 3D 2

Wide Color Gamut 2

DISCRETE DIGITAL MULTI-POINT AUDIO 3

Overview 3

DDMA Applications 4

AMD Display Library SDK 5

DISPLAYPORT™ 1.2 6

DisplayPort™ 1.2 Overview 6

High Bit-rate 2 7

Stereoscopic 3D on AMD Radeon™ Graphics 7

Multi-Stream Transport 8

Maximum AMD Eyefinity Technology Resolution 11

High Bit-rate Audio 12

AMD HD3D TECHNOLOGY 12

AMD HD3D Technology Overview 12

Frame Sequential Displays 13

HDMI® Stereo 3D Packed Frame 14

DisplayPort™ MSA Misc1 Bits 15

4K X 2K 16

Overview 16

COLOR ACCURACY 17

Overview 17

SUMMARY 19

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INTRODUCTION

Display devices have always been an integral part of the PC experience. Whether it is in the form of a desktop monitor, a notebook’s embedded panel, or the touch screen of a PC tablet, display devices play a vital role in defining the user’s visual experience.

The new display technologies integrated exclusively in the AMD Radeon™ HD 7700-7900 Series are designed to deliver new and unique experiences with impressive performance in these different technologies:

Discrete Digital Multi-Point Audio

> As the display industry moves toward digital interfaces that support audio, such as HDMI® and DisplayPort™, more PC monitors now have the ability to output audio through built-in speakers or a stereo jack for external speakers. AMD’s new Discrete Digital Multi-Point (DDM) Audio technology takes advantage of this trend and enables new uses cases that were not previously possible.

Multi-display Technologies

> DisplayPort™ 1.2, a new display interface, boasts features such as tremendous bandwidth and daisy-chaining capabilities. Combined, these features complement the AMD Eyefinity technology multi-display technology very well.1

Stereoscopic 3D

> Radeon™ HD 7700-7900 Series GPUs are the first graphics cards in the market to support 3GHz HDMI® bandwidth to enable a smoother and more responsive Stereoscopic 3D gaming experience.2 This whitepaper will explain how this feature, exclusive to the Radeon™ HD 7700-7900 Series, enables the PC to deliver a high-performance stereoscopic 3D gaming experience.

Wide Color Gamut

> Monitors and notebooks with wide color gamut panels, once reserved for the professional market, have become more prominent with several products shipping in the market. While these types of LCD panels display a wider range of colors, there are drawbacks and challenges which will be explained in this whitepaper, as well as the color gamut remapping technology integrated in Radeon™ HD 7700-7900 Series GPUs.

This whitepaper provides an overview of the display technologies integrated into the display engine of Radeon™ HD 7700-7900 Series graphics.3 These capabilities and technologies, when combined with cutting edge display devices, enable The Ultimate Visual Experience™.

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DISCRETE DIGITAL MULTI-POINT AUDIO

Overview

Today’s PC monitors increasingly support HDMI® and DisplayPort™ inputs. Typically, these PC monitors have the ability to decode and convert a digital audio stream from the HDMI® (or DisplayPort™) input and transmit the sound through its embedded speakers or a stereo jack for external speakers. In addition, end users today have the option of connecting their PCs to HDTVs, which support audio through HDMI®. With this in mind, AMD looked for ways to enable new and unique use cases for end-users using multiple displays with audio capability. This gave birth to a new feature introduced by the Radeon™ HD 7700-7900 Series GPUs: Discrete Digital Multi-Point Audio (“DDMA”).

DDMA enables Radeon™ HD 7700-7900 Series GPUs with the ability to output multiple and independent audio streams simultaneously through digital interfaces that support audio, such as DisplayPort™ and HDMI®. Each audio stream can be multi-channel (up to 8 channels). Previous generation GPUs only output one audio stream at a time, even if multiple DisplayPort™ or HDMI® outputs were connected to displays with audio support (as shown in Figure 1):

Figure 1: Current GPUs only support one audio stream at a time

The Radeon™ HD 7700-7900 Series GPUs are the world’s first GPUs to output more than one independent multi-channel audio stream simultaneously (see Figure 2). In fact, up to six audio streams are supported by the Radeon™ HD 7700-7900 Series GPUs.

