Unified Video Decoder

Unified Video Decoder (UVD), previously called Universal Video Decoder, is the name given to AMD's dedicated video decoding ASIC. There are multiple versions implementing a multitude of video codecs, such as H.264 and VC-1.

UVD was introduced with the Radeon HD 2000 Series and is integrated into some of the AMD GPUs and APUs. UVD occupies a considerable amount of the die surface[1] and is not to be confused with AMD's Video Coding Engine (VCE).

Overview

The UVD is based on an ATI Xilleon video processor, which is incorporated onto the same die as the GPU and is part of the ATI Avivo HD for hardware video decoding, along with the Advanced Video Processor (AVP). UVD, as stated by AMD, handles decoding of H.264/AVC, and VC-1 video codecs entirely in hardware.

The UVD technology is based on the Cadence Tensilica Xtensa[2] processor,[3][4][5] which was originally licensed by ATI Technologies Inc. in 2004.[6]

UVD/UVD+

In early versions of UVD, video post-processing is passed to the pixel shaders and OpenCL kernels. MPEG-2 decoding is not performed within UVD, but in the shader processors. The decoder meets the performance and profile requirements of Blu-ray and HD DVD, decoding H.264 bitstreams up to a bitrate of 40 Mbit/s. It has context-adaptive binary arithmetic coding (CABAC) support for H.264/AVC.

Unlike video acceleration blocks in previous generation GPUs, which demanded considerable host-CPU involvement, UVD offloads the entire video-decoder process for VC-1 and H.264 except for video post-processing, which is offloaded to the shaders. MPEG-2 decode is also supported, but the bitstream/entropy decode is not performed for MPEG-2 video in hardware. Previously, neither ATI Radeon R520 series' ATI Avivo nor NVidia Geforce 7 series' PureVideo assisted front-end bitstream/entropy decompression in VC-1 and H.264 - the host CPU performed this work.[7] UVD handles VLC/CAVLC/CABAC, frequency transform, pixel prediction and inloop deblocking, but passes the post processing to the shaders.[8] Post-processing includes denoising, de-interlacing, and scaling/resizing. AMD has also stated that the UVD component being incorporated into the GPU core only occupies 4.7 mm² in area on 65 nm fabrication process node.

A variation on UVD, called UVD+, was introduced with the Radeon HD 3000 series. UVD+ support HDCP for higher resolution video streams.[9] But UVD+ was also being marketed as simply UVD.

UVD 2

The UVD saw a refresh with the release of the Radeon HD 4000 series products. The UVD 2 features full bitstream decoding of H.264/MPEG-4 AVC, VC-1, as well as iDCT level acceleration of MPEG2 video streams. Performance improvements allow dual video stream decoding and Picture-in-Picture mode. This makes UVD2 full BD-Live compliant.

The UVD 2.2 features a re-designed local memory interface and enhances the compatibility with MPEG2/H.264/VC-1 videos. However, it was marketed under the same alias as "UVD 2 Enhanced" as the "special core-logic, available in RV770 and RV730 series of GPUs, for hardware decoding of MPEG2, H.264 and VC-1 video with dual-stream decoding". The nature of UVD 2.2 being an incremental update to the UVD 2 can be accounted for this move.

UVD 3

UVD 3 adds support for additional hardware MPEG2 decoding (entropy decode), DivX and Xvid via MPEG-4 Part 2 decoding (entropy decode, inverse transform, motion compensation) and Blu-ray 3D via MVC (entropy decode, inverse transform, motion compensation, in-loop deblocking).[10][11] along with 120 Hz stereo 3D support,[12] and is optimized to utilize less CPU processing power. UVD 3 also adds support for Blu-ray 3D stereoscopic displays.

UVD 4

UVD 4 includes improved frame interpolation with H.264 decoder.[13] UVD 4.2 was introduced with the AMD Radeon Rx 200 series and Kaveri APU."X.ORG Radeon UVD (Unified Video Decoder) Hardware-UVD4.2: KAVERI, KABINI, MULLINS, BONAIRE, HAWAII". May 2016.

