Imagination's OmniShield

HY has been talking up Security for nex-gen SoCs for some time now, and here is the end-product. He feels , obviously, that it is a better solution than ARM's TrustZone ie. an important differentiator, and that customers are more likely to choose IMG-based SoCs as a result.

http://www.imgtec.com/news/detail.asp?ID=989

LONDON, UK – 20^th May, 2015 – Imagination Technologies (IMG.L) introduces OmniShield™ technology designed to provide the industry’s most scalable and secure solutions for protection of next-generation SoCs. With OmniShield-ready hardware and software IP, Imagination is ensuring that customers’ SoCs and OEMs’ products are designed for security, reliability and dynamic software management, as use models and services evolve across a wide range of connected devices.

Connected products such as Internet of Things (IoT), gateway routers, IPTVs, mobile devices and automotive systems must increasingly be designed to support numerous unique applications, various content sources, and in-the-field software updates from service providers and operators, all while ensuring privacy and data protection. With these multiple applications and associated data co-existing on the same SoC, each must be kept secure both from external attacks and also from each other.

For example, set-top boxes must now protect not only broadcast content, but also over-the-top (OTT) streaming video and third party applications. In automotive, communications are becoming tightly coupled with smartphones, bringing third party services into the automotive infrastructure. And in supporting emerging applications such as self-parking and autonomous driving, it is critical to ensure ultra-safe operation to meet ADAS requirements.

Today’s embedded security approaches are CPU centric, binary (one secure zone / one non-secure zone) and are complicated to implement. These solutions won’t scale to address the sophisticated types of applications and services being enabled by next-generation connected devices and the cloud.

Imagination’s OmniShield is a scalable security technology that ensures that applications that need to be secure are effectively and reliably isolated from each other as well as protected from non-secure applications, while still meeting required levels of functionality, performance, cost, and power consumption. OmniShield goes beyond a binary approach to create multiple secure domains, where each secure/non-secure application/operating system can operate independently in its own separate environment. For example, secure processes such as DRM and payment systems can coexist with non-secure processes such as gaming and web browsing.

This multi-domain separation-based architecture not only ensures security and reliability, but also eases development and deployment of applications and services. Thanks to OmniShield, developers will be able to securely develop and debug code in a virtualized environment, and operators and other service providers can configure devices for provisioning of services in the field.

OmniShield also addresses the scalability that heterogeneous architectures will require by protecting all of the processors in an SoC – including the CPU, GPU and others. In a heterogeneous architecture, application data and resources will be shared between the CPU and other processors in the system, so those processors will now face the same level of exposure as the CPU, and must be given the same level of protection.

OmniShield encompasses both hardware and software components, enabling companies for the first time to implement a truly secure, heterogeneous multi-domain application environment using hardware-enforced separation and protection throughout. Because it is based on hardware supported virtualization, OmniShield is efficient and does not compromise performance, which is especially important in embedded environments such as IoT.

OmniShield leverages the fact that hardware virtualization is applicable to all processing engines including general processors (CPUs) and application specific processors such as GPUs. In addition, since virtualization concepts are already well understood and supported techniques in many operating systems and RTOS, they provide an ideal and proven foundation for hardware enablement and extensions needed for next-generation security. These facts mean that OmniShield can offer a universal security solution that delivers the ultimate combination of protection, scalability and efficiency.

Tony King-Smith, EVP marketing, Imagination, says: “The separation-based architecture of OmniShield will play a critical role in minimizing attack surface area in next-generation connected devices. Our customers are using OmniShield-ready IP to create innovative SoCs that will empower their customers to deploy new trusted services and applications. PowerVR IP is already used in secure heterogeneous environments thanks to the virtualization in some Series6XT GPUs. We’ll soon see OmniShield-ready systems based on our other processors including PowerVR Series7 GPUs and MIPS Warrior CPUs. This is the start of a new era of secure SoC and cloud-based systems design.”

OmniShield-ready hardware and software

Imagination is building OmniShield support into its entire range of processors, including MIPS Warrior CPUs, PowerVR multimedia processors and Ensigma processors. Imagination’s processors are designed to operate in heterogeneous and coherent clusters connected by a scalable secure interconnect fabric which extends OmniShield throughout the SoC with secure flows controlled by a trusted hypervisor. In addition, Imagination and its partners will provide a growing range of virtualized Root-of-Trust IP blocks for OmniShield including crypto, Public Key Accelerator, true random number generators, secure I/O for external TPMs and secure ROM.

