Back at Padders en route home with the inevitable delays on FGW. Some things never change.
Despite my desire to give everyone a right royal kicking today for failing to provide what we want when we want it in terms of PR, unit delivery, license creation, etc once you get in front of the Pied Piper of Kings Langley it's hard not to fall under his spell. Some things never change.
Even when you still feel from his answers that he is a little oversensitive to suggestions that things seemed to have been presented in a less than straight bat way you can still be swayed. Some things never change.
When you hear that there are great things coming over the hill in a couple of years you can't help but think you've heard something similar a few times before. Some things never change.
You enjoy the demo room, some parts of which are now like dear, dusty old friends, you meet the usual suspects, who by now you see more often than many of our oldest friends, you enjoy the hospitality. Some things never change.
But some things change. Some things make you feel there is a difference in the air. Sometimes you sense that this time, yes THIS time, the shiny thing you see over there just beyond your clear sight is actually the light at the end of the tunnel and not the jackdaw's bauble that's been intermittently catching your eye.
Is this one of those things ? Who knows, these things are so fraught with obstacles that it's hard to see the finishing line for them.
Not this year, that's for sure, be in no doubt that H1 is going to be an absolute disaster in terms of financial performance. But H2 will see a substantial improvement (over an admittedly woeful H1) and next year will see some level of improvement from already signed older licenses in many fields (yes! we will finally see some Ensigma units).
But if you're hoping that next year will be Shangri La then you may also be disappointed.
The huge number of licenses signed last year are almost worthless per deal (£38m for 100+ licenses) there is huge hope for results from more of these than normal.
Teams are in the East repairing relationships, things are positive in terms of tech news from the west, we have repelled some patent trolling mo-fo's apparently and we have enough cash to pay for the last building and any further work we need to do in terms of cash flow
We are, I believe, truly 2 years from majorly improved results. Some things never change.
IMG
Friday 19 September 2014
Initial thoughts
While they still vote on stuff. Seems GS is staying on the board ??? I thought he was off and wished him happy retirement earlier, do I feel silly now.
I've been boiling in the run up to this AGM to the point where I was mouthing off on the train while we were sat opposite one of the board members !
I don't think I've entirely had many/any of my serious concerns satisfied properly really as I really don't think SHY gets what we are all concerned about. I am sure he feels we are just continually wanting to see the SP going up and are only ever cheesed off when it doesn't, and that is a basic misunderstanding of what so many of us feel about this company we have invested so much time and money in. I still think he exhibits a very odd sense of naïveté with his belief that the best will always win out (check out MALI boss) and that customers will always be rational (check out Samsung, Intel, Mediatek, etc boss) but his enthusiasm remains undimmed and infectious.
You've got to love him. I just wish he'd be a bit more of a bastard when it comes to the business end of thing or at least hire a few more people around him who are not "so nice".
We need more bad to the bone folks.
I've been boiling in the run up to this AGM to the point where I was mouthing off on the train while we were sat opposite one of the board members !
I don't think I've entirely had many/any of my serious concerns satisfied properly really as I really don't think SHY gets what we are all concerned about. I am sure he feels we are just continually wanting to see the SP going up and are only ever cheesed off when it doesn't, and that is a basic misunderstanding of what so many of us feel about this company we have invested so much time and money in. I still think he exhibits a very odd sense of naïveté with his belief that the best will always win out (check out MALI boss) and that customers will always be rational (check out Samsung, Intel, Mediatek, etc boss) but his enthusiasm remains undimmed and infectious.
You've got to love him. I just wish he'd be a bit more of a bastard when it comes to the business end of thing or at least hire a few more people around him who are not "so nice".
We need more bad to the bone folks.
hammerd2 questions
As SHY is always totally swamped afterwards I tried to make my in meeting questions specific to him in the expectation that the other concerns can be referred to less busy people during the informal part of the process.
And so to lunch. When they've finished voting on stuff.
And so to lunch. When they've finished voting on stuff.
PF
SHY also mentioned that if we needed to show good numbers or get cash we could just go get a mortgage for the property we own pretty much outright or the data centre.
