Apple Q3

More record breaking results from apple last night.
http://seekingalpha.com/article/280344-apple-management-discusses-q3-2011-results-earnings-call-transcript

7.5M iPods with just over 50% being iPod Touch
20.3M iPhones
9.2M iPads

Massive growth in China but 'just scratching the surface right now' according to Oppenheimer
'product transition' due in Q4.

Over 33m iOS devices shifted in Q3, add to that some iPod Nano (at lower royalty) and we have something like 34-35m royalty volume for IMG, mostly at higher ASP from the A4/A5 chips (SGX+VXD/VXE).
Given likely developments in China and new products like iPhone 4GS/5 that volume is likely to be eclipsed in the next few quarters, giving IMG in the region of 150m+ royalty volume from Apple alone. The better analysts predict 330-370m total volume for IMG in FY 2011/12.
A great way to start FY2011/12 for IMG !

Killer results from Imagination - 1 billion chips here we come!

IMG released FY results this morning.
HY surprised many by announcing a new ambitious target of around 1 billion chips/year within 5 years. It was expected he would announce a 500m chip target, but obviously IMG are in a very confident mood.
ASP came out at 27c/chip (13% lower) with royalty volume up 94%(!) at 245m chips. Licensing was also very strong at £28.5m (up 24%). I think it's fair to say the only major semi target remaining for IMG is Qualcomm.
Well done HY et al.
Summary:

Adjusted pre-tax profit surges 80% to £24.0m; driven by 94% chip unit volume growth to 245m and licensing up 24% Imagination Technologies Group plc (LSE: IMG, “Imagination”, “the Group”), a leading multimedia, communications and embedded processor technology company, today announces results for the 12 months to 30 April 2011.
Imagination Technologies Group plc (LSE: IMG, “Imagination”, “the Group”), a leading multimedia, communications and embedded processor technology company, today announces results for the 12 months to 30 April 2011.
Financial highlights

• Group revenue up 21% to £98.0m (2010: £80.9m)
• Technology revenues increased 47% to £69.8m (2010: £47.3m)
• Royalty revenue up 69%; very strong momentum
• Licensing revenue up 24%; reflects high activity level
• PURE revenues £28.2m (2010: £33.6m)

• Technology - adjusted operating profit* up 97% to £26.7m (2010: £13.6m)
• Adjusted Group pre-tax profit* up 80% to £24.0m (2010: £13.3m)
• Group pre-tax profit £16.4m (2010: £10.2m)
• Adjusted earnings per share* up 48% to 10.8p (2010: 7.3p)
• Reported earnings per share 7.7p (2010: 6.0p)
• Strong cash generation from operations of £19.1m (2010: £8.6m), cash balance increased to £49.4m at 30 April 2011 (2010: £29.4m)

Business highlights

Technology business

Royalties and design wins

• Partner chips shipped almost doubled to 245m units (2010: 126m) – new target of 1 billion units per annum in five years
• Significant volume shipments in mobile phone, TV/STB, personal computing/tablets, digital radio & automotive markets
• 115 active partner chip designs (2010: 91); 48 in production (2010: 37)

Licensing

• Strong licensing activities
• Addition of several new key partners including ST-Ericsson, ST Microelectronics, Fujitsu, LG, NetLogic & SiS
• Many new and extended agreements with existing partners
• 20+ important agreements involving 35+ silicon IP cores
• Across all markets - mobile phone, digital TV/STB (set top boxes)/thin-clients, Personal Media Player (PMP), mobile computing/tablets/netbooks and in-car navigation/dashboard
• For graphics, video, broadcast/connectivity and processor silicon IP cores and HelloSoft VoIP technologies
• First tier-one licensee for ENSIGMA UCC technology
• Significantly increased and active pipeline of prospects across all IP families

Acquisitions

• Two strategic acquisitions completed in the second half of the year in connectivity/V.VoIP and graphics areas to contribute to Group’s next phase of development

  PURE business

  • Tight economic environment and cautious retailers particularly impacted UK revenues
  • Good revenue increase from new & growing international markets with a 75% year on year increase for the second half
  • Continued strategic development and path finding role
  • Focus on digital broadcast, connected devices and Cloud solutions
  • Expect improvement in 2011/12 driven by the growing export business and new products
  • DAB+ roll-out in Germany set for 1 August 2011
  • Cloud offering strengthening with time and driving connected product adoption

Hossein Yassaie, Chief Executive, commented:

"The almost doubling of the annual unit shipment of devices using our technologies, and strong licensing activities, have again resulted in a substantial jump in full-year revenues and profits.