UVD 5

UVD 5 was introduced with the AMD Radeon R9 285. New to UVD is full support for 4K H.264 video, up to level 5.2 (4Kp60).[14]

UVD 6

The UVD 6.0 decoder and Video Coding Engine 3.1 encoder were reported to be first used in GPUs based on GCN 3, including Radeon R9 Fury series and "Carrizo"-APUs,[15][16] followed by AMD Radeon Rx 300 Series (Pirate Islands GPU family) and AMD Radeon Rx 400 Series (Arctic Islands GPU family).[17] The UVD version in "Fiji" and "Carrizo"-based graphics controller hardware is also announced to provide support for High Efficiency Video Coding (HEVC, H.265) hardware video decoding, up to 4K, 8-bits color (H.265 version 1, main profile);[18][19][20] and there is support for the 10bit-color HDR both H.265 and VP9 video codec in the AMD Radeon 400 series with UVD 6.3.[21][22][23]

UVD 7

The UVD 7.0 decoder and Video Coding Engine 4.0 encoder are included in the Vega based GPUs.[24][25] But there is still no fixed function VP9 hardware decoding.[26]

VCN 1

Starting with the integrated graphics of the Raven Ridge APU (Ryzen 2200/2400G), the former UVD and VCE have been replaced by the new "Video Core Next" (VCN). VCN 1.0 adds full hardware decoding for the VP9 codec.

Availability

Most of the Radeon HD 2000 series video cards implement the UVD for hardware decoding of 1080p high definition contents.[27] However, the Radeon HD 2900 series video cards do not include the UVD (though it is able to provide partial functionality through the use of its shaders), which was incorrectly stated to be present on the product pages and package boxes of the add-in partners' products before the launch of the Radeon HD 2900 XT, either stating the card as featuring ATI Avivo HD or explicitly UVD, which only the former statement of ATI Avivo HD is correct. The exclusion of UVD was also confirmed by AMD officials.[28]

UVD2 is implemented in the Radeon RV7x0 and R7x0 series GPUs. This also includes the RS7x0 series used for the AMD 700 chipset series IGP motherboards.