Other guy also asked where margins would go and was told that we were probably at the low point.
Pete Frost question
We've got less cash now than we've had for years, should we be worried about a need to have a rights issue situation ?
No. We've got £23m buffer facility which we haven't touched, nor do we see the need to touch it. We see few millions positive cash in next year or so, then 10m's and increasing thereafter.
No. We've got £23m buffer facility which we haven't touched, nor do we see the need to touch it. We see few millions positive cash in next year or so, then 10m's and increasing thereafter.
Richard Woolaston question
We've had times of profits and now we're in a loss situation while investing heavily, when are we going to be actually monetising the investments or are we going to be eternally re-investing.
Answer is basically we got unlucky in timing where we got shafted by conditions when we were heavily investing in the future businesses. Expectations 2-4 years for return to increasing profit levels better than the old days.
HY said he wouldn't be invested in IMG if we were only graphics "because ARM would have pressured us in the low end - which they did..."
"I only invest in business directions where I see profits at the end of it. I hate blue sky thinking without money at the end"
Answer is basically we got unlucky in timing where we got shafted by conditions when we were heavily investing in the future businesses. Expectations 2-4 years for return to increasing profit levels better than the old days.
HY said he wouldn't be invested in IMG if we were only graphics "because ARM would have pressured us in the low end - which they did..."
"I only invest in business directions where I see profits at the end of it. I hate blue sky thinking without money at the end"
Hammerd2 question
It went on a bit, expressed disappointment with the level of communication of the downside stuff over the past 18 months and the lack of successful forecasting. SHY said its easy to underestimate from the outside how serious the waves were through the exits of the big semis.
Doesn't accept they could have done any different.
Asked where the old SoC table went - claims they can't do it any longer as they simply don't know. I don't 100% buy this as they must have some idea but he says they can't just knock out a table when they can't give real numbers, so he has a point I guess.
Asked how it is that there is now 100+ licensees only generating £38m. Answer is that whereas previously there were only a small number of licensees paying more there are now far more licensees paying less but making it easier for many more people to be able to make SoCs - thus hopefully evening out the peaks and troughs a little if some end up sinking without trace or leaving the market entirely.
I asked if they felt the business model (developing major IP categories with a view to high value licensing to an initial limited number of customers) was now out of date as most of them have now disappeared. Was basically referred to the previous answer as eg RT is expected to be able to go to many more smaller companies.
Again reiterated that he saw the first implementations in a "console or console type product" for which I can only read an Apple TV type of product as the mainstream consoles are now largely PC type product based with add in cards, yet RT seems only now to be designed for a mobile chip type of deployment.
Doesn't accept they could have done any different.
Asked where the old SoC table went - claims they can't do it any longer as they simply don't know. I don't 100% buy this as they must have some idea but he says they can't just knock out a table when they can't give real numbers, so he has a point I guess.
Asked how it is that there is now 100+ licensees only generating £38m. Answer is that whereas previously there were only a small number of licensees paying more there are now far more licensees paying less but making it easier for many more people to be able to make SoCs - thus hopefully evening out the peaks and troughs a little if some end up sinking without trace or leaving the market entirely.
I asked if they felt the business model (developing major IP categories with a view to high value licensing to an initial limited number of customers) was now out of date as most of them have now disappeared. Was basically referred to the previous answer as eg RT is expected to be able to go to many more smaller companies.
Again reiterated that he saw the first implementations in a "console or console type product" for which I can only read an Apple TV type of product as the mainstream consoles are now largely PC type product based with add in cards, yet RT seems only now to be designed for a mobile chip type of deployment.
Financial Yawn
Numbers time.
For some reason taking 3x as many deals to make the same money is "a good thing". Not sure I see how, apart from losing 1 or 2 isn't likely to kill us dead, unless it were to be Apple of course. There's barely anyone else big enough now to really make a huge difference if they walked.
Despite admitting that competition has cut into sales of radios, it seems our response has been simply to be to concentrate on the higher price range.
