VeriSilicon IP Powers HX77 AR Display Processor from Hefei Hexagon Semiconductor with Ultra-Low Power Performance
VeriSilicon has announced that its advanced semiconductor IP portfolio has been adopted by Hefei Hexagon Semiconductor for the development of the new HX77 series image-processing system-on-chip (SoC). The collaboration marks a significant milestone in the development of low-power processors designed for next-generation augmented reality (AR) devices and wearable display technologies.
The HX77 processor series integrates several key IP solutions from VeriSilicon, including the GCNanoUltraV 2.5D graphics processing unit (GPU), the DW100 DeWarp processing engine, and the DC9200Nano display processing IP. Together, these technologies form the foundation of the HX77’s high-performance yet energy-efficient architecture.
According to the companies, the HX77 chip has successfully completed its tape-out stage, achieving first-pass silicon success, a major accomplishment in semiconductor development that indicates the design worked correctly during its first fabrication attempt. This milestone confirms the reliability of the system architecture and the effectiveness of the integrated IP solutions.
Advancing AR and Wearable Display Technology
The HX77 SoC has been designed to support the rapidly evolving market for AR glasses, mixed-reality devices, and other wearable display systems. These products require highly specialized processors capable of delivering advanced graphics performance while maintaining extremely low power consumption.
Unlike traditional computing devices, wearable electronics must operate within strict energy and thermal constraints. Devices such as AR glasses must remain lightweight and compact, making it difficult to include large batteries or complex cooling systems. As a result, the processors used in these systems must maximize performance while minimizing energy usage.
The HX77 processor addresses these challenges through a combination of heterogeneous computing architecture, optimized graphics processing, and advanced power management technologies. By leveraging these innovations, the chip can deliver 2K resolution output at 60 frames per second while operating at only milliwatt-level power consumption.
This performance-to-power ratio represents an important advancement for wearable computing devices, enabling high-quality visuals without compromising battery life.
A RISC-V Based Image Processing SoC
At the core of the HX77 processor is an architecture built on the RISC-V instruction set architecture, an open standard that is gaining increasing adoption across the semiconductor industry.
RISC-V provides designers with greater flexibility compared with proprietary CPU architectures. Chip developers can customize processing cores and optimize them for specific workloads such as graphics rendering, spatial computing, or real-time image processing.
The HX77 series takes advantage of this flexibility by integrating a wide range of features within a highly compact system-on-chip. These features include:
- Comprehensive video input and output interfaces
- Integrated image processing capabilities
- Advanced system control functionality
- Hardware-accelerated graphics rendering
- Efficient memory and data management
The result is a highly integrated processor capable of handling multiple tasks simultaneously while maintaining low power consumption.
Spatial Computing and 3DoF Hover Capabilities
One of the key innovations enabled by the HX77 architecture is support for three-degrees-of-freedom (3DoF) hover functionality in AR devices.
Spatial computing technologies allow digital content to be anchored in physical space, enabling users to interact with virtual objects in a natural and intuitive manner. For AR glasses, this capability is essential for delivering immersive experiences such as navigation overlays, contextual information displays, and gesture-based controls.
The HX77 processor enables these experiences by processing spatial data in real time while maintaining high rendering performance. This capability allows AR devices to accurately track head movement and maintain stable visual output even as the user moves.
Such features are critical for delivering smooth and comfortable AR experiences, particularly in applications where latency or visual instability could disrupt usability.
Flexible Display Connectivity for AR Systems
Another important feature of the HX77 SoC is its support for a wide range of display interfaces. The processor can connect to multiple display technologies using standards such as MIPI, LVDS, and DisplayPort/eDP.
This flexibility allows device manufacturers to design AR products using different display configurations and optical systems. For example, some AR glasses require dual displays—one for each eye—while others may use alternative projection technologies.
The HX77 architecture supports dual-screen independent display, enabling each screen to operate separately while maintaining synchronized rendering performance. This capability is particularly useful for AR glasses, where independent display channels can enhance visual clarity and depth perception.
Coordinated IP Integration for Maximum Efficiency
The combination of VeriSilicon’s GPU, display processor, and image correction IP blocks plays a critical role in the overall performance of the HX77 system.
By tightly integrating these components within the SoC, the system can perform complex image processing tasks without requiring external DDR memory. Eliminating the need for external memory significantly reduces both system latency and power consumption.
External memory access is typically one of the largest contributors to energy usage in portable electronics. By processing images and graphical data internally, the HX77 processor avoids these energy-intensive operations while maintaining high throughput.
This architectural design helps make the processor particularly suitable for compact wearable devices, where minimizing power usage is essential.
