Graphics Processor for Nintendo 3DS Revealed

Hardware firm Digital Media Professional have revealed today that they will be providing the graphics processing unit for Nintendo’s 3DS.

The “Pica 200″ graphics core processor will power the device, and is desigend to provide high performance at the low levels of power required in a handheld device via “complex shader functionality.” The onboard “Maestro technology” will help run the 3D in use for the Nintendo 3DS.

“We had a very ambitious goal in the realization of naked-eye 3D stereo vision, and video game console style high quality graphics rendering, whilst maintaining low power consumption,” said Tatsuo Yamamoto, CEO of Digital Media Professional. “I am delighted that we were able to contribute with ‘Maestro technology’, which we have developed over several years at DMP.”

Now’s the time for hardware buffs to come out of the woodwork and tell us what this processor will be capable of. Obviously it’s higher quality than the DS, but by how much? Will we be seeing console-quality graphics on this thing as the hardware matures?

Update: Joystiq reports that “DMP boasts that the 200MHz chip can provide 15.3 million polygons a second, 800 million pixels a second, and can perform alpha blending [and] full-scene antialiasing.”