Embedded 2020 award for UI development software

Storyboard’s hybrid rendering functionality, invented in late 2019 in collaboration with partner NXP Semiconductors, formed a significant part of the award submission.

Brian Edmond, President and Co-founder of Crank Software, said the company’s growth and product success was in response to the rising demand for UIs rich in sophisticated graphics and hardware performance. 

“Customers today expect that a touch screen is going to perform a certain way,” Edmond explained. “It’s up to manufacturers to deliver and exceed that UI expectation, which otherwise can be a deal breaker. Storyboard helps product teams ensure that their best design possible is executed with a time-to-market that, for most teams, is unprecedented.” 

“The whole team at Crank is thrilled to be receiving this award,” added Jason Clarke, Co-founder and Vice President Sales and Marketing at Crank Software, upon receiving the award at a ceremony held at embedded world. “To be recognised by peers and experts in the embedded industry validates that we are doing the right thing—helping to solve the UI development challenges our customers face in an innovative and more affordable way.” 

Storyboard’s hybrid rendering innovation solves the challenge of sophisticated graphics draining battery power, forcing embedded developers to skimp on features and functionality. With Storyboard, UIs can now utilise the 2D and 3D GPUs more efficiently, by dynamically assessing the content to be rendered and automatically rendering that content using the most appropriate, power-optimised GPU.

“The power-efficient i.MX 7ULP allows for Storyboard to create a richer, faster UI by leveraging 3D hardware acceleration,” said Nik Jedrzejewski, i.MX Applications Processors Product Line Manager at NXP. “At the same time, Crank’s Storyboard recognises that a 3D GPU is not always the right solution and it is more power efficient to use the separate 2D GPU for the acceleration of 2D graphics, providing higher 2D performance versus using the 3D GPU. This recognition by Storyboard not only helps with graphics performance but also preserves the battery life of mobile products.”