Feature overview

APUs

BrandLlanoTrinityRichlandKaveriCarrizoBristol RidgeRaven RidgeDesna, Ontario, ZacateKabini, TemashBeema, MullinsCarrizo-LStoney Ridge
PlatformDesktop, MobileUltra-mobile
ReleasedAug 2011Oct 2012Jun 2013Jan 2014Jun 2015Jun 2016Oct 2017Jan 2011May 2013Q2 2014May 2015June 2016
Fab. (nm)GlobalFoundries 32 SOIGlobalFoundries 28 SHPGlobalFoundries 14LPP (FinFET)TSMC 4028
Die size (mm2)228246245244.62250.04210[29]75 (+ 28 FCH)~107TBA125
SocketFM1, FS1FM2, FS1+, FP2FM2+, FP3FM2+[lower-alpha 1], FP4AM4, FP4AM4, FP5FT1AM1, FT3FT3bFP4FP4
CPU micro-architectureAMD 10hPiledriverSteamrollerExcavatorZenBobcatJaguarPumaPuma+[30]Excavator
Memory supportDDR3-1866
DDR3-1600
DDR3-1333		DDR3-2133
DDR3-1866
DDR3-1600
DDR3-1333		DDR4-2933
DDR4-2667
DDR4-2400
DDR4-2133		DDR3L-1333
DDR3L-1066		DDR3L-1866
DDR3L-1600
DDR3L-1333
DDR3L-1066		DDR3L-1866
DDR3L-1600
DDR3L-1333		Up to
DDR4-2133
3D engine[lower-alpha 2]TeraScale (VLIW5)TeraScale (VLIW4)GCN 2nd Gen (Mantle, HSA)GCN 3rd Gen (Mantle, HSA)GCN 5th Gen[31] (Mantle, HSA)TeraScale (VLIW5)GCN 2nd GenGCN 3rd Gen[31]
Up to 400:20:8Up to 384:24:6Up to 512:32:8Up to 704:44:16[32]80:8:4128:8:4Up to 192:?:?
IOMMUv1IOMMUv2IOMMUv1[33]TBATBA
Video Decoder ASICUVD 3.0UVD 4.2UVD 6.0VCN 1.0[34]UVD 3.0UVD 4.0UVD 4.2UVD 6.0UVD 6.3
Video Encoding ASICN/AVCE 1.0VCE 2.0VCE 3.1N/AVCE 2.0VCE 3.1
GPU power savingPowerPlayPowerTuneN/APowerTune[35]
Max. displays[lower-alpha 3]2–32–42–434TBA2TBATBA
TrueAudioN/A[37]N/A[33]TBA
FreeSyncN/A1
2		N/ATBA
HDCP[lower-alpha 4]?1.41.4
2.2		?1.4
PlayReady[lower-alpha 4]?3.0 (upcoming)?
/drm/radeon[lower-alpha 5][38][39] N/AN/A
/drm/amdgpu[lower-alpha 5][40] N/A[41]N/A[41]
  1. ↑ No APU models. Athlon X4 845 only.
  2. ↑ Unified shaders : texture mapping units : render output units
  3. ↑ To feed more than two displays, the additional panels must have native DisplayPort support.[36] Alternatively active DisplayPort-to-DVI/HDMI/VGA adapters can be employed.
  4. 1 2 To play protected video content, it also requires card, operating system, driver, and application support. A compatible HDCP display is also needed for this. HDCP is mandatory for the output of certain audio formats, placing additional constraints on the multimedia setup.
  5. 1 2 DRM (Direct Rendering Manager) is a component of the Linux kernel. Support in this table refers to the most current version.

GPUs

The following table shows features of Radeon-branded GPU microarchitectures.