Figure 2: Radeon™ HD 7700-7900 Series GPUs can simultaneously output multiple independent digital audio streams

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Transmitting multiple audio streams can be achieved through multiple DisplayPort™ outputs, and can be combined with one HDMI® output. For graphics cards with limited display output connectors, DDMA can be fully realized with DisplayPort™ 1.2-enabled equipment, such as a multi-stream transport hub or daisy-chainable monitors.

DDMA Applications

There are numerous use cases that DDMA enables, the most prominent of which is multi-display video conferencing. DDMA technology enhances a multi-display video conferencing experience by adding a “directional” audio element when used with multiple audio-capable displays. As illustrated in Figure 2, an application can utilize DDMA technology to assign each person’s video and audio stream to an individual display and the speakers connected to it. As expected, only that person’s voice can be heard from the display’s speaker. In addition, the application is no longer required to mix all of the audio streams into one. This significantly enhances the experience.

DDMA technology also enables audio that “follows” the window of the video playback application. Through AMD’s ADL SDK, a video playback application can map the audio stream to the end-point associated with the display that its window is currently located in. While the audio from the video content seamlessly follows the window of the video, all the system sounds can still be heard through the system’s default audio end-point.

 

  Audio  

Figure 3: A single PC equipped with an Radeon™ HD 7700-7900 Series GPU can drive multiple displays in the home with different content

Another DDMA application caters to end-users with multiple displays in their homes, which is becoming very common today given the low prices of HDTVs. With DDMA, one PC equipped with an Radeon™ HD 7700-7900 Series GPU can act as a media hub or server and drive all the displays with independent video and audio content

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Application developers can innovate in this area and provide unique solutions for end-users to control their media server wherever they are located. As an example, there are applications today that allow users to interact with and control the media server application using smartphones or tablets that communicate through their wireless network. DDMA technology is a cost-effective solution to support multi-room entertainment.

Today’s PC gamers typically like to multi-task while they are playing their favorite games. Whether they are waiting for their opponents in turn-based RPGs, or waiting for a long game cut-scene to end, gamers like the ability to watch and listen to different video and audio content. With DDMA, they can do just that: keep themselves in the game with video on another display featuring audio that does not interfere with the audio in the player’s headset.

AMD Display Library SDK

The AMD Display Library (ADL) SDK is available to developers who want to take advantage of DDMA. This SDK gives developers the ability to map independent audio streams to specific audio-end points and enable new and unique use cases, including those described in this document. For more details, please visit : http://developer.amd.com/sdks/Pages/default.aspx.

Figure 4: Multi-tasking with DDMA

Figure 5: AMD Display Library SDK is available for developers to enable support for DDMA

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DISPLAYPORT™ 1.2

DisplayPort™ 1.2 Overview

In 2006, PC manufacturers (including AMD) collaborated in designing the next generation PC display interface, which would eventually be known as DisplayPort™. DisplayPort™ was designed to replace DVI and VGA by offering features that are beneficial to both system integrators and end users. It was also designed to be flexible and easily extensible for new features that the market will require in the future.

The first generation of DisplayPort™ provided 10.8 Gbps of raw bandwidth, which no other display interface can match. DisplayPort™ also supported very long non-active cables, optional latch designs for connectors, and audio support. In addition, DisplayPort™ supports spread spectrum clocking, which can dramatically reduce EMI. Finally, Source devices such as GPUs can also operate in dual-mode (otherwise known as DP++); this is valuable because it allows the same connector to transport TMDS signals to support DVI and HDMI® outputs using inexpensive level-shifting adapters.

The data link rates of DisplayPort™ 1.1a are fixed at either 1.62 Gbps per lane or 2.7 Gbps per lane, irrespective of the timing of the attached display device. This design only requires a single reference clock source to drive as many DisplayPort™ streams as there are display pipelines in the GPU. In contrast, DVI and HDMI® both require a dedicated clock source per display timing. This unique DisplayPort™ feature allows for the most efficient multi-display design and complements the AMD Eyefinity . Please refer to the AMD Eyefinity Brief for more information.

All the features of DisplayPort™ 1.1a proved that it was the superior PC display interface. To further enhance the DisplayPort™ interface, the same group of companies collaborated once more to define the next version of DisplayPort™, which paved the way to DisplayPort™ 1.2.