High-Performance Graphics with GCNanoUltraV GPU
One of the core components of the HX77 platform is the GCNanoUltraV 2.5D GPU IP developed by VeriSilicon.
This GPU provides advanced graphics processing capabilities, including high-performance rendering and support for multi-layer image composition. These features allow AR devices to overlay digital content onto real-world visuals in a smooth and visually accurate manner.
Low latency is especially important in AR applications because delays between head movement and visual updates can lead to discomfort or motion sickness. The GCNanoUltraV GPU helps reduce these delays by delivering fast and efficient graphics processing.
At the same time, the GPU has been optimized to operate within the strict power budgets required by wearable electronics.
Advanced Display Processing with DC9200Nano
The DC9200Nano display processing IP serves as the visual output engine for the HX77 system.
This processor manages display interfaces, image composition, and final visual output. It supports multiple display standards and can drive two independent displays simultaneously, each with a resolution of up to 1080p.
This capability enables device manufacturers to design AR glasses that deliver clear, high-resolution visuals while maintaining low power consumption.
The display processor also supports flexible display topologies, allowing engineers to adapt the processor for different optical designs and display configurations.
Image Correction with DW100 DeWarp Processing
AR devices rely heavily on advanced optics to project images onto lenses or waveguides. However, these optical systems can introduce distortions that affect visual quality.
To address this challenge, the HX77 processor integrates VeriSilicon’s DW100 DeWarp processing IP.
This technology performs high-precision image distortion correction and geometric transformation, ensuring that visuals appear stable and consistent when viewed through AR optics.
By correcting optical distortions in real time, the processor helps maintain accurate visual alignment between digital content and the real world.
This capability is essential for delivering immersive AR experiences where graphics must appear correctly positioned within the user’s environment.
Industry Collaboration Driving Innovation
The successful tape-out of the HX77 processor highlights the effectiveness of the collaboration between the two semiconductor companies.
Suker Shu, Founder and CEO of Hefei Hexagon Semiconductor, stated that the first-pass silicon success confirms the processor’s ability to meet the demanding requirements of AI-enabled AR glasses.
According to Shu, the processor’s design focuses on achieving low power consumption, high integration, and flexible display capabilities, all of which are essential for compact wearable devices.
He also noted that VeriSilicon’s mature IP solutions played a critical role in the design process, supporting system architecture development, display performance optimization, and efficient product development timelines.
Optimizing Pixels for Power Efficiency
Executives at VeriSilicon emphasized that achieving ultra-low power consumption in wearable displays requires careful optimization at the pixel level.
Weijin Dai, Chief Strategy Officer and Executive Vice President at VeriSilicon, explained that the company worked closely with Hexagon Semi to enable full-color display capabilities in lightweight smart glasses while maintaining extremely low energy usage.
Through detailed optimization of pixel processing and efficient data transmission between IP modules, the engineering teams were able to significantly reduce the energy required to render images.
In addition, the architecture eliminates the need for external DDR memory access, further reducing system power consumption.
Nano IP Portfolio for Wearable Devices
The technologies used in the HX77 processor are part of VeriSilicon’s Nano IP portfolio, a collection of semiconductor IP solutions designed specifically for wearable electronics and compact display systems.
This portfolio focuses on delivering an optimal balance between performance, energy efficiency, and development speed.
By integrating multiple IP components into optimized subsystems, VeriSilicon enables semiconductor companies to accelerate chip development while maintaining high performance.
Such subsystem-level integration also simplifies system design, allowing engineers to build complex processors without having to develop every component from scratch.
Supporting the Next Generation of Smart Glasses
The collaboration between VeriSilicon and Hexagon Semi reflects the broader growth of the smart glasses and wearable computing market.
As companies continue developing augmented reality devices for consumer, enterprise, and industrial applications, demand for efficient processing hardware will continue to increase.
Processors such as the HX77 are expected to play a key role in enabling these devices by providing the performance needed for advanced graphics, spatial computing, and real-time sensor processing.
At the same time, their energy-efficient architecture ensures that wearable devices remain lightweight and comfortable for everyday use.
Expanding the AR Ecosystem
Looking ahead, VeriSilicon expects to continue expanding its collaboration with semiconductor partners and device manufacturers to support the growing AR ecosystem.
By providing optimized IP solutions for graphics, image processing, and display management, the company aims to accelerate the development of next-generation wearable devices.
With innovations such as the HX77 processor, the industry is moving closer to a future where lightweight smart glasses can deliver powerful computing experiences while maintaining long battery life and compact designs.
As augmented reality technologies continue to mature, highly integrated and energy-efficient processors will remain essential components in bringing these immersive experiences to market.
Source link: https://www.businesswire.com