Imagination is building on its OmniShield-ready processor IP technologies by assembling some of the industry’s most advanced SoC and platform software, all OmniShield-ready. This includes trusted boot and other security functions, as well as trusted hypervisors and secure OS, some of which will be available in 2015 through the open source prpl Foundation. The prpl security working group is also working to deliver an overall security framework, open APIs (application programming interfaces), and reference platforms supporting the multi-domain technology. Imagination is already working with a wide range of industry-leading providers of third party security solutions in support of OmniShield, resulting in a strong and growing ecosystem of partners supporting Imagination in every aspect of secure SoC and connected system design.

Availability

Multiple partners are already designing SoCs using OmniShield technology. OmniShield reference designs will be available in 2015. Contact info@imgtec.com for more information.

Imagination Summit Silicon Valley: Securing the Future

Imagination will hold its annual Silicon Valley Summit at the Hyatt Regency Santa Clara on Thursday, May 21st. This year the event is focused on “Securing the Future” with presentations from Imagination and partners on a variety of related topics, including OmniShield. Visit http://www.imgtec.com/events/detail.asp?ID=37 for more information and to register.

Supporting Quotes

“As Elliptic focuses on driving open security initiatives as part of the prpl Foundation, we are in close collaboration with Imagination as they develop and roll out OmniShield enabled technologies. The success of future technology advancements depends on trust, therefore it is essential to take a holistic approach to security as we address evolving threats to connected devices in relation to the IoT, gateways, big data and the cloud.”

– Mike Borza, CTO, Elliptic Technologies

“With Ikanos’ multi-threading MIPS-based processors, we are enabling end-to-end, high speed and secure broadband access for provisioning of new revenue-generating triple- and quad-play services. And in the connected home, our processors are powering an array of new wireline and wireless gateways and routers, designed to address performance and security requirements of carriers, looking to offer new applications in IOT, home automation and other cloud-based services. It’s good to see Imagination addressing security needs as use models and services for these devices continue to evolve.”

– Kourosh Amiri, Vice President of Marketing, Ikanos

“Next-generation connected devices such as smart home gateways need to implement new security paradigms to address changing usage models, new applications and a range of new threats. We are pleased to see Imagination taking a leading role in driving discussion and action around next-generation security, which will be key to successfully delivering connected home devices that are consumer-friendly and trusted.”

– Dan Artusi, VP & General Manager, Lantiq – an Intel Company

“With Imagination’s PowerVR GPUs, MediaTek continues to push the envelope in terms of graphics innovation in our products. And while our graphics capabilities will continue to grow in exciting new directions, GPUs will also increasingly go beyond providing pure graphics functionality, and will need the same level of protection as the CPU. We’re pleased that Imagination is taking a leadership position in driving SoC security by offering a separation-based multi-domain architecture across all its GPUs.”

– Tom Hsieh, Marketing Director of Wireless Communications BU, MediaTek

“Imagination’s multi-domain OmniShield technology fits perfectly into the open framework that we are developing in the prpl Foundation’s security working group. There is clear market demand for hardware-based security to augment software-based approaches, particularly in heterogeneous, multitenant applications. Companies in a variety of vertical segments are demanding a way to securely deploy new services on existing devices without impacting services that are already present. Imagination is making important contributions in this regard, and we are excited to rally the prpl community to enable this type of secure, scalable, multi-domain approach.”

– Art Swift, President, prpl Foundation

“Together with Imagination and Green Hills Software, we’ve already shown the power of virtualization on a PowerVR G6400 GPU in our R-Car H2 SoC, enabling a real-time subsystem and a Linux-based subsystem to execute concurrently and securely. The direction Imagination is taking by enabling multi-domain security through its OmniShield-enabled GPUs and other processors with hardware virtualization is well aligned with what we see as needs in future automotive platforms.”

– Masahiro Suzuki, Vice President, Head,
Automotive Information System Business Division, Renesas

“The industry needs to reexamine how it’s dealing with embedded security in light of emerging applications and an ever increasing number of connected devices. The holistic approach that Imagination is taking with its OmniShield technology represents the right direction. Imagination has also developed OmniShield to be accessible to its customers with negligible performance and area overhead. The ability to keep security related costs to a minimum will be a key advantage, especially for cost sensitive applications such as IoT.”

