POWERVR SOFTWARE
SOLUTIONS
Designed for scalability, real-time performance, and seamless deployment across automotive, embedded, and edge AI platforms
EMPOWERING DEVELOPERS:
FROM CODE TO DEPLOYMENT
From compilers and code samples to Driver Development Kits (DDKs) and debuggers, Imagination provides the essential tools developers need to bring GPU-powered products to life.
Our software ecosystem supports every stage of the developer journey, enabling fast, reliable development from initial testing to full production. With solutions based on open standards, developers can move from functional to performant to fully optimised workflows, whether targeting graphics, compute, or edge AI applications.
PURPOSE-BUILT TOOLS FOR GRAPHICS AND COMPUTE
From performance tuning to real-time debugging, these resources are designed to help developers fully leverage our hardware and optimise applications across platforms. Whether you’re building high-performance compute pipelines or pushing the limits of real-time graphics, our toolchain enables faster development and more efficient workflows.
ENGINEERED FOR UNITY, UNREAL, AND YOU
Our deep integration with Unity and Unreal Engine ensures that millions of developers worldwide benefit from GPU-optimised rendering, enhanced compatibility, and seamless deployment across platforms, delivering exceptional user experiences on everything from infotainment systems to mobile games.
EMPOWERING DEVELOPERS TO USE PowerVR’s HIGH PERFORMANCE AND ENERGY EFFICIENCY TO CREATE INCREDIBLE GAMING EXPERIENCES FOR PLAYERS
“At NetEase, we prioritise quality in gaming as the foundation for delivering exceptional experiences. In partnership with Imagination, we have optimised our games for both Messiah and our proprietary NeoX engine. By working closely together, we aim to empower developers to use PowerVR’shigh performance and energy efficiency to create incredible gaming experiences for players. With Imagination’s IMG DXT GPU, we are bringing industry-leading mobile ray tracing to the mainstream, enabling immersive graphics for a wider audience.”
Senior Technical Expert, NetEase Games
OPEN-SOURCE FOR FULL STACK CONTROL
This approach enables complete transparency and flexibility, allowing developers to build, customise, and optimise their graphics solutions without relying on proprietary code. It also ensures long-term maintainability and community-driven innovation for Linux-based and embedded systems.
AI TOOLKITS & COMPUTE LIBRARIES
Combined with our back-end graph compiler, developers can optimise for up to 80% GPU utilisation, ideal for high-throughput tasks such as computer vision, sensor data pre/post-processing, and perception pipelines in ADAS systems.
Whether you're working in edge AI, automotive, or embedded platforms, these toolkits deliver fast, efficient compute performance while keeping power consumption low.
DRIVER DEVELOPMENT KITS FOR ANDROID, LINUX AND WINDOWS
Imagination maintains DDKs across Android, Linux, and Windows, enabling seamless integration and consistent performance on the world’s most widely used operating systems. Whether you're building for mobile, automotive, or desktop platforms, our DDKs ensure your application makes the most of our GPU hardware.
SAFETY-CRITICAL GPU SOFTWARE
To meet these demands, Imagination partners with CoreAVI, a global leader in safety-critical GPU software, to deliver certified drivers supporting OpenGL SC and Vulkan SC on Imagination GPUs. Together, we ensure that developers building for ISO 26262 environments can rely on a robust, standards-compliant graphics stack for mission- and safety-critical applications.
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
The PowerVR Software Development Kit (SDK) is a suite of tools, libraries, and documentation that helps developers create high-performance graphics and compute applications using Imagination’s GPU IP. It includes debugging tools, shader development utilities, and sample code to streamline development for mobile, automotive, and consumer electronics platforms.
You can view our SDK here.
A software driver enables communication between hardware, such as a GPU, and an operating system or application. GPU software drivers translate rendering or compute commands into actions the graphics processor understands, ensuring smooth graphics, efficient compute workloads, and compatibility with APIs like OpenGL, Vulkan, and OpenCL.
Imagination’s GPU software drivers are optimised for performance, safety, and reliability across a range of operating systems, including Android, Linux, and Windows.
Software libraries are collections of pre-written code that developers can use to speed up application development. In GPU and AI development, libraries provide essential functions such as image processing, machine learning operations, or graphics effects without needing to build everything from scratch.
Imagination’s compute libraries and AI toolkits, including imgBLAS, imgNN, and imgFFT, help developers maximise GPU utilisation and performance while reducing time to market.
Open-source software allows developers to access, modify, and distribute source code freely. For GPU drivers, this means greater transparency, flexibility, and customisation. Open-source drivers also support wider community engagement and easier integration with open-standard systems.
Imagination’s GPU drivers are upstreamed in Mesa and made available to the open-source community, empowering silicon vendors, OEMs, and developers to control their complete graphics software stack.
Imagination maintains GPU software drivers for major platforms including Android, Linux, and Windows. These drivers are regularly updated to support the latest APIs such as Vulkan SC, OpenGL SC, and OpenCL, ensuring compatibility and performance across diverse devices and use cases.