How this means we still need to fill almost the whole of the new building with PURE people I have no idea. I'd have thought offing the operation would be better but the boss re-iterated we weren't getting rid of it so we're still lumbered.
Non-MIPS now t hit 1bn in 3 years. Hmm... That sounds familiar.
For some reason taking 3x as many deals to make the same money is "a good thing". Not sure I see how, apart from losing 1 or 2 isn't likely to kill us dead, unless it were to be Apple of course. There's barely anyone else big enough now to really make a huge difference if they walked.
Despite admitting that competition has cut into sales of radios, it seems our response has been simply to be to concentrate on the higher price range.
How this means we still need to fill almost the whole of the new building with PURE people I have no idea. I'd have thought offing the operation would be better but the boss re-iterated we weren't getting rid of it so we're still lumbered.
Non-MIPS now t hit 1bn in 3 years. Hmm... That sounds familiar.
Takeaway Slide #2
Is slide 41. I knew he wouldn't forget...ahem.
Finally admitted (sort of) that they made a mistake ignoring the low end.
Still talks about us as though we're #1 for GPU.
MIPS only 8%, still aiming for 25%. Can't get through to ask 25% of what though !
Expects us to be #1 or 2 in each market.
Finally admitted (sort of) that they made a mistake ignoring the low end.
Still talks about us as though we're #1 for GPU.
MIPS only 8%, still aiming for 25%. Can't get through to ask 25% of what though !
Expects us to be #1 or 2 in each market.
What are we about ?
Scalable IP, configurable platforms is what we are about.
Then starts talking about PURE !!! Same line about "if you knew what's coming" has been wheeled out. Still only talking about DAB and multi-room though. Is there really anything else ?
Then starts talking about PURE !!! Same line about "if you knew what's coming" has been wheeled out. Still only talking about DAB and multi-room though. Is there really anything else ?
Slide 36
There is yet another new type of xPU - Ensigma NPU - network processing unit. Specific to data centre processor applications - high speed routing. Top end Explorer cores as far as I can tell.
MIPS
"Like a very talented child in a family that doesn't care"
Very good.
But still convinced that the market is that bothered about having an alternative to ARM. Your correspondent remains to be convinced the market wanted much more than a bargaining chip. So far this has been an expensive experiment. Let's hope we start reaching some conclusions soon.
Very good.
But still convinced that the market is that bothered about having an alternative to ARM. Your correspondent remains to be convinced the market wanted much more than a bargaining chip. So far this has been an expensive experiment. Let's hope we start reaching some conclusions soon.
More slides
Not sure if we're going to be told the 2nd takeaway slide, but we're on to the usual power per mm etc slides and the performance envelope stuff.
SHY still seems to see us as being way ahead of everyone else on performance.
Same stuff again from last year about camera stuff and integration of GPU compute functions, etc. good to see we're keeping on top of our recycling targets.
SHY still seems to see us as being way ahead of everyone else on performance.
Same stuff again from last year about camera stuff and integration of GPU compute functions, etc. good to see we're keeping on top of our recycling targets.
Takeaway slides
If you go away with only 2 slides, take this (slide 21) as one of them. It's a version of the old adoption graph.
Unfortunately we're not really in the 90% of the CPU business that is IP. Or to be honest the GPU business any longer, but we remain hopeful.
Future is about getting our 200+ Ensigma engineers to bring the RPU tab along the curve.
Unfortunately we're not really in the 90% of the CPU business that is IP. Or to be honest the GPU business any longer, but we remain hopeful.
Future is about getting our 200+ Ensigma engineers to bring the RPU tab along the curve.
Strategic Progress
Unlike competitors, we do not demand our customers take x,y,z we make things to be interoperable with other technologies.
OK, but competitors are more successful than us at selling IP so who really wins here ?
Very interesting new slide 11 - where on earth these licensees are coming from or who they are I have no idea and I'm sure we're not going to get told.
OK, but competitors are more successful than us at selling IP so who really wins here ?
