IGL 178 was designed for embedded applications in which a hardware Graphical Processing Unit (GPU) is not desired or required. Out in the field, processing power needs to be supplied in a manner that provides consistent performance and low system complexity. IGL 178 is a software GPU that features high performance, high quality rendering tailored to efficiently present graphics in embedded systems.

IGL 178 was developed for graphics generation in environments without a GPU and features a tiny footprint, small code base, and extremely fast and efficient performance. IGL 178 implements the industry standard OpenGL SC (Safety Crtitical) API, allowing applications to be developed for IGL that can be scaled for use in hardware accelerated systems.