"Our technologies, instrumental in many of the key market trends, continue to gain ground and are powering many market-driving and iconic end-user products.

"With well over 500m devices across numerous categories having shipped to date, approximately half of this volume during the last financial year alone, we now see a revised target of around one billion units for the annual run-rate for our partners’ chips as a reasonable goal within five years.

"Despite the current slow-down in consumer spending PURE continues effectively to showcase and drive key technologies. We expect to see an improvement in this division over the medium term, particularly in international markets.

"Whilst acknowledging the on-going challenges to the global economy, we are increasingly confident of our continued good progress in the current financial year and beyond given the very active, growing pipeline of licensing prospects, the growth in design wins and the momentum in our chip volume, together with PURE’s leading position and product portfolio."

Click here to view the full financial results
END

Imagination update on Rogue

IMG today officially announced that 6 lead partners had licensed 'Rogue'.

Three are in the public domain: ST-Ericsson, TI and Mediatek, with 3 more 'yet to be announced' ie. it will be at a time of their (the partners) choosing - obviously 2 are Apple and Intel but the 3rd is anyone's guess - most reckon it will be Renesas (given the long history and early adoption) but other possibles are Sony (PS4 anyone ?) Samsung (you never know) and LG imo.
Also today Comcast announced they will be using Intel Atom CE SoC (? Sodaville) for their nex-gen Xfinity TV Experience, a very significant win for Intel (and almost certainly IMG).
http://www.cmcsk.com/releasedetail.cfm?ReleaseID=584505

PR:
Imagination Technologies, a leading multimedia and communications technologies company, announces that its next generation POWERVR Series6 architecture, codenamed ‘Rogue’, has now being licensed by six lead partners.
The POWERVR Series6 GPU family, which delivers unrivalled GFLOPS per mm2 and per mW for all APIs, delivers not only a clear technology advantage and exceptional roadmap, driven by one of the largest teams of graphics engineers in the world, but also an extensive ecosystem of third party developers which has created hundreds of thousands of apps optimised for POWERVR enabled devices to date.
Imagination CEO Hossein Yassaie says: “The growing commitment of the primary players to our roadmap shows that, having evaluated the options, the overall mobile and embedded market is increasingly committing to POWERVR as the de facto graphics standard.”
Among the announced POWERVR Series6 partners are:

·       ST-Ericsson, which has announced that its new Nova™ family of smartphone application processors will include Imagination’s next-generation POWERVR Series6 architecture

·       Texas Instruments, which will deploy POWERVR Series6 technology in future OMAP™ platform-based SoC designs. These SoC devices will target the highly-significant smartphone market, as well as the fast-emerging mobile computing and tablet markets supporting key operating systems, including Android and the next version of Windows

·       MediaTek, which has licensed POWERVR Series6 technology  

·       Three other POWERVR Series6 licensees are yet to be announced

POWERVR has established itself as the industry leader for mobile and embedded graphics acceleration across smartphones, tablets, mobile computing and games consoles, attracting an extensive community of POWERVR developers and powering iconic and much-loved products.

POWERVR Series6 GPUs will be fully compatible with Series5 and Series5XT POWERVR SGX GPUs, ensuring a smooth migration path for developers upgrading applications optimized for Series5 to the new architecture.