Very interesting new slide 11 - where on earth these licensees are coming from or who they are I have no idea and I'm sure we're not going to get told.
Blah blah blah
I don't intend to comment on individual slides this year unless there's something that leaps out at me as SHY goes through the usual slides. They're on the website soon so you can look yourselves.
He's started off talking about how our business is about predicting and forecasting future markets. Ahem.......given our last 18 months or so you have to wonder how we're still in business but at least we're aiming for something.
In reference to wireless technologies and our place in it he reckons PURE will reveal all sometime early next year. Sound familiar ?
He's started off talking about how our business is about predicting and forecasting future markets. Ahem.......given our last 18 months or so you have to wonder how we're still in business but at least we're aiming for something.
In reference to wireless technologies and our place in it he reckons PURE will reveal all sometime early next year. Sound familiar ?
AGM 2014
Good morning and welcome to this year's AGM coverage.
A smaller gathering of the clans, maybe a lot of disgruntled Yes voters from north of the border have decided that last night's results were too disappointing to get out of bed.
Can't imagine this is going to be pretty.
A smaller gathering of the clans, maybe a lot of disgruntled Yes voters from north of the border have decided that last night's results were too disappointing to get out of bed.
Can't imagine this is going to be pretty.
Wednesday 17 September 2014
Imagination IMS
IMG today announced the Interim Management Statement:
Imagination Technologies Group plc ('Imagination', LSE: IMG, ‘the Group’), a leading multimedia, communications and processor technology company, is today issuing its Interim Management Statement for the period from 1 May 2014 to 16 September 2014.
Trading update
Licensing activity in the period has been good with encouraging levels of activity across all three main IP product areas and across the broad customer base.
Royalty revenue for the quarter ended 30 June 2014 has been in line with our expectations, reflecting both growth from a number of partners as well as the short term impact from known product transitions with other partners this year. We are pleased that the average royalty rate for the quarter remained strong and marginally higher than last year, which we expected given the change in product mix.
The active licensing pipeline across our IP and customer base is building the foundation for significant future unit growth.
Both licensing and royalty revenue have been affected by the strength of sterling in the period, leading to adverse comparisons with the prior year. Given the recent volatility of sterling, it is difficult to predict the likely impact of this factor for the financial year to April 2015. However, we continue to be active in hedging some of our exposure to currency movements.
The Pure business is trading in line with expectations following the renewed focus and organisational changes implemented at the end of FY14. We are expecting further progress with the latest product releases.
Despite the Group continuing to invest in a number of key areas, tight operational control has been maintained and underlying operating costs are growing at a lower rate and in line with expectations.
Technology business
Multimedia
Our PowerVR Series6 technology has seen further deployment with active licensing across all areas of the Series6 family including 6XE and 6XT.
PowerVR Series6/6XT continues to drive leading edge devices delivering best industry performance, feature set and lowest power consumption.
We were pleased to announce the industry’s smallest Android compatible GPU solution with the new PowerVR Series5XE GX5300 graphics core. With this our partners can create compelling GUIs and user experiences with longer battery life for a range of low-cost, area constrained applications.
CPU and processor cores
We recently announced our most significant new MIPS CPU IP core to date, the 64-bit I6400, the first core using the latest r6 architecture. This highly configurable I-class MIPS core targets a broad range of high volume market applications.
Licences have already been signed with multiple lead partners who value the unique features of this core, such as multi-threading and advanced security, as well as its area and power efficiency.
The Group now provides a comprehensive range of MIPS IP cores for everything from microcontrollers and Internet of Things (IoT) devices to 64-bit application processors and servers, delivering choice across the full range.
We recently revealed the first of a series of MIPS-based development boards targeted at the open source community, hobbyists, cross platform developers and partners looking to create applications using our IP portfolio. We have seen an exceptional response which bodes well for the continued ecosystem development.
Communications
Interest in the Ensigma product range remains strong with additional licenses signed during the period.
The Ensigma ‘Whisper’ RPU is designed to drive a new generation of wearables, IoT and other connected devices where ultra-low power consumption and low cost points are key.