In 2010, the DisplayPort™ 1.2 specification was ratified by VESA. This new revision of the standard adds support for new and exciting features including high bit-rate audio, even higher link bandwidth, and multi-streaming capabilities.

The Radeon™ HD 7700-7900 Series is AMD’s second generation of GPUs that are DisplayPort™ 1.2 certified. Table 1 is a simplified comparison of display interface capabilities integrated into the Radeon™ HD 7700-7900 Series GPUs:

Table 1: Display interface capabilities of the Radeon™ HD 7700-7900 Series GPUs

DisplayPort™ 1.2 DisplayPort™ 1.1a SL-DVI DL-DVI HDMI®

Bandwidth 21.6 Gbps 10.8 Gbps 4.95 Gbps 9.9 Gbps 9.0 Gbps

Video Data Rate 17.28 Gbps 8.64 Gbps 3.96 Gbps 7.92 Gbps 7.2 Gbps

Maximum Resolution Support @ 60Hz 24bpp >2560x2048 2560x2048 1900x1200 2560x1600 >1920x1200

Audio Support Yes Yes No No Yes

Embedded Application Support Yes Yes No No No

In-band Stereo 3D signaling Yes Yes No No Yes

Multi-stream support Yes No No No No

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High Bit-rate 2

DisplayPort™ 1.2 supports up to twice the bandwidth of DisplayPort™ 1.1a. High Bit-rate 2 (HBR2) provides up to 5.4 Gbps/lane of bandwidth, or up to 21.6 Gbps in a full four lane configuration. This lends itself very well to many applications that require ultra-high bandwidth.

Chart 1 illustrates the wide range of display timings (resolution, refresh rate, and color depth) supported by various digital display interfaces.

As illustrated in Chart 1, DisplayPort™ 1.2 can easily support a multitude of display timings combining high resolutions, high refresh rates and high color depth. No other PC display interface can match this capability today.

Stereoscopic 3D on AMD Radeon™ Graphics

Frame sequential 3D displays present one view at a time (left or right eye) to the user and require the use of liquid crystal shutter glasses. According to Stereo 3D enthusiasts, at least 60fps (or 60Hz) per eye is required for these types of displays to have a pleasant 3D experience. This means that the minimum total refresh rate required is 120Hz. DisplayPort™ 1.2 provides ample bandwidth to drive frame sequential 3D displays at 120Hz with support for resolutions up to 2560x1600.

Chart 1: Comparison of video data rate versus resolution at different refresh rates and color depths

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Multi-Stream Transport

Leveraging the micro-packet architecture of DisplayPort™, DisplayPort™ 1.2 adds the capability to address and drive several display devices through one DisplayPort™ connector. This feature has often been referred to as daisy-chaining or addressable displays.

Multi-stream transport, or MST for short, can be leveraged using two types of system design. Figure 6 illustrates how MST can be used with daisy-chainable monitors. Each of the monitors in the daisy-chain configuration, with the exception of the last monitor in the chain, must have a DisplayPort™ receiver and a transmitter. Once the monitor extracts the video and audio stream addressed to it, it will then transmit the rest of the video and audio streams addressed to the other monitors down the chain.

Figure 7 illustrates the alternate method of using MST to drive multiple displays through the use of MST Hub or Splitter devices. The hub device receives a DisplayPort™ 1.2 MST signal from the source device and splits up and routes the video streams independently to each display device. Using this type of configuration also allows the use of non DisplayPort™ 1.2 monitors. To support non DisplayPort™ outputs, such as VGA, DVI or HDMI®, the MST hub has to actively convert the DisplayPort™ signal to the other types of display interface signals. Active adapters that convert from DisplayPort™ 1.1a to legacy interfaces such as VGA or DVI/HDMI® exist today.

Figure 6: Daisy-chaining monitors

Figure 7: Using MST Hub or splitter

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The number of display devices, and also the timings that each display device can be driven at, will depend on the available bandwidth. Table 2 lists the multi-display configurations possible with HBR and HBR2 bandwidth:

In 2009, AMD first announced the Eyefinity Multi-display feature. This differentiating feature has been well received by reviewers and end-users alike. While the appeal is mainly for ultra-wide screen and high resolution gaming, this feature also caters to those looking to increase their productivity through multi-monitor configurations. The Radeon™ HD 7700-7900 Series will be the second generation of GPUs that extend the capabilities of AMD Eyefinity technology with DisplayPort™ 1.2 MST.