END

PS Vita graphics lauded

PS Vita finally officially launched yesterday at E3. Lots of 'hands-on' impressions already, gamers seem mightily impressed by the graphics (SGX 543MP4+) - pretty much the best portable graphics around for now at least.

http://www.pocket-lint.com/news/40376/sony-ps-vita-hands-on-impressions  :
 'There was plenty of jumping around a chance to look at the stunning graphics. It’s not PS3 class just yet, but Sony has done a fantastic job in giving it enough umph so developers can create something very pretty indeed. Think Dreamcast or first Xbox and you’re on the right lines'
'(Virtua Tennis 4) The graphics are what will make this game stand out though - stunning'
'Ultimately though the biggest loser here isn't the PS Vita, but the Sony Ericsson Xperia Play, that frankly looks rather pathetic against this new monster from Sony.'

http://gizmodo.com/5809242/the-next-psp-is-officially-the-playstation-vita
'Are they PS3-quality? Not quite. But. But, it's safe to say they're reasonable attempts at such a standard and totally the best-looking portable games ever. The claims of their amazingness and how they touch your eyeballs in special ways are not hyperbole, for the most part. It's easily a generation or two ahead of anything on iOS, and like half a gen or so ahead of most of the 3DS stuff I've played.'

http://www.gaming-age.com/news/2011/6/7-31
'When all is said and done I have to say I'm impressed with the technology built into the Vita. It's definitely a step up from the 3DS graphically, and the second analog stick is a great feature.'



A great demonstration (together with iPad 2) of why IMG are the leaders in cutting-edge portable/mobile graphics.

New OMAP 4 SoC

TI at Computex have announced a 'top of the range' OMAP 4 SoC, the OMAP 4470, featuring SGX 544 (single core) instead of the SGX 540 used in the other OMAP 4 SoCs:

There is further commentary on it over at the excellent Anandtech:  http://www.anandtech.com/show/4413/ti-announces-omap-4470-and-specs-powervr-sgx544-18-ghz-dual-core-cortexa9

TAIPEI, Taiwan, June 2, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- COMPUTEX -- Building on the OMAP™ 4 platform family's technological achievements , Texas Instruments Incorporated (TI) (NYSE: TXN) introduced today the power-efficient OMAP4470 applications processor, designed to deliver the perfect balance between processing power, graphics, display subsystem functionality and multilayered user interface (UI) composition. The multicore OMAP4470 processor surpasses current market solutions with clock speeds up to 1.8 GHz, an 80 percent increase in Web browsing performance, increased memory bandwidth, a 2.5x boost in graphics functionality—via the POWERVR™ SGX544 core from Imagination Technologies—and a unique hardware composition engine. Mobile computing and gaming applications running on operating systems such as Android, Linux and the next version of Microsoft Windows will benefit from the OMAP4470 processor's enhanced capabilities. Customers designing ultrathin laptops, tablets or smartphones around previously released OMAP 4 processors gain the added benefit of pin-to-pin hardware and software compatibility for maximum re-use and faster time-to-market.
(Photo:  http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20110602/LA12487)
"Superior mobile computing relies on a user experience that dwarfs all others. Fast and crisp Web browsing, HD and liquid UIs, support for the latest applications—these are the elements consumers judge and buy their devices on. The OMAP4470 processor delivers the maximum experience possible with an unmatched, power-efficient architecture," said Remi El-Ouazzane, vice president, OMAP platform business unit, TI.
Making HD UIs a reality  
Courtesy of its advanced graphics architecture, OMAP4470 enables customers to leverage tomorrow's leading-edge display technology by supporting resolution up to QXGA (2048x1536). The new applications processor drives still more unparalleled HD UIs with simultaneous support for up to three HD screens and up to 2x more layered imaging and video composition than competitive solutions—a capability required by the sophisticated UIs of next generation operating systems. This feature is enabled by the combination of a hardware composition engine with a dedicated 2D graphics core, a highly sophisticated display subsystem, and dual-channel LPDDR2 memory enabling up to 7.5 GB/s of throughput to composite the graphics and/or video data output. This frees the GPU to perform graphics-intensive tasks such as gaming or widget creation while the compositing process is assigned to more power-efficient hardware subsystems.
Powerful enough for desktop applications yet highly power-efficient for mobile applications, Imagination Technologies' POWERVR SGX544 GPU complements the OMAP 4 platform's promise of high performance, low power. The OMAP4470 processor is the first OMAP offering to leverage the POWERVR SGX544. Combining the SGX544's features with the sophisticated OMAP architecture enables TI customers to deliver a new set of applications to end-users, including DirectX-driven games and videos.
"Graphics processing is now at the very heart of the mobile computing experience, providing the gateway to an enriched experience of user interface, gaming, location services, web and media," said Hossein Yassaie, CEO, Imagination Technologies. "Combining the OMAP 4 platform's low-power, high-performance architecture with the extensive acceleration capabilities and API support of Imagination's POWERVR SGX544 will enable experiences that will really make people sit up and take notice."
OMAP4470 applications processor features and benefits*

