Adobe, NVIDIA and Broadcom bringing GPU acceleration to Flash at long last

As part of the Open Screen Project, which should be getting Adobe Flash onto many new platforms, Adobe, NVIDIA and Broadcom are all hard at work getting GPU acceleration to do what it ought for Flash Player, with improvements in store for everything from Tegra MIDs to Broadcom Crystal HD netbooks (like HP's new Mini 110XP, pictured) to tablets and beyond. Of note is H.264 playback acceleration, which should at last make Hulu and YouTube bearable on netbooks and nettops -- a major shortcoming in the otherwise enticing form factors. Unfortunately, the most precise timeline we have on all this is from Broadcom, who says its Flash Player support will be available in the first half of 2010. We're also going to be bugging Adobe and Intel about when this functionality might hit mainstream Intel integrated chipsets as well, though at least Broadcom's Crystal HD accelerator can be added to some existing netbooks such as a PCI Express mini-card or ExpressCard 34 add-on. Perhaps we sound ungrateful, but this sort of acceleration for Flash -- the internet's most popular multimedia delivery method -- is long overdue, and we're not overly impressed with the idea of waiting until mid-2010 for it to happen.

Read - Adobe and NVIDIA
Read - Adobe and Broadcom

[Adam H. @ Jun 2nd 2009 1:08AM]

My future ION netbook lovingly approves. Hulu on the go!

[TareX @ Jun 2nd 2009 1:10AM]

Com'on Tegra.... I hope we see any smartphone unveiling this week at Computex...

[JohnTitor @ Jun 2nd 2009 1:17AM]

I thought Flash was already GPU accelerated in Linux

[Bob-o @ Jun 2nd 2009 3:33AM]

> I thought Flash was already GPU accelerated in Linux

Are you kidding? You're lucky if basic filled rectangles in X11 are accelerated. . .
(yes, I exaggerate. . .)

There is no acceleration at all for flash on linux. The natural would be to use video capabilities of the graphics device, but they all pretty much work as overlays, thus obscuring anything in the framebuffer. And Flash allows things to be defined in RGB space. . . so the straightforward way is to convert everything to RGB to render it correctly. So any opportunity to use decoding is missed. . .

So I'm kind of wondering what they mean by "getting GPU acceleration to do what it ought for Flash Player". . . I don't see how they could use video capabilities given how Flash is defined. But, I am not up to my knees in the details of this area either. . . anyone?

[ben @ Jun 2nd 2009 1:23AM]

the fact that flash has thus remained hindered is amazing. this is not a feature, it's a much overdue necessity. for such a widely used product adobe remains wholly complacent. surprise and release it now i mean there always seems like there's a flash update. quietly put it in an update and surprise the crap out of everyone and make everyone happy and they'd be all like "wow ,this is awesome, adobe is great, i didn't know flash could run so well"

I'm so sick of flash now, most things are wholly unusable on "slower" computers, pages crawl with small flash apps. However, most slower computers have something to accelerate video to make flash great. c'mon already.

[-Tj- @ Jun 2nd 2009 1:20AM]

Shouldn't they also focus on making the program that makes the content more bearable first? I can't remember the last time I actually enjoyed working in Flash...

[krbanton @ Jun 2nd 2009 1:26AM]

I'm really hoping that Apple, with OpenCL, is going to have something similar on Mac...because as it is, Flash on that platform is ridiculous - 100% CPU usage just to watch a Flash animation...uh, thanks, but no thanks.

[Shunnabunich @ Jun 2nd 2009 9:46AM]

I don't see how OpenCL alone is going to prevent Adobe from continuing to cripple Flash on non-Windows platforms. I think Apple would actually have to resolve their little pissing match with Adobe first, THEN we could expect some usable Flash. (And up-to-date Photoshop as a bonus.)

[loosely_coupled @ Jun 2nd 2009 8:31PM]

Yeah it needs a lot of work, but it has nothing to do with needing OpenCL or any drastic new architecture. The bottom line is that Adobe just doesn't spend anytime making a decent OSX port that works with Apples native graphics libraries. They put all their engineering efforts into the windows version given the marketshare and take a "good enough" approach to other platforms..

[lxuke @ Jun 2nd 2009 1:26AM]

FLASH IS OBSOLETE, LONG LIVE SOMETHING BETTER

[michas_pi @ Jun 2nd 2009 2:14AM]

Silverlight?

[Bufsabre @ Jun 2nd 2009 2:43AM]

OGG theora FTW

[Tim @ Jun 2nd 2009 4:38AM]

HTML5 Video

[Fernando G. @ Jun 2nd 2009 5:39AM]

flip books

[TRAFFICBLOWS @ Jun 2nd 2009 1:03PM]

obsolete... shit, 64-bit flash barely even had existance

[Cunthor @ Jun 2nd 2009 1:28AM]

Personally I hate flash, since going full screen on youtube keeps my laptop fan working overtime in order to cool down the cpu (and it gets quite loud as a result), not to mention how quickly the battery runs down. I agree with engadget, this should have been implemented like four years ago.