Using daisy-chainable displays or MST hubs significantly extends the number of display configurations possible with a reference board design that has at least one DisplayPort™ 1.2 connector. For example, with the ATI Radeon™ HD 5000 Series GPUs, six-display configurations are only possible using six DisplayPort™ 1.1a connectors as shown in Figure 8. This was realized with the acclaimed ATI Radeon™ HD 5890 Eyefinity6 Edition graphics card.

HBR HBR2

1366x768 @ 60Hz, 24bpp Up to 5 Up to 64

1600x900 @ 60Hz, 24bpp Up to 3 Up to 62

1920x1080 @ 60Hz, 24bpp Up to 2 Up to 4

2560x1440 @ 60Hz, 24bpp 1 Up to 2

Table 2: Display configurations supported by HBR1 and HBR2

Figure 8: ATI Radeon™ HD 5890 Eyefinity6 Edition driving six displays with six mini-DP connectors

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As an example of how to combine MST and AMD Eyefinity , consider Figure 9. Using an MST hub, which is expected to be available in the second half of 2012, even the AMD Radeon™ HD 7900 reference board can drive up to six displays using only two DisplayPort™ connectors. This provides an upgrade path for end-users who have three monitors today, but may want to upgrade to five or six monitors in the future.

Aside from multi-output hubs, AMD expects less expensive DisplayPort™ 1.2 MST dongles in the market, which support up to two display outputs. Figure 10 illustrates how you can support up to six displays using two of these dongles combined with the DVI or HDMI® display outputs on the graphics card.

Figure 9: Using MST Hub to drive six displays

Figure 10: Using MST dongles and legacy outputs on graphics card to drive six displays

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Maximum AMD Eyefinity Technology Resolution

The ATI Radeon™ HD 5000 series GPUs supported a maximum AMD Eyefinity technology resolution of 8192 pixels wide by 8192 pixels high. The AMD Radeon™ HD 6000 and 7000 Series GPUs removes this limitation and supports a maximum AMD Eyefinity technology resolution of 16384x16384 pixels, which enables new usage scenarios. Figure 11 shows one example of an AMD Eyefinity technology configuration which is not supported with previous generation GPUs.

There are other possible configurations supported by the Radeon™ HD 7700-7900 Series GPUs combined with DisplayPort™ 1.2 MST monitors, hubs and dongles. Please note that to take advantage of this feature, Windows® 7 Aero glass must be disabled. In addition, only DirectX® 11 games allow resolutions above 8192x8192 pixels.

Figure 11: AMD Eyefinity technology configuration that exceeds 8192x8192 limitation but supported by AMD Radeon™ HD 6000 & 7000 Series GPUs

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High Bit-rate Audio

Radeon™ GPUs have supported pass-through audio through HDMI® since the ATI Radeon™ HD 2000 series GPUs, without external audio cabling. In 2009, AMD released the ATI Radeon™ HD 4700, 4600 and 4500 and 4300 series GPUs which were the first GPUs in the market to support audio through DisplayPort™. Today, there are several DisplayPort™-enabled monitors in the market that can take advantage of this feature, all of which have the option of attaching external speakers or a sound bar to the monitor.

Although DisplayPort™ 1.1a supports audio, the specification does not have provision to support high bit-rate compressed audio formats, such as those found in Blu-ray movies. DisplayPort™ 1.2 adds this capability and the Radeon™ HD 7700-7900 Series will be the second generation GPUs in the market to support High bit-rate audio through DisplayPort™. Table 3 lists the high bit-rate audio formats found in premium content, now supported through DisplayPort™ 1.2:

This capability is attractive to HTPC enthusiasts who want the latest in audio technologies in the market.

AMD HD3D TECHNOLOGY

AMD HD3D TECHNOLOGY Overview

Stereoscopic 3D is a technique that creates the illusion of depth using a stereo image pair. Each image represents the scene as viewed by the left or the right eye. The illusion of depth is achieved when the display device (along with the passive polarized and active glasses in most 3D systems) is able to present the left image only to the left eye and the right image to the right eye. To fully understand how AMD HD3D technology can deliver stunning 3D images, it is helpful to first examine the Stereoscopic 3D gaming pipeline.

