MIPS progress

Things have been real quiet on the licensing rns front for IMG of late, but this does not reflect the business progress being made, as detailed by IMG today, just prior to the Embedded Technology Expo Japan 2013 (I would expect more announcements then). The big target for MIPS remains Mediatek of course.

22 new MIPS license deals since acquisition; ecosystem growth accelerates

London, UK – 18 November, 2013 – Since Imagination’s acquisition of MIPS Technologies in February 2013, the company has closed 22 MIPS related deals says Imagination Technologies (IMG.L).

This includes the first licensee for a multi-core P5600, the first MIPS Series5 ‘Warrior P-class’ CPU, which was announced just last month. The P5600 core delivers industry-leading 32-bit performance together with class-leading low power characteristics in a silicon footprint up to 30% smaller than comparable CPU cores. It incorporates key features needed for today’s leading-edge processors, including 128-bit SIMD, hardware virtualization, next-generation security features, advanced addressing and more.

Imagination is also seeing strong demand for its recently updated MIPS Aptiv cores, which each deliver industry-leading CoreMark performance in their class without sacrificing silicon or power efficiency. Since the acquisition, the company has signed licenses for each of the Aptiv cores including the high-performance proAptiv, highly efficient interAptiv and entry-level microAptiv cores. Designs based on the microAptiv and interAptiv cores are already in silicon.

Says Hossein Yassaie, CEO of Imagination: “We are thrilled with the positive response we are receiving from our many MIPS licensees and partners, which clearly indicates that the industry is longing for a real choice in the CPU market. Our MIPS business is progressing well, with an active pipeline of licensing opportunities for MIPS CPUs, increasing adoption of our leading Aptiv generation of cores, and strong interest in our new Series5 Warrior family. We are now demonstrating the first results of our ongoing investment in MIPS across every market. We are on track to deliver, over the next 12 months, on our promise of providing a compelling and comprehensive portfolio of 64-bit and 32-bit MIPS Warrior CPU IP cores.”

“Now that it is a part of the Imagination family, the MIPS architecture is clearly thriving, through increased investment and commitment from its new owners. The new MIPS Warrior cores offer a compelling value proposition for a broad range of applications, and the MIPS Aptiv cores, which received our Analyst Choice award last year, are delivering on their promise. Competition in the processor IP market is heating up, and Imagination is making MIPS a serious contender,” says Linley Gwennap, principal analyst, The Linley Group.

MIPS ecosystem continues to expand

Building on its broad ecosystem of more than 40,000 developers, Imagination is further increasing the MIPS presence in key segments by fostering already broad MIPS support, and by exploiting open operating systems and emerging trends toward architecture neutrality and portability. Recent milestones in the MIPS ecosystem include:

• Android 4.4 ‘KitKat’, including the new Chrome-based WebView and Android Run Time (ART), is up and running on MIPS CPUs, thanks to full Google native support for MIPS in Android
• Android app compatibility is already upwards of 93% on MIPS and is growing across the Top 100 paid and Top 100 free apps; new technologies such as multiple binaries, LLVM (low level virtual machine), and HTML5 are poised to end CPU-specific portability issues
• Multiple MIPS Android set-top boxes including the Broadcom-based Cycle Century, and MIPS Android smartwatches such as the Ingenic-based GEAK Watch and Z-Watch, are now shipping in volume in China
• Google’s new Portable Native Client (PNaCl) for Chrome browser lets developers compile their code once to run on a range of supported architectures including MIPS; results in native-level performance for HTML5 apps
• Imagination is directing significant investment towards the open source Linux community, including increased upstreaming of optimizations for Debian, Gentoo, Arch Linux, Buildroot and others
• Expanded partnerships around MIPS with key ecosystem partners such as Mentor Graphics and Synopsys signal Imagination’s commitment to growing all aspects of the ecosystem