– Richard Wawrzyniak, Senior Market Analyst: ASIC & SoC, Semico Research Corp.

Apple Q2

Yet another record-breaking quarter from Apple, with China sales getting the headlines on this occasion.Apple Watch is also off to a great start, with demand exceeding supply.

Q2:
iPhones: 61.2m
iPads: 12.6m

for the past 6 months we have:
iPhones: 135m
iPads; 34m

Earnings call:
http://seekingalpha.com/article/3107596-apples-aapl-ceo-tim-cook-on-q2-2015results-earnings-call-transcript?part=single

This, together with quite a few Chinese flagship phones being announced currently, featuring Mediatek MT6795, suggests there should be a recovery in GPU royalty volume at IMG .



In other news, IMG yesterday made the following MIPS-related announcement regrading its University Programme (IUP):

 Imagination Technologies (IMG.L) announces a revolutionary new offering as part of its Imagination University Programme (IUP) called MIPSfpga. Through MIPSfpga, Imagination is transforming CPU architecture education in universities around the globe by offering them free and open access to a fully-validated, current generation MIPS CPU in a complete teaching package. 

CPU architecture is generally taught as part of electronic engineering, computer science and computer engineering courses, and is based on MIPS or one of the other two major CPU architectures. Until now, what’s been missing from all of these courses is access to real, un-obfuscated RTL code that will enable professors and students to study and explore a real CPU. Imagination is changing that with MIPSfpga, bringing a new CPU architecture education paradigm to universities around the world.

http://www.imgtec.com/news/detail.asp?ID=979

Imagination IMS

IMG announced the IMS today.

On the plus side, MIPS shipments are ahead of expectations and non-MIPS shipments are in-line thanks to iPhone 6. The strong dollar also helps, though IMG's hedging activities have partially offset this. The 30-40% operating margin is re-iterated by HY.
On the downside we have the 'a little muted' licensing activity, ie. no 10% gain, more likely to be in the 0-5% range. When you factor in a stronger dollar than last year, the reality is another decline in licensing revenues. This is the age-old problem with IMG, superb IP but unable to convert into strong licensing growth (which of course impacts the royalties 2 years down the line) - hopefully this repeated failure to execute is something the incoming chairman can objectively address?

Here it is:

Imagination Technologies Group plc ('Imagination', LSE: IMG, “the Group”), a leading multimedia, processor and communications technology company, is today issuing an Interim update for the period from 1 November 2014 to 17 March 2015.

Business update

The Group has continued to make good progress in its strategy of providing a comprehensive range of market-leading cores in the three key IP families of processor, multimedia and communications and enabling key IP platforms for existing and emerging markets.

Non-MIPS partner unit shipments increased strongly in Q4CY14, showing growth both sequentially and over the same quarter last year.

MIPS partner unit shipments were stronger than expected in Q4CY14 and, for a second quarter in a row, have reached a historic record level for that quarter.

Licensing activity has been a little muted during the period, due to timing rather than any fundamental change in demand for our products. Indeed the pipeline is good and growing with a large number of opportunities being pursued for closure this financial year. The pipeline is active across all areas of our IP.

The changes made to Pure in the last financial year are starting to deliver improved performance in its core markets.

Underlying operating costs continue to be tightly managed and are tracking in line with expectations.

The stronger dollar has had a positive impact on revenues which are mostly invoiced in dollars. This positive effect has been partially offset by the impact of FX on geographically-distributed operating costs and previous hedging activities.

Technology

Multimedia

Our multimedia business remains robust with new class-leading products launched across the full range of end markets.  The newly announced Series7XT continues to secure new design wins across key partners. We are also seeing a wide range of design wins for Series6XE and more recently the newly announced Series7XE at the lower-end complementing the Series6XT and Series7XT wins. The design wins are strong across mobile, automotive, TV and STB segments.

At this year’s Mobile World Congress (MWC) Imagination unveiled the PowerVR Rogue G6020 GPU that has been specially designed for graphics efficiency in ultra-compact silicon area and lowest power consumption, whilst delivering optimal device performance and full compatibility with the latest APIs. With the PowerVR GX5300 and G6020 GPUs, Imagination covers graphics and UIs from entry-level smartwatches to high-end wearables.

At the other end of the performance range the PowerVR Series7 GT7900 continues to lead the market, with 512 ALU cores, and is a super GPU for high-end graphics and compute delivering over 1.5 Teraflops. The PowerVR Series7 launched during the period includes many advanced features and uniquely provides virtualisation for ultimate multi-zone security, an area of growing market demand given the importance of data security and the programmability of modern GPUs. 