Feature	Benefit
Two ARM® Cortex™-A9 MPCores™ running up to 1.8GHz per core	80% increase in Web browsing performance
Two ARM Cortex-M3 cores	Smart multicore processing optimized for low-power and real-time responsiveness
SGX544 graphics core	2.5x overall graphics performance increase; support for DirectX, OpenGL ES 2.0, OpenVG 1.1, and OpenCL 1.1
Hardware composition engine with dedicated 2D graphics core	Frees GPU to manage intensive tasks; maximizes power-efficiency
Display subsystem	Supports as many as three HD displays and up to QXGA (2048x1536) resolution; HDMI supporting stereoscopic 3D
Dual-channel, 466 MHz LPDDR2 memory	Higher memory bandwidth enables rendering and compositing of multilayer content at high resolutions
Complete pin-to-pin hardware and software compatibility	Rapid transition and maximum re-use of investment from OMAP4430 and OMAP4460 processors

*Comparative data relative to the OMAP4430 processor
Availability
The 45nm OMAP4470 processor is expected to sample in the second half of 2011, with devices expected to hit the market in first half 2012. These products are intended for high-volume mobile OEMs and ODMs, and are not available through distributors.

TI going Rogue !

Fantastic announcement today from IMG:

Imagination Technologies Group plc (LSE: IMG; "Imagination"), a leader in System-on-Chip Intellectual Property ("SoC IP"), has signed multi-use license agreements with Texas Instruments Incorporated (TI) for new Imagination Graphics Processing Unit (GPU) IP cores from both the latest POWERVR Series5XT  family and the next generation POWERVR Series6 family, codenamed 'Rogue'.

TI will deploy both POWERVR Series5XT and 'Rogue' technology, which are ideal for various multi-core configurations, in future OMAP™ platform-based SoC designs.  These SoC devices will target the highly-significant smartphone market, as well as the fast-emerging mobile computing and tablet markets supporting key operating systems, including Android and Windows on ARM.

The new agreements are the latest milestone in a collaborative relationship that spans five generations of the OMAP platform and enables the broad, growing ecosystem of developers supporting POWERVR and OMAP technology with advanced graphics applications. This ecosystem will continue to move forward as a result of this extended relationship, taking advantage of new levels of performance and new features such as OpenCL GP-GPU computing.

Remi El-Ouazzane, Vice President and General Manager, OMAP Platform Business Unit, TI says:

"The complex, multimedia-rich mobile computing environment calls for a sophisticated yet low-power processing architecture that balances every nuance from high performance to intense graphic capabilities. TI is pleased to once again deploy Imagination's market-leading POWERVR cores into the next generation of OMAP platforms which will be a key driving force in shaping such future applications like augmented reality, OpenCL and, of course, gaming in mobile phone and mobile computing spaces."

Hossein Yassaie, CEO, Imagination says:

"We are delighted that our well-established relationship will continue into the new generations of POWERVR and OMAP. This will make five generations during which the combined efforts of Imagination and TI are the cornerstone of innovation in mobile and embedded graphics.

"These agreements will help Imagination continue to deliver, across several key markets, outstanding POWERVR graphics technologies to device manufacturers, developers and consumers for years to come."

Under the terms of its licensing arrangements Imagination receives licence fees and royalty revenues on shipment of chips incorporating Imagination's IP.

END

TI management have said many times they are a 'technology-led' company, meaning they go for the best in class graphics (PowerVR), best ecosystem and engineering support. The results are that OMAP continues to do great business , fighting off newcomers like Nvidia (in the shape of Tegra) as well as remaining pretty much the only stand-alone application processor supplier (others have all gone the integrated apps/baseband route).