Lead customers who have licensed the high performance ‘Explorer’ RPU IP are making good progress towards their first mass production devices.
Ecosystem
Progress and support of the prpl open source foundation continues with the founders and other partners strongly driving activities in this area.
Imagination’s partners gathered to discover and discuss the latest in our strategy and products at a series of Summit and Executive events worldwide which, over the period, attracted well over 1,000 engineers, developers and executives.
Pure business
Following the renewed focus and organisational adjustment, Pure is applying itself to driving markets and technologies that are of strategic significance to the Group’s overall business.
A new family of products has recently been launched which combines DAB with wireless streaming capability and which we believe will help to drive the emerging consumer trends. This should create more demand for the refreshed Evoke range of products.
The Jongo X family, that takes multi-room streaming to a new level both in feature set and sound quality, has just been launched at the IFA consumer electronics show with a positive reception.
We are seeing strong interest in licensing of the underlying technologies that power these showcase products.
Outlook
The progress on licensing in the period supports our target of 10% growth in licensing revenue for the year.
Non-MIPS shipments are expected to increase in the financial year, with a strong weighting towards the second half, predominantly driven by new product launches. MIPS shipments are expected to be broadly flat year on year with significant growth expected in future years, arising from the ongoing strong licensing activity.
New products and the impact of the business refocus and organisational changes made in FY14 are on course to deliver an improvement in Pure’s financial performance in the year to April 2015.
Underlying operating cost growth is expected to be reduced to around 10% this year, in line with previous guidance.
The seasonality of royalty revenues and the normal weighting of licensing revenues typically results in a stronger financial performance in the second half of the financial year. Given the anticipated contribution of new product shipments later in the year, we expect this effect to be more pronounced this year.
The overall financial position of Imagination remains robust and the Board is confident that the Group’s progress will continue in line with its expectations.
Sir Hossein Yassaie , Chief Executive, commented:
"We continue to see good progress being made across our three main IP product families, multimedia, processors and communications.
"The launch of MIPS 64-bit cores, which can be used in a broad range of high volume applications, is a significant milestone in our development and is seen as an industry changing step by many.
"The three IP families and the platforms they enable are increasingly seen as a strong and relevant proposition for the existing and emerging opportunities by many of our customers."
END
No great surprises then. IMG seem to have learned a lesson from this time last year, when the royalty volume estimate (with only 6w of the financial half to go) turned out to be nonsense. Licensing on track, reduced volumes in H1 due to lower Mediatek (as they mainly ship MT65x2 Mali series at present) but no doubt the effect of people waiting to buy iPhone 6 (as mentioned by Apple last quarter) rather than iPhone 5c/s in recent months. Costs seem under control and Pure not doing as bad (should still be sold off imo). The now-weaker Sterling could turn out well for H2 as volumes ramp.
I will be joining Hammerd at AGM in 2 days and will feedback then.
Tuesday 16 September 2014
Wee Timor-IMS Beastie
An IMS is an odd wee critter, not unlike the Highland Haggis in that it's one leg (the bit before the IMS since the last results) is significantly longer than the other (the bit between the IMS and the end of the current period). And, of course, they can either be delicious or make you gag.
Unfortunately you rarely know the day before whether you'll be enjoying the reporting version of soft organic barley oats melting in the mouth in a savoury jus of delicate lites or chewing hard on a piece of unimaginably unpleasant gristle.
Today, however, we know that tomorrow morning we're in for a decidedly middle of the road, mass produced piece of mush that will please no-one and make many wonder how on earth this once proud producer of fine, meaty comestibles has been laid so low, how these pallid ingredients could have cost this much and where the sheep will be coming from to stuff these beauties full of hot goodness in years to come.
So, we know that licensing (stomach lining) will be lower than H2 last year, we know that royalty units (barley oats) will be probably down also, that MIPS (lungs) will 'be contributing financially to the Group', that there is increased interest in our other families of IP (meaty goodness) and that PURE is incredibly important to the future of our IP being adopted throughout industry as a whole (it isn't).