The new PowerVR Series5 video encoders for High Efficiency Video Coding (HEVC) are designed to provide the highest quality H.265 encoding, while optimizing silicon area and bandwidth usage. This multi-standard encoder also offers high-quality H.264 encoding for compatibility with the huge range of AVC (Advanced Video Coding) decoders available today.

CPU and processor cores

The growing unit shipments of MIPS cores is evidence of increasing customer confidence and the stronger engagement that we have begun to see with customers since MIPS was acquired in February 2013.

Interest in and licensing of the Warrior range of cores, which have been developed since the acquisition, as well as the previous generation Aptiv range, continue to be strong. Partners have been attracted by the inherent efficiency and performance benefits of the cores, together with the additional features of multi-threading and next generation security capabilities.

The use of hardware virtualisation in the Warrior cores to enable multi-zone security across the range, from microcontrollers to high-end, provides partners with solutions to the increasingly demanding challenges of SoC security. Our unique strategy in delivering CPU and GPU cores supporting multi-zone security is attracting industry attention and is the foundation for total SoC security. An announcement from the prpl Foundation yesterday on the formation of an Open Security working group with members from industry leading companies reinforces the importance of our approach.

The strong MIPS roadmap executed so far and being driven going forward, the investment in internal and third party supporting tools, and the growing momentum in the ecosystem through initiatives such as the prpl Foundation and the Creator family of boards, are recognised and supported by many in the industry. 

Overall we believe we are now at a stage that new and existing tier-one partners are beginning to consider MIPS offerings as both technically strong and strategically important to their plans.

Communications

Imagination’s Ensigma radio connectivity processors (RPUs) are vital to servicing the growing demand for communications IP cores in key markets including IoT, wireless home, mobile and wearables.

At MWC, Imagination demonstrated a new HDMI streaming device using Ensigma Explorer 802.11ac connectivity, and also highlighted its Ensigma Whisper IP that is designed to drive the next generation of wearables, the emerging IoT and other connected devices where ultra-low power consumption and low-cost design points are essential. Whisper RPUs, like their Ensigma Explorer counterparts, are aimed at providing multi-standard support in a single architecture, and are designed to enable customers to bring Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and in the future NFC, GNSS and other low-power connectivity technologies onto their SoCs.

A key platform that deploys Ensigma RPU and MIPS processor cores and combines them with the industry’s best and patented wireless synchronisation and lowest latency technologies is Imagination’s Caskeid audio platform. We have seen significant traction in this offering with major projects underway with key players for delivery during the second half of this calendar year. 

Cloud IoT technologies and initiatives 

As part of our market engagement and enablement of the emerging IoT opportunities we have developed the FlowCloud software technologies which can enable and accelerate easy and quick deployment of our processor and communications IP in these markets. FlowCloud, in conjunction with the Creator family of microcomputer and development systems and third party boards and modules, is enabling a diverse range of applications in the IoT space. Early projects in the areas of agriculture, health and energy are underway with partners. We are also working on industry initiatives on the key areas of security and interoperability which are gaining traction. 

Pure

The refocused Pure business has continued to drive improvement in its core DAB market as well as driving other areas of strategic significance for the Group including wireless audio, where strong partnerships are progressing and the Creator range, which is a key enabler for the developer community and ecosystem build-up.

Outlook

The licensing pipeline is good and is further strengthening across all three IP families with developing engagements with new and existing partners including several tier ones. Given the licenses signed so far this financial year and the pipeline of opportunities scheduled to close this quarter, we currently expect licensing revenue to be close to last year’s level with the potential of single digit growth dependent on exact closure timing of the remaining deals.

Non-MIPS unit shipments are expected to be in line with previous guidance and similar to last year’s levels. Given the continued strength of MIPS shipments we now expect MIPS units to grow by approximately 5-10% over last year’s levels.

The total unit expectation for the Group is in excess of 1.3bn units for the year.

Following the trends seen in the first half, Pure is expected to show a reduction in the underlying loss for the year. Because of the tighter focus on products and markets, this will be achieved from lower overall revenue than last year.

Underlying operating costs are expected to be in line with previous guidance of around 10% growth year on year. With the product lines now complete, this is consistent with our planned transition from a heavy investment phase to one where all product lines are generating a contribution.

