Imagination reception and showcase at Stanford Uni

30 August 2013

Imagination Technologies Group plc

Industry elite gather at Stanford University to celebrate an important year in Imagination's history and a new era for the MIPS processor

Imagination Technologies Group plc (LSE: IMG, "Imagination", "the Group"), a leading multimedia, communications and processor technology company, announced a number of notable new developments at the Imagination Executive Reception and Showcase held at the Stanford University Faculty Club on 28 August, 2013.

Attended by over 250 guests from leading companies of Silicon Valley and across the USA, the full-capacity event was hosted by Imagination's US President Krishna Yarlagadda and featured several speeches.

Sir Hossein Yassaie, Imagination's Chief Executive, commented:

"This gathering of executives from across the industry shows the growing relevance and importance of our latest technologies including our PowerVR Series6 family and the upcoming MIPS 'Warrior' family to many partners and their markets.

"We said this event was dedicated to a new era in the life of MIPS. We are further convinced by the discussions and warm response that we will be able to deliver our promise of a vital and compelling choice in the CPU IP market."

In a number of high-level presentations, Sir Hossein Yassaie emphasized the importance of the US market, where Imagination is engaged with the leading semiconductor and consumer companies as well as major operators, and now has more than 250 employees.

Stanford University President John Hennessy, co-founder of MIPS Computer Systems, reiterated the elegance and simplicity of MIPS architecture that results in the most power- and area-efficient processor designs compared to alternatives. He welcomed the secured future and growth of the MIPS architecture under Imagination's guardianship.

Sanjay Jha, former chairman and CEO of Motorola Mobility, spoke about the challenges of creating low-power designs and the massive potential of wearable electronic devices. He also shared his positive experiences in working with Imagination over many years.

A number of wearable devices featuring Imagination's IP were on display at the event, including Google Glass and the GEAK smart watch.

Imagination announced a partnership with Ineda Systems, a developer of low-power system on chip (SoC) technology for use in both consumer and enterprise applications, and details of Ineda's soon-to-be-released Wearable Processor Unit (WPU) SoCs that unite various combinations of Imagination IP cores in their ultra-low power design. The wearable processor silicon products will be applicable to a multitude of devices such as smart watches, health and fitness devices and more.

Imagination also recognized its partner MediaTek Inc. for its unique deployment of heterogeneous processing with MediaTek's new MT8135 SoC which enables heterogeneous multi-processing (HMP) and utilizes asymmetric processor configurations. This innovative SoC features Imagination's latest generation PowerVR Series6 'Rogue' graphics processor (GPU). MediaTek's HMP solution enables any number of small and large CPU or GPU 'engines' in a multi-processor system to be individually configured for an optimal balance of power and performance under variable workloads. MediaTek is working closely with Imagination to further optimise CPU-GPU configurations in its devices, and further optimising Mediatek's HMP technology to utilise the full capabilities of the PowerVR Series6 'Rogue' architecture.  

The event also saw the unveiling of first results of Imagination's work with TSMC to drive next-generation performance to new levels on Imagination's industry-leading PowerVR GPUs. Initial efforts have already achieved 25% overall performance improvement for the PowerVR Series6 GPU core, with key blocks demonstrating as much as 30% improvement compared to existing design flows. Imagination R&D teams working with TSMC are developing highly-optimised IP libraries and fully characterised reference system designs for Imagination's IP cores on TSMC's advanced processes including 28HPM and 16nm FinFET technologies.

In the area of GPU compute, Imagination announced it has implemented a set of image and video handling extensions to the EGL Native Platform Interface which will enable developers to create high-performance GPU compute applications on the new low-cost Hardkernel ODROID-XU development system. Imagination is one of the early pioneers of mobile GPU compute, having been the first mobile IP vendor to achieve OpenCL conformance. To encourage wider adoption of GPU compute in mobile, Imagination has delivered to its silicon partners a number of OpenCL extensions related to advanced camera interoperability.

Imagination also featured a number of other demonstrations of its broad range of IP:

· PowerVR GPU demonstrations including new OpenCL applications programming interface (API) extensions that enable developers to implement 'Instagram-like' functionality on real-time camera data, including computational photography and video processing; and platforms using PowerVR Series6 'Rogue' graphics including a TV from LG

· MIPS CPU demonstrations including Android 4.x running on a Broadcom set-top box, various development boards including those from Microchip Technology and a soon-to-be-released low-cost Android/Linux development system for both professional engineers and hobbyists

· PowerVR VPU (video and vision processor) demonstrations including video encoding, transcoding, and multi-screen decoding for advanced resolutions up to 4K/Ultra-HD

· Ensigma RPU (radio processor) demonstrations highlighting the technology's multi-standard solution for both connectivity and broadcast applications across a range of devices

· Other Imagination technology including Imagination's cutting-edge ray tracing technology with Caustic Visualizer for Maya v1.2

· Products on display included the Oculus Rift virtual reality headset for 3D gaming which leverages PowerVR graphics; the new MIPS-Based AirPea HDMI Android TV dongle that is fully controllable by a smartphone app featuring voice control and more; and numerous tablets and phones including those from Alcatel and Lenovo as well as a tablet from Ingenic Semiconductor that combines a MIPS CPU and PowerVR GPU

· Products from Imagination's Pure consumer electronics division were also on display, including a full range of wireless Jongo speakers for multiroom connected audio that benefit from Pure's excellence in audio, streaming and synchronisation technology - now available worldwide including the USA

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About Imagination Technologies

Imagination Technologies - a global leader in multimedia, processor, communication and cloud technologies - creates and licenses market-leading processor solutions including graphics, video, vision, CPU and embedded processing, multi-standard communications, cross-platform V.VoIP and VoLTE, and cloud connectivity. These silicon and software intellectual property (IP) solutions for systems-on-chip (SoC) are complemented by an extensive portfolio of software, tools and ecosystems. Target markets include mobile phone, connected home consumer, mobile and tablet computing, in-car electronics, networking, telecoms, health, smart energy and connected sensors. Imagination's licensees include many of the world's leading semiconductor manufacturers, network operators and OEM/ODMs. Corporate headquarters are located in the United Kingdom, with sales and R&D offices worldwide. See: www.imgtec.com.