So will anyone be happy ? No. Will anybody be surprised ? No. Will we really know any more tomorrow at 7am than we've known for months ? No.
Will the SP drop yet further when it's flagged (again) that any (note any, not the) possible growth this year will be most decidedly in H2.
This long term investor is expecting higher losses in H1 than we had in last year's figures with the hope of some H2 recovery, so anything better than that will be a huge bonus. I'm actually expecting much higher FY reported losses this year given the current level of sales so far predicted and the fact that you can't just stop expenses dead when they're mostly in R&D and no-one's been sacked. The only reductions possible would be the absence of redundancy payments to MIPS sales teams.
Ho him, tomorrow's another day, and Friday's another day too.
Let's just hope we can take delivery of one more succulent, juicy, spicey organic Haggis before the maurauding Northmen sever their ties with Westminster. Unfortunately that's it likely either.
Unfortunately you rarely know the day before whether you'll be enjoying the reporting version of soft organic barley oats melting in the mouth in a savoury jus of delicate lites or chewing hard on a piece of unimaginably unpleasant gristle.
Today, however, we know that tomorrow morning we're in for a decidedly middle of the road, mass produced piece of mush that will please no-one and make many wonder how on earth this once proud producer of fine, meaty comestibles has been laid so low, how these pallid ingredients could have cost this much and where the sheep will be coming from to stuff these beauties full of hot goodness in years to come.
So, we know that licensing (stomach lining) will be lower than H2 last year, we know that royalty units (barley oats) will be probably down also, that MIPS (lungs) will 'be contributing financially to the Group', that there is increased interest in our other families of IP (meaty goodness) and that PURE is incredibly important to the future of our IP being adopted throughout industry as a whole (it isn't).
So will anyone be happy ? No. Will anybody be surprised ? No. Will we really know any more tomorrow at 7am than we've known for months ? No.
Will the SP drop yet further when it's flagged (again) that any (note any, not the) possible growth this year will be most decidedly in H2.
This long term investor is expecting higher losses in H1 than we had in last year's figures with the hope of some H2 recovery, so anything better than that will be a huge bonus. I'm actually expecting much higher FY reported losses this year given the current level of sales so far predicted and the fact that you can't just stop expenses dead when they're mostly in R&D and no-one's been sacked. The only reductions possible would be the absence of redundancy payments to MIPS sales teams.
Ho him, tomorrow's another day, and Friday's another day too.
Let's just hope we can take delivery of one more succulent, juicy, spicey organic Haggis before the maurauding Northmen sever their ties with Westminster. Unfortunately that's it likely either.
Monday 15 September 2014
Upcoming AGM
It's been quite a year for us Imagineers with the company managing to blow off much of the goodwill built up over the past 15+ years with the ease and speed of a Dutchman blowing the froth off his beer.
In just over a year of tall tales and missed targets and opportunities we have gone from a company on the up, aiming for that far away, glistening FTSE100 target so beloved of our CEO to a nearly ran company who have seen soaring profits plummet to losses with more expected this year too, hockey stick increases in royalty levels drop and many of our long term and important partners either drop off the map altogether or severely curtail their output.
We've heard much of the future promise, but these statements ring hollower than a Scotsman's legs on Burns' night now they've been rolled out more times than a Cockney's barrel on sing song night.
But we are Imagineers - not for us the easy path, the path well trodden on simple trajectories from loss to ever increasing profits, the path of least resistance. No, we must have more than our share of pain and suffering on our journey to the fabled Land of Jam Tomorrow.
And so it is with a heavy heart (and a much lighter wallet thanks to the ever decreasing SP and ever increasing rail fares) that a smaller than normal band of merry and intrepid warriors (no pun intended) head once more to Kings Langley to hold some feet to some fires and try to get to the bottom of what has gone so disastrously wrong with our company and what is being done to actually turn things around.
WiFi - and First Great Western - willing there will once more be a live blog for you all to digest. Let's hope the words don't stick in anyone's throats.
Will this be the last IMG AGM ? I'm convinced it will be, so maybe the sweepstake this year will be moot.