[Fanfoot @ Jun 2nd 2009 1:32AM]

First half of 2010? Do then just mean they'll get it working once 2.0GHz Pineview's ship or something? What can possibly take them that long? Just get the freaking scaling working on the GPU for cryin our loud?

[David @ Jun 2nd 2009 1:33AM]

flash sucks.

... i'm out.

[Information Central @ Jun 2nd 2009 4:58AM]

Indeed. The last thing we need is MORE crappy flash "UI" and "Loading..." and stupid transitions and...

Just when it looked like we might be getting over Flash and moving to open standards, we see this disappointing regression.

[Indefinite Implosion @ Jun 2nd 2009 1:53AM]

YAY!
(despite the fact it's late etc)

[darkmax @ Jun 2nd 2009 2:00AM]

When are we getting Flash for x64 Windows?!

[Lando Calrissian @ Jun 2nd 2009 2:18AM]

I've been using it on Windows x64 for a while, where are you from?

*Nero stabs spear into my chest*

[Lando Calrissian @ Jun 2nd 2009 2:18AM]

Oh, and Star Trek is _waaaaaaay_ better than Star Wars, even I agree.

[darkmax @ Jun 2nd 2009 4:08AM]

Lando, obviously you must be from the future. You are using a 32 bit flash in a 32 bit browser in an 64 bit OS. Doh.

[ah-palin @ Jun 2nd 2009 2:01AM]

You can hate Flash as much as you want, but there's content out there in Flash. Yes, it is a gas guzzler, and yes Adobe could use a dollop of acceleration.

What is noteworthy is the evolution of Flash - how from a designer's wet dream it became the defacto video packaging technology. What was meant to be a math fantasy (computing vectors) became a banner ad technology before being banished by popup blockers.

Flash has seen so many twists and turns, it is now difficult to describe what it's primary purpose is, or what it's primary lacking is, or what it's primary business case is. Anyway, throwing in some speed improvements will not kill anybody. What one is eager to know is the details and road map - will vector computations be accelerated or is it primarily the memory intensive operations? When you have a scene with multiple objects, would some be accelerate-able and some not? Where does Flash lead to beyond the 2D world? Apart from banner ad makers and video hosting sites, does Adobe try to sell their wares to other, more serious content creators ? For example, can we expect devices to sport Flash UIs? Or some serious gaming in Flash?

[Gad Get @ Jun 2nd 2009 2:01AM]

"...this sort of acceleration for Flash -- the internet's most popular multimedia delivery method -- is long overdue, and we're not overly impressed with the idea of waiting until mid-2010 for it to happen."

No kidding. Playing simple flash games online shouldn't tax the CPU like it does.

[Sven @ Jun 2nd 2009 2:26AM]

HURRY UP ALREADYYYY!!

[Tony Rayo @ Jun 2nd 2009 2:30AM]

Nice, it sounds like we should finally be able to have Flash under PS3 Linux, and the latest version at that. w00t!

[solipsist61 @ Jun 2nd 2009 2:36AM]

the old man is an exec at adobe...was discussing this over dinner (been on his back about GPU acceleration for quite some time). I got this out of the convo: full flash on symbian/android shortly, GPU acceleration shortly, apple is a no-go for now because they want to control everything (as usual). So nothing really revealing...though if you are waiting for flash support on your iPhone - don't hold your breath.

[Scarhawk @ Jun 2nd 2009 4:39AM]

Why would Apple be hiring a team to develop their own GPU if they didn't want the iPhone to play 720p & 1080p h.264/Flash video?

[Information Central @ Jun 2nd 2009 5:02AM]

H.264 is NOT Flash. They already have H.264 decoding, and in fact it was Apple that popularized this codec in the first place.

Flash is used primarily to punish users with shitty animations, delays, and poorly conceived sites in general.

[nosgoroth @ Jun 2nd 2009 2:51AM]

Well, what the hell were they waiting for? Bring this already!

[Quikboy @ Jun 2nd 2009 4:06AM]

I think I'm going to stick with Silverlight instead.

[Simon @ Jun 2nd 2009 6:41AM]

Does Youtube work with Silverlight?

[Quikboy @ Jun 2nd 2009 6:43AM]

It did when CBS was streaming the NCAA March Madness on YouTube.

Even then, I don't remember YouTube being the standard for things to be based on :)

[Simon @ Jun 2nd 2009 7:18AM]

It's not, but given that it's pretty much the most popular flash video site (at least I thought it was...), maybe it should be taken into account ;)


What _does_ support Silverlight?

[Jason Litka @ Jun 2nd 2009 7:20AM]

How about Flash for Blackberries (or any smartphones)?

[Roberto @ Jun 2nd 2009 8:27AM]

Eight years too late:
http://www.globfx.com/products/swfplayer/
GlobFX Composer RIP

[evilspoons @ Jun 2nd 2009 8:49AM]

I hope when they talk about "desktop PC"s in the press release that includes computers running Mac OS X.

High-def Youtube is just sad on my Macbook Pro.

[tekd @ Jun 2nd 2009 2:43PM]

It'd be nicer if Adobe just rewrote their decoder to be more like CoreAVC and less like a steaming pile of dog poo. Just sayin'