GPU

The GPU used in PS Vita is a PowerVR SGX543MP4+.

Kernel module SceGpuEs4 is very similar to the Linux PVR kernel module which is open source. A lot of versions are available, see for example http://elinux.org/CI20-SGX_kernel_module

Abbreviations

• EDM: Event Data Master
• PDS: Program Data Sequencer
• PVR: PowerVR
• TA: Tile Accelerator
• USSE: Universal Scalable Shader Engine

Architecture

Memory context

The GPU has its own MMU. Every render context (one per application) gets its own GPU virtual address space. The MMU tables are managed by the ARM kernel. When a user calls sceGxmMapMemory the kernel first checks if the memory's accessible by the user and then maps it to the GPU with the same virtual address. However there are also other memory areas mapped to the GPU:

Heap ID	GPU vaddr	Comments
0x7000000	0x40000000	General
0x7000001	0x50000000	TA Data
0x7000002	0x14000000	Kernel Code
0x7000003	0x1C000000	Kernel Data
0x7000004	0x30000000	Pixel Shader
0x7000005	0x34000000	Vertex Shader
There are more heaps, 20 in total