A bientot mes braves !!
In just over a year of tall tales and missed targets and opportunities we have gone from a company on the up, aiming for that far away, glistening FTSE100 target so beloved of our CEO to a nearly ran company who have seen soaring profits plummet to losses with more expected this year too, hockey stick increases in royalty levels drop and many of our long term and important partners either drop off the map altogether or severely curtail their output.
We've heard much of the future promise, but these statements ring hollower than a Scotsman's legs on Burns' night now they've been rolled out more times than a Cockney's barrel on sing song night.
But we are Imagineers - not for us the easy path, the path well trodden on simple trajectories from loss to ever increasing profits, the path of least resistance. No, we must have more than our share of pain and suffering on our journey to the fabled Land of Jam Tomorrow.
And so it is with a heavy heart (and a much lighter wallet thanks to the ever decreasing SP and ever increasing rail fares) that a smaller than normal band of merry and intrepid warriors (no pun intended) head once more to Kings Langley to hold some feet to some fires and try to get to the bottom of what has gone so disastrously wrong with our company and what is being done to actually turn things around.
WiFi - and First Great Western - willing there will once more be a live blog for you all to digest. Let's hope the words don't stick in anyone's throats.
Will this be the last IMG AGM ? I'm convinced it will be, so maybe the sweepstake this year will be moot.
A bientot mes braves !!
Tuesday 2 September 2014
MIPS 64-Bit Warrior Core announced
The much awaited announcement today from IMG:
http://www.imgtec.com/news/detail.asp?ID=923
http://www.imgtec.com/news/detail.asp?ID=923
Imagination Technologies Group plc (LSE: IMG, “Imagination”, “the Group”), a leading multimedia, communications and processor technology company, has launched the highly-efficient MIPS I-class I6400 CPU family.
This is a key strategic development for the Group as this 64-bit MIPS Warrior core is the first IP core to combine a 64-bit architecture and hardware virtualization with scalable performance through multi-threading, multi-core and multi-cluster coherent processing.
MIPS Warrior I-class processor cores set a new standard for mainstream 64-bit processing in applications including embedded, mobile, digital consumer, advanced communications, networking and storage - the broadest set of applications ever addressed by a single MIPS core family.
Its extraordinary feature set and performance/power/area leadership will enable customers to implement a smaller core at the same performance, or a faster core, in the same area.
Sir Hossein Yassaie, Chief Executive, commented:
"This is the MIPS Warrior core that the industry has been waiting for. Customers can now choose a CPU based on its technical superiority.
"This new product is more efficient, flexible and scalable than the competition and its feature set clearly lends itself to the needs of a wide range of next-generation applications including smartphones and tablets.
"We know that unique features like multi-threading provide significant advantages for many applications. We have already secured licensees for this new product across multiple markets.
"The Group is now able to provide MIPS IP cores for everything from microcontrollers to 64-bit servers, delivering choice across the range and changing the competitive dynamic in the industry."
Says Tony King-Smith, EVP marketing, Imagination: “This is the MIPS Warrior core that many have been waiting for. As the industry moves toward instruction set neutrality, customers can now choose a CPU based on its technical superiority. The I6400 is more efficient, flexible and scalable than the competition, and its feature set clearly lends itself to the needs of a wide range of next-generation applications including smartphones and tablets. We know that unique features like multi-threading provide significant advantages for many applications, and customers already using this technology agree. Unsurprisingly, we’ve already secured licensees for the I6400 across multiple markets.”
Says Jim McGregor, founder and principal analyst, Tirias Research: “To address the ongoing evolution in applications from IoT to mobile to networking and storage, companies need to select scalable platforms that can future-proof their designs. With 64-bit, multi-threading, and multicore/multi-cluster support, the I6400 is designed to be a phenomenally flexible, low-power processor architecture capable of scaling across a wide range of applications. Imagination now has MIPS IP cores for everything from microcontrollers to 64-bit servers, delivering choice across the range and changing the competitive dynamic in the industry.”
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