Various analysts had spread the rumour of ARM Mali winning over TI in the past year - so much for that.

Well done all at IMG.

(Do the right thing Qualcomm, you know it makes sense !)

New agreement with Renesas

Another day of good news for IMG. Long-time partner and global semiconductor giant Renesas has taken a multi-use agreement for more SGX-5XT cores. They already use the SGX 543MP2 in the AG5 chip (for DoCoMo handsets H2 this year). It is also suspected that they are a 'Rogue' partner.

Renesas Electronics licenses further high-performance graphics processor cores from Imagination Technologies

Imagination Technologies Group plc (LSE: IMG; "Imagination"), a leader in System-on-Chip Intellectual Property ("SoC IP"), has signed further multi-use licence and extension agreements with Renesas Electronics Corporation (TSX: 6723), a premiere supplier of advanced semiconductors, for graphics technologies from Imagination's POWERVR SGX Series5XT IP core family.

Renesas Electronics will deploy these technologies in future system-on-chip (SoC) designs for the mobile, consumer and automotive markets.

Under the terms of its licensing arrangements Imagination receives license fees and royalty revenues on shipment of SoCs incorporating Imagination's IP.

Strategic License deal with Fujitsu

More great news today - 3 in a row!
Further to the license deal (no details) with Fujitsu announced at the interims , IMG today announced a 'strategic license' deal:

Fujitsu Licenses Imagination Graphics and Multimedia IP Cores

Fujitsu Semiconductor Europe will be one of the first groups to take advantage of the extended partnership in products targeting the automotive sector

Imagination Technologies Group plc - a leader in System-on-Chip Intellectual Property (SoC IP") - has signed a strategic license agreement with Fujitsu Semiconductor Limited for Imagination's POWERVR SGX graphics and POWERVR video technologies.

The agreement provides Fujitsu with access to a range of Imagination's technologies targeting the consumer and embedded electronics space. Fujitsu Semiconductor Europe will be one of the first groups to take advantage of the extended partnership in products targeting the automotive market.

Tony King-Smith, VP marketing, Imagination says: "We are delighted that our relationship with Fujitsu has extended in terms of using additional IP cores and targeting new markets. This new agreement will help Imagination and Fujitsu to deliver outstanding POWERVR graphics technologies that will enable innovation initially in the car market and followed by other markets in the future."

Markus Mierse, Director Graphic Competence Center, Fujitsu Semiconductor Europe, says: "Using POWERVR, Fujitsu will deliver the pinnacle of performance and efficiency for in-car systems, meeting the challenges of navigation, user interface, dashboard display and entertainment.  We will deliver both superior graphics capabilities and low power consumption to developers of graphically-rich automotive devices and sophisticated applications."
END

'Strategic' license deals usually imply multi-year, multiple IP and a greater level of commitment. They are also worth more in terms of license fees of course.

PowerVR - when 'just good enough' won't do !

Another great license announced today by IMG:

LG Electronics licenses Imagination Technologies' POWERVR graphics IP technologies

Imagination Technologies Group plc (LSE: IMG; "Imagination"), a leader in System-on-Chip Intellectual Property ("SoC IP"), has signed a license agreement with LG Electronics Inc., a leading supplier of solutions for the mobile and consumer markets, for IP cores from Imagination's POWERVR graphics family.

LG Electronics will deploy Imagination's technologies in SoCs targeting mobile and consumer markets.

Under the terms of the licence agreement Imagination receives licence fees and royalty revenues based on shipments of semiconductor products incorporating Imagination's IP.

END

Recently ARM announced LG had licensed the latest Cortex (A15 and A9) cores in an agreement which gave it 'access' to its Mali T-604 graphics. Some analysts, foolishly, saw this as evidence of the growing threat to IMG's graphics dominance.

Yet again though, today's rns proves the top semis/OEMs are well able to differentiate between 'just good enough' and 'best in class' - they cannot risk being left behind in the ultra-fast moving world of smartphones/tablets (sorry Nokia).

Well done IMG !