R100 R200 R300 R400 R500 R600 RV670 R700 Evergreen Northern
Islands		 Southern
Islands		 Sea
Islands		 Volcanic
Islands		 Arctic
Islands		 Vega
Released Apr 2000 Aug 2001 Sep 2002 May 2004 Oct 2005 May 2007 Nov 2007 Jun 2008 Sep 2009 Oct 2010 Jan 2012 Sep 2013 Jun 2015 Jun 2016 Jun 2017
AMD support
Instruction set Not publicly known TeraScale instruction set GCN instruction set
Microarchitecture TeraScale 1 (VLIW5) TeraScale 2 (VLIW5) TeraScale 3 (VLIW4) GCN 1st gen GCN 2nd gen GCN 3rd gen GCN 4th gen GCN 5th gen
Type Fixed pipeline[lower-alpha 1] Programmable pixel & vertex pipelines Unified shader model
Direct3D 7.0 8.1 9.0
11 (9_2)		 9.0b
11 (9_2)		 9.0c
11 (9_3)		 10.0
11 (10_0)		 10.1
11 (10_1)		 11 (11_0) 11 (11_1)
12 (11_1)		 11 (12_0)
12 (12_0)		 11 (12_1)
12 (12_1)
Shader model N/A 1.4 2.0+ 2.0b 3.0 4.0 4.1 5.0 5.1
6.0
OpenGL 1.3 2.0[lower-alpha 2] 3.3 4.4[lower-alpha 3] 4.6 with GLSL 4.5 (Linux 4.5+)
Vulkan N/A Linux Mesa 17+
Win 7+: 1.0		 1.1
OpenCL N/A Close to Metal 1.1 1.2 2.0 (2.1 in Windows Adrenalin, 1.2 in Linux)
HSA N/A
Power saving ? PowerPlay PowerTune PowerTune & ZeroCore Power
Video decoder ASIC N/A Avivo/UVD UVD+ UVD 2 UVD 2.2 UVD 3 UVD 4 UVD 4.2 UVD 5.0 or 6.0 UVD 6.3 UVD 7[24][lower-alpha 4]
Video encoding ASIC N/A VCE 1.0 VCE 2.0 VCE 3.0 or 3.1 VCE 3.4 VCE 4.0[24][lower-alpha 4]
TrueAudio N/A Via dedicated DSP Via shaders
FreeSync N/A 1
2
HDCP[lower-alpha 5] ? 1.4 1.4
2.2
PlayReady[lower-alpha 5] N/A 3.0
Max. displays[lower-alpha 6] 1–2 2 2–6
Max. resolution ? 2–6 × 2560×1600 2–6 × 4096×2160 @ 60 Hz 2–6 × 5120×2880 @ 60 Hz 3 × 7680×4320 @ 60 Hz[42]
/drm/radeon[lower-alpha 7] N/A
/drm/amdgpu[lower-alpha 7] N/A Experimental[43]
  1. ↑ The Radeon 100 Series has programmable pixel shaders, but do not fully comply with DirectX 8 or Pixel Shader 1.0. See article on R100's pixel shaders.
  2. ↑ These series do not fully comply with OpenGL 2+ as the hardware does not support all types of non power of two (NPOT) textures.
  3. ↑ OpenGL 4+ compliance requires supporting FP64 shaders and these are emulated on some TeraScale chips using 32-bit hardware.
  4. 1 2 The UVD and VCE were replaced by the Video Core Next (VCN) ASIC in the Raven Ridge APU implementation of Vega.
  5. 1 2 To play protected video content, it also requires card, operating system, driver, and application support. A compatible HDCP display is also needed for this. HDCP is mandatory for the output of certain audio formats, placing additional constraints on the multimedia setup.
  6. ↑ More displays may be supported with native DisplayPort connections, or splitting the maximum resolution between multiple monitors with active converters.
  7. 1 2 DRM (Direct Rendering Manager) is a component of the Linux kernel. Support in this table refers to the most current version.

Operating system support

The UVD SIP core needs to be supported by the device driver, which provides one or more interfaces such as VDPAU, VAAPI or DXVA. One of these interfaces is then used by end-user software, for example VLC media player or GStreamer, to access the UVD hardware and make use of it.

AMD Catalyst, AMD's proprietary graphics device driver that supports UVD, is available for Microsoft Windows and some Linux distributions. Additionally, a free device driver is available, which also supports the UVD hardware.

Linux

Linux support for the UVD ASIC is provided by the Linux kernel device driver amdgpu.[44]

Support for UVD has been available in AMD's proprietary driver Catalyst version 8.10 since October 2008 through X-Video Motion Compensation (XvMC) or X-Video Bitstream Acceleration (XvBA).[45][46] Since April 2013,[47] UVD is supported by the free and open-source "radeon" device driver through Video Decode and Presentation API for Unix (VDPAU). An implementation of VDPAU is available as Gallium3D state tracker in Mesa 3D.

On 28 June 2014, Phoronix published some benchmarks on using Unified Video Decoder through the VDPAU interface running MPlayer on Ubuntu 14.04 with version 10.3-testing of Mesa 3D.[48]

Windows

Windows supported UVD since it was launched. UVD currently only supports DXVA (DirectX Video Acceleration) API specification for the Microsoft Windows and Xbox 360 platforms to allow video decoding to be hardware accelerated, thus the media player software also has to support DXVA to be able to utilize UVD hardware acceleration.

Others

Support for running custom FreeRTOS-based firmware on the Radeon HD 2400's UVD core (based on an Xtensa CPU), interfaced with a STM32 ARM-based board via I2C, was attempted as of January 2012.[49]

Predecessors and Successor

Predecessors

The Video Shader and ATI Avivo are similar technologies incorporated into previous ATI products.