Underlying operating costs are expected to be in line with previous guidance of around 10% growth year on year. With the product lines now complete, this is consistent with our planned transition from a heavy investment phase to one where all product lines are generating a contribution.

The overall financial position of Imagination remains robust and the Board is confident that the Group’s progress will continue.

Hossein Yassaie, Imagination’s Chief Executive said:

“I am particularly pleased to note another strong performance from our partners using MIPS processor IP. Customer interest in this technology is now very strong and underpins our confidence in the value that this business will deliver.

"Our multimedia business remains robust with new class-leading products launched across the full range of end markets. We are seeing a wide range of design wins for both Series6 and Series7 families.

“Despite being at an earlier stage of market adoption, the traction for our Ensigma communications IP is real and continues to increase. This is opening up substantial opportunities in the IoT market.

“The progress across our three main IP families is a further step forward towards our longer term target of increasing our operating margins to 30-40%.”

Imagination at MWC 2015

IMG-related MWC announcements will be posted here:

MOBILE WORLD CONGRESS, Barcelona, Spain – 2^nd March, 2015 – Imagination Technologies (IMG.L) announces a new area-optimized PowerVR GPU designed to drive high-quality graphics with full OpenGL ES 3.0 functionality into low-cost and space-constrained devices.

http://www.imgtec.com/news/detail.asp?ID=965

MOBILE WORLD CONGRESS, Barcelona, Spain – 2^nd March, 2015 – Imagination Technologies (IMG.L) andAltair Semiconductor report growing market traction for Altair’s LTE chipsets that utilize MIPS CPUs. Altair’s LTE devices, including the FourGee-3100/6200 chipset, have been the communications engine inside millions of devices sold by more than 30 connected device manufacturers to-date

http://www.imgtec.com/news/detail.asp?ID=962

MOBILE WORLD CONGRESS, Barcelona, Spain – 2^nd March, 2015 – Imagination Technologies (IMG.L) announces that its MIPS CPU IP cores continue to gain traction in LTE devices through the latest designs from 4G chipmaker Sequans Communications. MIPS CPUs are at the heart of Sequans’ new Colibri and Calliope platforms for the LTE-enabled Internet of Things (IoT). In addition, Sequans’ chipsets and modules with MIPS inside are finding their way into an increasing number of end products.

http://www.imgtec.com/news/detail.asp?ID=963

MOBILE WORLD CONGRESS, Barcelona, Spain – 2^nd March, 2015 – Imagination Technologies (IMG.L) announces a new PowerVR High Efficiency Video Coding (HEVC) IP family designed to provide the highest quality H.265 encoding, while optimizing silicon area and bandwidth usage. This multi standard encoder also offers high-quality H.264 encoding for compatibility with the huge range of AVC (Advanced Video Coding) decoders available today.

http://www.imgtec.com/news/detail.asp?ID=964


http://www.mediatek.com/en/mobile-world-congress-2015/mediatek-to-redefine-the-android-tablet-industry-with-world-first-arm-cortex-a72-based-tablet-soc-mt8173/

Imagination PowerVR GX6250 GPU

• Supports OpenGL ES 3.1, OpenCL for future applications
• Delivers 350Mtri/s and 2.8 Gpix/s performance
• Provides uncompromised user experience for WQXGA display at 60fps

http://www.cavium.com/newsevents-Cavium-Introduces-OCTEON-Fusion-M.html

(New MIPS SoCs)

SAN JOSE, Calif., and BARCELONA, Spain, March 2, 2015 – Cavium, Inc., (NASDAQ: CAVM), a leading provider of semiconductor products that enable intelligent processing for enterprise, data center, cloud, wired and wireless networking, today announced the introduction of a family of highly integrated single chip solutions that enable a new category of Macrocells and Smart Radio Heads supporting a wide range of deployment scenarios and setting a new bar for cost, performance, power and footprint. The OCTEON Fusion-M family is a scalable architecture that ranges from the single chip CNF75xx macrocell to the single chip CNF74xx for use in Smart Radio Heads. 

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/moving-closer-automated-driving-mobileye-113000142.html

JERUSALEM, March 4, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- Mobileye N.V. (MBLY), the global leader in the design and development of camera-based Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS) to the automotive industry, today introduced its 4th generation system-on-chip, the EyeQ4®.