The majority of DirectX® games available in the market do not support stereo 3D natively. This means that the stereo image pair must be generated external to the game engine. This can be achieved with third party stereo 3D conversion software, such as Dynamic Digital Depth’s TriDef gaming driver.

The stereo 3D conversion software intercepts DirectX® calls from the game. Using these calls, the stereo 3D conversion software generates the stereo image pair, or the Left and Right eye view. For certain types of 3D displays, the stereo 3D conversion software blends the two views together to form a single frame using a format that the display supports (e.g. Row interleave, checkerboard, side-by-side, etc…). Once the frame is in the correct format, the stereo 3D conversion software sends the frame to the GPU, which will then be sent to the 3D display device.

DTS-HD Master Audio Dolby TrueHD PCM 7.1ch

Bitrate Up to 24 Mbps Up to 18Mbps Up to 36 Mbps

Bits/Sample 24 bits/sample 24 bits/sample 24 bits/sample

Sampling Rate Up to 192 kHz Up to 192 kHz Up to 192 kHz

Channels Up to 8 Up to 8 Up to 8

Table 3: Compressed and uncompressed audio formats supported through DisplayPort™ 1.2

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Figure 12: Stereo 3D conversion software architecture

Frame Sequential Displays

Frame sequential 3D displays (also known as page flipped displays) require special treatment. The stereo 3D conversion software typically must output in frame sequential format to support frame sequential 3D displays, and does not need to convert the frames into any of the formats illustrated in Figure 12. However, the stereo 3D conversion software requires a new API known as AMD’s quad buffer.

AMD’s quad buffer API provides the infrastructure for stereo 3D conversion software to support frame sequential 3D displays by creating a double-height buffer using the existing front & back buffer in DirectX®. After the stereo 3D conversion software stores the left and right images in the quad buffer, they are then fetched by the display engine which ensures that the frames remain in ordered sequence throughout the pipeline. Before the frames are transmitted, the display engine formats the output to provide frame polarity information to the display device. Two standardized methods of conveying frame polarity information are supported by the Radeon™ HD 7700-7900 Series GPUs. These will be described in the next section.

Figure 13: Stereo 3D conversion software architecture using AMD’s quad buffer

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For more information regarding AMD’s quad buffer API, please visit: http://developer.amd.com/sdks/QuadBufferSDK/Pages/default.aspx

HDMI® Stereo 3D Packed Frame

The HDMI® 1.4a specification provides a method to support Stereo 3D display devices. This specification provides a mechanism for the source device, in this case the GPU, to convey frame polarity information, while maintaining full resolution. The majority of stereo 3D TVs released in the market since 2009 support the HDMI® 1.4a specification. Today, monitors support stereo 3D through HDMI®.

Similar to AMD’s quad buffer described in the preceding section, every stereo image pair is assembled into a standard format known as a packed frame. The GPU creates a buffer that is twice the height of the resolution of the frame, with active space in between. As per the specification, the top half of the packed frame is reserved for the left eye view, while the bottom is reserved for the right eye view.

After both frames are packed into one double-height frame, the GPU will then send it over the HDMI® link as a packed frame. Once the TV receives this packed frame, it is then unpacked and typically presented to the viewer in a frame sequential or page flipped manner. Since the polarity of each frame is known, the display can reliably control the emitter to send the correct signal to the shutter glasses.

The Radeon™ HD 7700-7900 Series GPUs are the first in the world to support all of these packed frame 3D modes:

> New - 1920x1080 @ 60Hz/Eye ( 120Hz total )

> 1920x1080 @ 24Hz/Eye ( 48Hz total )

> 1280x720 @ 60Hz/Eye ( 120Hz total )

> 1280x720 @ 50Hz/Eye ( 100Hz total )

The first mode listed above (1920x1080 @ 60Hz/Eye) is very critical to gamers who want to play games in stereo 3D. With the 3GHz HDMI® speed supported by the Radeon™ HD 7700-7900 Series GPUs, higher frame rates (up to 60Hz/Eye) at Full HD resolution can now be transmitted to the display device resulting in smooth and responsive game-play. Another feature enabled by 3GHz HDMI® speed is support for 4kx2k resolutions, which will be discussed later.