Mediatek licenses Rogue and 5-XT

Great announcement from IMG this morning:

Imagination Technologies licenses further high-performance graphics processor cores to MediaTek

Imagination Technologies Group plc (LSE: IMG; "Imagination"), a leader in System-on-Chip Intellectual Property ("SoC IP"), has signed a license agreement with MediaTek Inc., a leading fabless semiconductor company, for both the latest member of Imagination's POWERVR SGX graphics processor family and for Imagination's POWERVR Series6 multimedia family, codenamed Rogue.

MediaTek will deploy the technology in its future SoC devices.

Under the terms of its licensing arrangements Imagination receives license fees, and royalty revenues on shipment of SoCs incorporating Imagination's IP.

 END

Of course, there are undisclosed Rogue licensees, in addition to STM and Mediatek.

IMG just keep (quietly) doing the business whilst other players like to engage in PR tricks.

Well done HY and Co.

Intel Cedarview using SGX545

(Thanks to Rob Evans)
An exclusive from the team over at VR-Zone:

http://vr-zone.com/articles/exclusive-intel-s-cedarview-atom-to-sport-powervr-graphics/12117.html#

Some have suspected this to be the case for a while but great to have it confirmed.
Cedarview is the follow-on from Pineview (hence most thought it would be Intel in-house graphics) but features such as DirectX 10.1 , together with the original SGX 545 announcement in January 2010 (@CES) made some folks think IMG were in with a shout here. An important milestone has been achieved with this win.
Cedarview is for netbooks/basic desktops.
Hopefully IMG will also be inside the upcoming Cloverview and Medfield cores......

CFO Trevor Selby to step down

This from IMG today:

The Board of Imagination Technologies Group plc (LSE: IMG, "Imagination" or "the Group"), a leading multimedia, communications and embedded processor technology company, announces that Trevor Selby, Chief Financial Officer, has informed the Board of his intention to step down as a director of the Group as at 30 June 2011, after serving on the Board for over 15 years. He has agreed to continue with the Group for the remainder of 2011, in order to effect a smooth transition and provide support to the business before pursuing personal interests in due course. 

The Board is pleased to announce that Richard Smith is joining the Group today and with effect from 1 July 2011 will take over from Trevor as Chief Financial Officer and will join the Board.

Until March 2011 Richard was Chief Financial Officer of ACIS, a leading provider of technology solutions to the transport sector which was acquired by Vix Technology in August 2010, having previously been a portfolio company of The Carlyle Group.

From 2006 to 2008 Richard was Finance Director of RFI Global Services, a company backed by Close Ventures that provides testing and consultancy services to the cellular, electronics and smartcard industries.  From 2000 to 2006 Richard worked in the finance team at Vodafone, becoming Head of Finance for the Enterprise Business Unit in 2004.  Prior to this he spent three years as Financial Controller for Porsche Cars Great Britain.

Richard qualified as a Chartered Accountant with Price Waterhouse in 1995 and holds an MA in Economics from Cambridge University.

Geoff Shingles, Chairman of Imagination, said:

"Trevor has made a huge contribution to the growth, development and success of Imagination since he joined us in 1996.  We thank him for all his efforts.  The Group has become a leading technology company with worldwide market reach and he played a vital part in this evolution. 

"When a team member who has been so deeply involved leaves they are inevitably missed, but we are delighted that we have found such a strong replacement as Richard Smith and that Trevor will be working closely with him for the rest of the year to create a seamless handover."

Hossein Yassaie, CEO of Imagination, said:

"Trevor has been a great CFO and supportive colleague for the many years that we have worked together in developing Imagination.  He has become a good friend and will certainly be missed. I wish him the best for the future and I am sure he will remain both a friend to Imagination and personally. 

"I welcome Richard, who brings the right experience and comes with similar values and culture to Imagination and look forward to working with him as we take the Group through its next stage of development and growth." 

END

Trevor has been an excellent CFO, steering IMG through difficult times in the past, when royalties were low and cashburn high. Finances are now on a very steady footing, with growing cash levels. He also made important contributions to deals/contracts.

At AGMs Trevor helped  IMGers understand more about the business model, factors affecting SoC royalty rates, hedging, licensing, volume estimates etc.

Trevor will leave on a high .

A big thanks to him for all his efforts ,and best wishes in his future endeavours from the Imagineers.