Netflix is now streaming the hugely popular Breaking Bad series in 4K Ultra HD resolution. The adoption of 4K content coupled with heavy demand for retina quality displays and long battery life in laptops, tablets and cellphones means that GPU technology companies such as AMD, NVIDIA, Qualcomm, and Intel have a strong incentive to continue investing in higher flop per watt mobile GPUs. The motivation is there as the 2013 mobile market for battery powered devices (that contained an embedded GPU) reached roughly 1.5 billion processors for cellphones and 190 million tablet processors. The forecast is good for a continued drive to increase GPU floating-point performance in ever smaller power envelopes to preserve battery life.
For more information about consumer drivers for GPU design, see my Scientific Computing article, “Mobile Tech Between a Rock and a Hard Place“.
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