MWC 2013

MWC Barcelona is here again. All IMG-related announcements will be collated here (as with CES last month) during the week.

http://renesasmobile.com/news-events/news/2013/next-generation-low-power-lte-high-performance-processing   (APE6 the first mobile SoC featuring PowerVR Rogue announced)

http://withimagination.imgtec.com/index.php/powervr/renesas-electronics-previews-their-range-of-powervr-based-ape6-processors-at-mwc

http://www.engadget.com/2013/02/25/intel-launches-dual-core-clover-trail-mobile-atom-processors/

http://www.engadget.com/2013/02/24/lenovo-a1000-a3000-s6000/

http://www.engadget.com/2013/02/24/acer-Smart%20Display-DA220HQL-hands-on/

http://www.engadget.com/2013/02/24/alcatel-idol-x-hands-on-video/

http://www.engadget.com/2013/02/25/asus-fonepad-announced/

http://www.itproportal.com/2013/02/25/mwc-2013-exclusive-dual-core-st-ericsson-novathor-l8580-soc-crushes-competition-benchmarks/

The Official IMG MWC releases:

http://www.imgtec.com/News/Release/index.asp?NewsID=730  (PowerVR Rogue G6100)

http://www.imgtec.com/News/Release/index.asp?NewsID=731

http://www.imgtec.com/News/Release/index.asp?NewsID=729

http://www.imgtec.com/News/Release/index.asp?NewsID=728

http://www.imgtec.com/News/Release/index.asp?NewsID=726

http://www.imgtec.com/News/Release/index.asp?NewsID=732 (ZTE/Hellosoft)

Post-MWC Summary from IMG:

Imagination delivers key messages on power and mobile technology influence at mobile world’s main event

London, 7th March 2013: Imagination Technologies (IMG.L), a leading multimedia, processor, communications and cloud technologies company, reports that at Mobile World Congress (MWC) 2013 in Barcelona, many leading semiconductor suppliers, mobile and telecom OEMs, and key strategic ecosystem partners expressed their strong support and enthusiasm for Imagination’s PowerVR graphics, video and vision roadmaps, as well as the rationale behind the recent acquisition of MIPS Technologies.

Imagination presented its premise that power consumption and thermal envelope considerations are becoming a dominant factor in mobile SoC design decisions, and how the benchmark industry, customers and partners must fully take power into consideration when assessing GPU or CPU performance.

Imagination also explained how technologies created for mobile devices, such as advanced GPUs and 4K capable video decoders and encoders, are influencing the broader consumer electronics market towards higher convergence as other devices try to catch up to phones and tablets in ‘smartness’.

Says David McBrien, EVP sales and business development at Imagination: 

“This was our busiest MWC ever in terms of engagements with both existing and new customers, not only feeding our sales pipeline across all our mobile technologies but showing the industry’s strong interest and confidence in the roadmaps for our entire IP portfolio. 

“Partnerships developed at previous MWC’s have led to the strong range of products that use our technologies across the mobile and telecom segments on show throughout MWC this year, both in public and in private. We expect even more compelling results for MWC 2014 as we execute on plans developed at this year’s event.”

Says Tony King-Smith, EVP marketing at Imagination:

“MWC 2013 was another great event for us, with the leadership of our licensees and their customer’s mobile and telecom products clearly on show throughout the event. 

“It was also the first opportunity for us to show our new portfolio of MIPS processor IP and to reveal our new brand identity too. We were delighted with the overwhelmingly positive response to our latest technologies, strategies and roadmaps, and look forward to further strengthening our breadth of IP deployment and influence throughout every aspect of the mobile industry.”

For the first time, Imagination demonstrated its MIPS family of processor IP alongside its market-leading PowerVR graphics, video and vision IP, innovative Ensigma communications IP, HelloSoft V.VoIP IP and Flow cloud connectivity IP solutions.

Imagination announced:

• The PowerVR G6100, a new entry-level PowerVR Series6 GPU IP core which delivers the smallest area of any member of the ground-breaking PowerVR Series6 ‘Rogue’ family and will enable mass-market adoption of OpenGL ES 3.0
• Imagination’s HelloSoft VoLTE solution is now available on commercial ZTE VoLTE-enabled handsets, powered by the MetroPCS 4G LTE network at Dallas MetroPCS stores
• Ceragon Networks Ltd, is leveraging MIPS microprocessor cores in its latest generation of packet radio solutions - their new FibeAir IP-20C targets the unique demands of 4G/LTE-A networks, leveraging breakthrough multi-core technology that employs a parallel radio processing engine to deliver up to four times the capacity of existing solutions.