Successor

The UVD was succeeded by AMD Video Core Next in the Raven Ridge series of APUs released in October 2017. The VCN combines both encode (VCE) and decode (UVD).[50]

See also

Notes

    References

    1. ↑ "AMD A-Series APU block diagram". 2011-06-30. Retrieved 2015-01-22.
    2. ↑ "Linux operating system on Xtensa processors".
    3. ↑ Cheung, Ken (2009-01-08). "Consumer Electronics Show Features Tensilica-enabled Products". EDA Geek. Retrieved 2014-05-15.
    4. ↑ "Customer Profiles | Cadence IP". Ip.cadence.com. 2014-04-13. Retrieved 2014-05-15.
    5. ↑ "Tensilica News: Excellent AMD ATI Video with Xtensa". tensilica.com. 2009-10-05. Retrieved 2014-05-15.
    6. ↑ "ATI Licenses Tensilica's Xtensa Configurable Processor". Business Wire. 2004-10-18. Retrieved 2014-05-15.
    7. ↑ "HardSpell review" (in Chinese). Archived from the original on September 27, 2007.
    8. ↑ Smith, Ryan (February 24, 2010). "AMD's Radeon HD 5450: The Next Step In HTPC Video Cards". AnandTech. AnandTech, Inc. p. 4. Retrieved April 7, 2010. Since deinterlacing and other AVIVO post-processing actions are done by the shader hardware, the limited shading capabilities of these cards meant that AMD couldn’t offer the full suite of AVIVO abilities at once.
    9. ↑ (in Chinese) PC-DVD discussion thread, retrieved August 23, 2008
    10. ↑ White Paper | AMD Unified Video Decoder (UVD)
    11. ↑ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2012-03-19. Retrieved 2013-09-01. by Jansen Ng, 10/21/2010 DailyTech
    12. ↑ "AMD A6-3650 Llano APU Review - Page 5". Hardwarecanucks.com. Retrieved 2014-04-17.
    13. ↑ Koen Crijns (14 January 2014). "AMD A10-7850K 'Kaveri' review: AMD's new APU". hardware.info.
    14. ↑ Ryan Smith. "GCN 1.2 – Image & Video Processing - AMD Radeon R9 285 Review: Feat. Sapphire R9 285 Dual-X OC". anandtech.com.
    15. ↑ "Guide to HEVC_H.265 Encoding and Playback". TechSpot.
    16. ↑ "Key features of AMD's third iteration of GCN architecture revealed".
    17. ↑ http://lists.freedesktop.org/archives/dri-devel/2015-June/084083.html [pull] amdgpu drm-next-4.2
    18. ↑ "Display Matters Virtual Super Resolution, Frame Rate Targeting, and HEVC Decoding - The AMD Radeon R9 Fury X Review Aiming For the Top". Anandtech.
    19. ↑ "AMD Radeon R9 Fury X im Test: Eine ernsthafte Alternative zu Nvidias Topmodellen".
    20. ↑ Rick Merritt (2015-01-05). "AMD Describes Notebook Processor". EE Times. Retrieved 2015-01-10.
    21. ↑ AMD. "Radeon Software Crimson ReLive Edition 16.12.1 Release Notes". amd.com. amd.com. Retrieved 2016-12-29.
    22. ↑ "AMD Introduces New Professional Graphics Vision and Strategy, Empowering the "Art of the Impossible"". AMD.
    23. ↑ "AMD Launches the Radeon Rebellion with the Radeon™ RX 480 Graphics Card, Available Now". AMD.
    24. 1 2 3 Killian, Zak (22 March 2017). "AMD publishes patches for Vega support on Linux". Tech Report. Retrieved 23 March 2017.
    25. ↑ Larabel, Michael (20 March 2017). "AMD Sends Out 100 Patches, Enabling Vega Support In AMDGPU DRM". Phoronix. Retrieved 25 August 2017.