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DisplayPort™ MSA Misc1 Bits

The DisplayPort™ standard specifies a method in which the source device can send frame polarity information through the DisplayPort™ main link. This method is often referred to as the MSA method. MSA (Main stream attribute) is a secondary packet sent by the GPU to the display device, which is transmitted during the vertical blanking interval. This table shows how the GPU sets the MISC1 bits for left and right images.

Due to the high bandwidth requirement of Stereo 3D as well as the MSA method for signaling, monitor vendors are designing their next generation Stereo 3D monitors to support DisplayPort™. In fact, Samsung has released multiple stereo 3D monitors in 2011 that support this method of signaling through DisplayPort™ (Samsung A700, A750 and A950 series). The Radeon™ HD 7700-7900 Series are the second generation GPUs that are ready to support these monitors. This method is also applicable to embedded DisplayPort™ to support embedded stereo 3D panels for notebook and All-in-one platforms.

The Radeon™ HD 7700-7900 Series GPUs also support stereo 3D video playback. The stereo 3D video pipeline is similar to the gaming pipeline, where a third party application is required to convert 2D content to 3D, or to decode native Stereo 3D content. These applications also convert the format of the frame, depending on the type of 3D display device attached to the PC.

MSA MISC1 Bits

Bit 1 Bit 1

No Stereo Video 0 0

Video Frame is Right 0 1

Reserved 1 0

Video Frame is Left 1 1

Figure 14: Stereo 3D Video pipeline

The Radeon™ HD 7700-7900 Series GPUs support the following features:

> UVD accelerated MVC Decode for Blu-ray 3D movies

> Windowed mode playback of Blu-ray 3D movies through HDMI® and DisplayPort™

> Clone mode 3D movie playback

For more information, please refer to the AMD Video Technologies technical whitepaper.

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4K X 2K

Overview

Ultra-high resolution displays have existed for years but were targeted for professional applications. However, 4Kx2K TVs have started to appear in many tradeshows and demonstration events. In the future, AMD envisions TVs and monitors supporting significantly higher resolutions, well above WQXGA (2560x1600). There are various resolutions for 4Kx2K displays, with different aspect ratios. Table 4 lists some examples:

Current 4Kx2K displays require multiple display interface inputs. For example, to support 3840x2400 @ 60Hz, four single-link DVI inputs, or two dual-link DVI inputs are required. These displays can be supported by most AMD GPUs, assuming the right combination of display outputs is supported.

Next generation 4Kx2K displays ( including TVs, monitors and projectors ) will only require a single cable and a single display interface input. The Radeon™ HD 7700-7900 Series GPUs are the first that are capable of supporting next generation 4Kx2K displays through a single DisplayPort™ or HDMI® cable.

4Kx2K Resolution Aspect Ratio

4096x2304 16:9

4096x2160 19:10

3840x2400 16:10

3840x2160 16:9

Table 4: List of 4Kx2K resolutions

Display Interface Resolution Refresh Rate

DisplayPort™ 1.1a ( HBR1 ) 4096x2304 30Hz

DisplayPort™ 1.2 ( HBR2 ) 4096x2304 60Hz5

HDMI® ( @ 3Ghz ) 4096x2160 24Hz

DL-DVI 3840x2400 30Hz

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COLOR ACCURACY

Overview

A display’s color gamut refers to the range of colors that it can represent. The most common method of illustrating a display device’s color gamut is by using a gamut diagram, similar to Figure 15. The supported color gamut of the display is represented as the area bounded usually by a triangle - in this case labeled sRGB. The majority of display devices in the past had the capability to fully display the sRGB color gamut. (Note: This is usually advertised as 72% NTSC). In addition, the majority of content are captured in sRGB color gamut, including pictures and videos. Even the Microsoft Windows® desktop is rendered in sRGB color gamut.

Today, there are LCD monitors in the market that can display a color gamut greater than sRGB. Some monitors can cover 80% NTSC, while professional monitors can cover Adobe RGB (92% NTSC) or more. The problem arises when the end user views sRGB content on wide color gamut monitors without color correction - the colors become distorted and over saturated in most cases. This problem can be addressed by a process called color correction or color gamut remapping.