Key demonstrations at Imagination’s stand included:

• The latest PowerVR Series6 GPU chipsets running full OpenGL ES 3.0 demonstration applications
• PowerVR Series5XT GPUs running unique OpenGL ES 2.0 extensions enabling OpenGL ES 3.0 capabilities on today’s PowerVR-enabled SoCs
• OpenCL and Filterscript demos showing the benefits of GPU compute for performance and power consumption for mobile devices
• A growing range of highly competitive Android tablets targeting low-cost markets featuring PowerVR graphics
• The latest PowerVR video decode and encode IP cores supporting the latest video standards as well as 4K Ultra-HD
• Advanced cameras using early examples of forthcoming PowerVR vision IP
• MIPS processors using multithreading to perform LTE advanced baseband processing, delivering a performance increase of 45% over a single-threaded platform
• High performance, low cost (sub-$100) Android tablets based on MIPS processors
• State of the art multiroom streaming audio solutions using Ensigma Wi-Fi and Meta Audio IP
• HelloSoft voice and video over IP and LTE technologies as well as RCS (Rich Communications Services) running across multiple mobile and computing platforms

Other notable highlights from Imagination’s partners at MWC 2013 include:

• Numerous handsets from leading OEMs including ZTE, Huawei, Blackberry, ASUS and Lenovo, all powered by partner devices
• Renesas APE6 – the first mobile apps processor SoC with PowerVR Series6 ‘Rogue’ graphics
• Intel’s launch of Atom CloverTrail+ devices incorporating PowerVR SGX544MP2 graphics and PowerVR VXD & VXE video technologies
• Devices based on Intel’s Atom Z2420 ’Lexington’ smartphone processor for emerging markets, with PowerVR graphics and video
• ST’s highly integrated apps processor on 28nm FD-SOI featuring PowerVR graphics
• MediaTek apps processors using PowerVR in an extensive range of handsets, particularly for the Chinese market
• MIPS-Based products from Altair Semiconductor, Broadcom, Cavium, Ceragon Networks and others
• Demonstrations from key Imagination partners including: Vadaro, Metaio, Unity, I Feel Smart, Plingm, Rightware, Renesas, SAI Technology and Ingenic Semiconductor

Reflecting its growing strength as a leading innovative supplier of a broadening portfolio of synergistic, advanced technologies being used throughout the world, Imagination also debuted its new branding at MWC 2013.

END

Next week we have the IMS followed 2 days later by the Samsung Galaxy S4 announcement in NYC (should confirm non-LTE versions with Exynos 5 Octa/SGX 544MP inside)

Imagination enters the CPU Licensing market

A couple of days ago, IMG announced the completion of the MIPS acquisition. This will prove to be a landmark moment in IMG's history as a new industry-leading force is created.
Pretty much none of this is factored into IMG's share price at the present time imo.

Imagination Technologies Group plc (LSE: IMG, "Imagination") has completed the acquisition of the operating business and certain patent properties of MIPS Technologies, Inc. (Nasdaq: MIPS, "MIPS") as well as license rights to all of the remaining patent properties.

MIPS is a leading provider of CPU (central processing unit) architectures and IP cores.

The cash consideration of US$100 million was paid on completion, financed from Imagination’s existing cash resources and a new acquisition facility.

At the MIPS Stockholder Meeting held on 6 February 2013, MIPS stockholders voted by the requisite majority on all proposals to enable the acquisition to complete.

Imagination has now commenced implementation of its detailed integration programme. Further details on this will be provided in the Interim Management Statement in March.

Hossein Yassaie, Group Chief Executive, Imagination, said:
"We are delighted to have completed this acquisition, which has been welcomed by both companies' customers and the electronics industry at large, and also to welcome our MIPS colleagues to the Imagination family.

“The combination of MIPS' capabilities with our existing Meta CPU technologies will accelerate our growth in the substantial CPU IP market across many segments."