    26. ↑ http://radeon.com/_downloads/vega-whitepaper-11.6.17.pdf
    27. ↑ HKEPC Hardware. "電腦領域 HKEPC Hardware - 全港 No.1 PC網站". hkepc.com.
    28. ↑ "DailyTech - Whoops, ATI Radeon HD 2900 XT Lacks UVD". dailytech.com. Archived from the original on 2013-12-24.
    29. ↑ "The Mobile CPU Comparison Guide Rev. 13.0 Page 5 : AMD Mobile CPU Full List". TechARP.com. Retrieved 13 December 2017.
    30. ↑ "AMD Mobile "Carrizo" Family of APUs Designed to Deliver Significant Leap in Performance, Energy Efficiency in 2015" (Press release). 2014-11-20. Retrieved 2015-02-16.
    31. 1 2 "AMD VEGA10 and VEGA11 GPUs spotted in OpenCL driver". VideoCardz.com. Retrieved 6 June 2017.
    32. ↑ Cutress, Ian (1 February 2018). "Zen Cores and Vega: Ryzen APUs for AM4 - AMD Tech Day at CES: 2018 Roadmap Revealed, with Ryzen APUs, Zen+ on 12nm, Vega on 7nm". Anandtech. Retrieved 7 February 2018.
    33. 1 2 Thomas De Maesschalck (2013-11-14). "AMD teases Mullins and Beema tablet/convertibles APU". Retrieved 2015-02-24.
    34. ↑ Larabel, Michael (17 November 2017). "Radeon VCN Encode Support Lands In Mesa 17.4 Git". Phoronix. Retrieved 20 November 2017.
    35. ↑ Tony Chen; Jason Greaves, "AMD's Graphics Core Next (GCN) Architecture" (PDF), AMD, retrieved 2016-08-13
    36. ↑ "How do I connect three or More Monitors to an AMD Radeon™ HD 5000, HD 6000, and HD 7000 Series Graphics Card?". AMD. Retrieved 2014-12-08.
    37. ↑ "A technical look at AMD's Kaveri architecture". Semi Accurate. Retrieved 6 July 2014.
    38. ↑ Airlie, David (2009-11-26). "DisplayPort supported by KMS driver mainlined into Linux kernel 2.6.33". Retrieved 2016-01-16.
    39. ↑ "Radeon feature matrix". freedesktop.org. Retrieved 2016-01-10.
    40. ↑ Deucher, Alexander (2015-09-16). "XDC2015: AMDGPU" (PDF). Retrieved 2016-01-16.
    41. 1 2 Michel Dänzer (2016-11-17). "[ANNOUNCE] xf86-video-amdgpu 1.2.0". lists.x.org.
    42. ↑ "Radeon's next-generation Vega architecture" (PDF). radeon.com. Radeon Technologies Group (AMD). 13 June 2017.
    43. ↑ Larabel, Michael (7 December 2016). "The Best Features Of The Linux 4.9 Kernel". Phoronix. Retrieved 7 December 2016.
    44. ↑ Michael Larabel (October 8, 2014). "The Slides Announcing The New "AMDGPU" Kernel Driver". Phoronix. Retrieved January 22, 2015.
    45. ↑ "UVD Is Enabled For Linux In Catalyst 8.10". Phoronix. 2008-10-15. Retrieved 2015-01-22.
    46. ↑ "AMD's X-Video Bitstream Acceleration". Phoronix. 2008-10-28. Retrieved 2015-01-22.
    47. ↑ "AMD Releases Open-Source UVD Video Support". Phoronix. 2013-04-02. Retrieved 2015-01-22.
    48. ↑ "AMD Radeon VDPAU Video Performance With Gallium3D". Phoronix. 2014-06-28. Retrieved 2015-01-22.
    49. ↑ "Interfacing a PC graphics card (Radeon HD 2400) with a STM32 microcontroller". Edaboard.com. 2012-01-09. Retrieved 2014-04-27.
    50. ↑ Larabel, Michael (17 November 2017). "Radeon VCN Encode Support Lands In Mesa 17.4 Git". Phoronix. Retrieved 20 November 2017.
    This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.