While the uncorrected image may seem more vivid, some of the colors look unnatural - especially flesh tone colors. One can imagine the problem this would cause in professional graphics applications where color accuracy is paramount. Even for mainstream consumers, uncorrected color images could lead to frustration for those who print photos at home, or those who view and purchase items through the internet.

Previous generation GPUs, for example the ATI Radeon™ HD 5000 Series, had the capability to perform gamut remapping. However, the capability is limited, in that the color gamut remapping or color correction is performed in non-linear space (i.e. gamma space). This limits the precision and accuracy of the color gamut remapping process.

Figure 15: – Color gamut diagram for sRGB

Figure 16: Difference between corrected and uncorrected image6

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The Radeon™ HD 7700-7900 Series GPUs remove this limitation by performing the color gamut remapping in linear space, as illustrated in Figure 17:

Adding the de-gamma step in the display engine and an advanced gamut remapping algorithm ensure high precision color gamut remapping throughout the pipeline, resulting in excellent color reproduction even on wide gamut panels. In addition, since the color gamut remapping process is performed by the display engine hardware and not through software, it will not incur any CPU or shader performance penalty and can be applied to full screen and windowed applications.

AMD plans to publish an API that can take advantage of this new hardware capability, along with SDK documentation. These will soon be available for application developers at http://developer.amd.com.

Figure 17: Comparison of color gamut remapping hardware

Previous Generation GPUs

AMD Radeon™ HD6000 & 7900 Series

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SUBSTANTIATION1 AMD Eyefinity works with games that support non-standard aspect ratios, which is required for panning across multiple displays. To enable more than two displays, additional panels with native DisplayPort™

connectors, and/or DisplayPort™ compliant active adapters to convert your monitor’s native input to your cards DisplayPort™ or Mini-DisplayPort™ connector(s), are required. AMD Eyefinity can support up to 6 displays using a single enabled AMD Radeon™ graphics card with Windows Vista or Windows 7 operating systems – the number of displays may vary by board design and you should confirm exact specifications with the applicable manufacturer before purchase. SLS (“Single Large Surface”) functionality requires an identical display resolution on all configured displays.

2 AMD HD3D is a technology designed to enable stereoscopic 3D support in games, movies and/or photos. Requires 3D stereo drivers, glasses, and display. Not all features may be supported on all components or systems – check with your component or system manufacturer for specific model capabilities and supported technologies. A list of supported stereoscopic 3D hardware is available at http://www.amd.com/HD3D.

3 The GCN Architecture and its associated features (PCI Express® 3.0, AMD ZeroCore Power technology, DDM Audio, HDMI® (with 4K and 3GHz) and 28nm production) are exclusive to the AMD Radeon™ HD 7900, HD 7800 and HD 7700 Series GPUs.

4 HBR2 bandwidth can support more than six displays with this specific timing, but the AMD Radeon™ HD 7900 Series GPUs support up to a maximum of six independent displays.5 Driving a resolution of 4096x2304 @ 60Hz requires a monitor that supports DisplayPort™ 1.2 HBR2. This type of monitor will be driven by the GPU as two 2Kx2K monitors (side-by-side) using the DisplayPort™ 1.2

Multi-Stream Transport protocol over one DisplayPort™ cable. 6 Simulated saturation to show the difference between color corrected and uncorrected image on wide gamut panels.

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SUMMARY

AMD is a recognized industry leader in display technologies, providing innovation through introduction of new technologies and display interfaces in our products. The Radeon™ HD 7700-7900 Series GPUs marks the introduction of these innovative display technologies:

> First GPU to support multiple independent audio streams

> First GPU to support 3GHz HDMI® speed for uncompromised Stereo 3D gaming performance

In addition, the Radeon™ HD 7700-7900 Series GPUs continue to support these advanced features:

> DisplayPort™ 1.2 Multi-Streaming & HBR2

> Stereo 3D through both DisplayPort™ and HDMI®

> Enhanced color gamut remapping for wide color gamut displays

With AMD Radeon™ and the introduction of Discrete Digital Multi-Point Audio (DDMA), Radeon™ HD 7700-7900 Series GPUs enable new and interesting multi-display applications. Combined with support for DisplayPort™ 1.2, high performance stereo 3D gaming through HDMI®, and improved AMD Eyefinity, the Radeon™ HD 7700-7900 Series is positioned as the GPUs of choice for gaming, HTPC and multimedia enthusiasts.