Summer Brings 3D Support to Intel's Integrated Graphics

Intel has made an impression at Computex by showing off its advancements on the netbook front but, being the top-tier hardware player that it is, the company decided not to leave it at just that. In fact, besides just the computing angle, Intel has also been working on expanding the feature set of its HD graphics. The integrated graphics already supports a wide variety of multimedia formats. Nevertheless, there is one feat that, so far, the GMA HD has not been able to pull off.

What the graphics solution is still not able to handle is 3D videos. Until late last year, this wouldn't have been an issue, since this format had not yet gained popularity. With movies and TV shows adopting this display mode, however, glasses-aided multimedia can no longer be overlooked.

According to Engadget, during the Computex presentation, the chip maker clearly said that the summer would not go by without the HD graphics getting 3D movie playback capabilities. This could mean two things.

Either new hardware with this feature will debut, or a firmware update will give existing chips the new ability. The goal will be to flawlessly playback Blu-ray stored content, though glasses with polarized lenses will be required.

Starting a competition with NVIDIA 3D vision, or other such solutions, is not intended, nor would it actually be possible because the performance of Intel HD isn't exactly in the same league as that of PCI Express graphics cards. On the other hand, mobile PCs bearing the new capability should appear this year. ASUS, HP, Dell, Lenovo, Toshiba, Samsung and Sony, among others, are expected to be among the companies slated to launch “over 30” laptops with 3D-enabled Intel HD graphics. There are also plans to implement the Wireless Display technology, which streams laptop-stored media to current-generation TVs.