Leveraging expertise in designing computer-vision specific cores for over 15 years, the EyeQ4® consists of 14 computing cores out of which 10 are specialized vector accelerators with extremely high utilization for visual processing and understanding. The first design win for EyeQ4® in series production has been secured for a global premium European car manufacturer for production to start in early 2018. The EyeQ4® would be part of a scalable camera system starting from monocular processing for collision avoidance applications, in compliance with EU NCAP, US NHSTA and other regulatory requirements, up to trifocal camera configuration supporting high-end customer functions including semi-autonomous driving. The EyeQ4® would support fusion with radars and scanning-beam lasers in the high-end customer functions.

"Supporting a camera centric approach for autonomous driving is essential as the camera provides the richest source of information at the lowest cost package. To reach affordable high-end functionality for autonomous driving requires a computing infrastructure capable of processing many cameras simultaneously while extracting from each camera high-level meaning such as location of multiple types of objects, lanes and drivable path information," said Prof. Amnon Shashua, cofounder, CTO and Chairman of Mobileye. "The EyeQ4® continues a legacy that began in 2004 with EyeQ1 where we leveraged deep understanding of computer vision processing to come up with highly optimized architectures to support extremely intensive computations at automotive compliant power consumption of 2-3 Watts."

http://www.imgtec.com/investors/detail.asp?ID=966

London, UK – 6 March, 2015 – Imagination Technologies (IMG.L) identifies six trends driving industry momentum and related technologies at the recent Mobile World Congress 2015 (MWC) focused on security, IoT interoperability, wearables, computer vision, communications infrastructure, and ultra-low power connectivity. These trends confirm Imagination’s vision for the future of mobile, and the technology roadmaps it is aggressively pursuing across its entire IP portfolio in anticipation of the needs of its customers and partners. 

Says Tony King-Smith, EVP marketing at Imagination: “Over the past decade, we’ve seen enormous changes and disruptions in the mobile landscape in everything from communications standards to smartphone functionality. However, this year’s MWC signaled the start of a new era that goes far beyond phones and infrastructure, as everything from IoT sensors and actuators to wearables to highly connected and increasingly automated cars become an integral part of MWC. What is clear to us is that security and interoperability together with software and system portability lie at the heart of bringing these latest visions of a connected world to life.”

Top six trends at MWC 2015 according to Imagination:

1. Highly integrated, ultra-low power communications are proliferating widely. At MWC, it was clear that the ‘mobile’ device category now includes a huge number of products beyond mobile phones and tablets – from wearables to automotive to the huge range of new and emerging IoT devices. Low-power Wi-Fi, Bluetooth Smart, Cat 1 and Cat 0 LTE and other short range wireless technologies are key to enabling these devices that are finding their way into every industry, every product category and everyday life.
2. Network infrastructure is expanding and virtualizing. To accommodate the ever increasing number of connected devices and expanding cloud infrastructure, 4G buildout continues around the globe. At MWC, 5G was a hot topic, despite the fact that it is yet to be defined. Companies are already looking to the advantages it will provide in the 2020 timeframe. The next generation of infrastructure will require advances in communications and also in embedded processing to support software defined networks (SDN) and network function virtualization (NFV).
3. Security is critical: In an increasingly connected world, any system is only as secure as its weakest link. Embedded security has become a critical issue for the next generation of connected devices. At MWC 2015, numerous companies announced initiatives and technologies around security, including secure payments, secure mobile operating systems, virtualized solutions for BYOD, encryption and key management technology, security enhanced phones and smartwatches, and even privacy glasses designed to protect against facial recognition technology.
4.  IoT interoperability is key: In the next generation, the number of connected IoT devices will not only continue to grow and be provided by an ever expanding number of vendors, but will also perform a wide array of functions. As such, high-volume success and consumer satisfaction will be dependent on a level of interoperability not previously seen in the industry.
5. Wearables are entering the mainstream: MWC 2015 made it clear that wearables are now an integral part of any OEM product lineup. Numerous smart bracelets, smartwatches, and specialized products such as fitness bands were introduced by new and emerging companies during the show. The next wave of wearables will be defined as electronics meets fashion.
6. Computer vision and VR/AR applications represent massive opportunities. Vision-aware technologies are increasingly incorporated in smartphones, IoT devices, automotive, robotics, and other products. MWC 2015 also confirmed the re-emergence of virtual reality (VR) and a growing interest in augmented reality (AR). To create devices that support computer vision, computational photography and new user and social experiences, companies need processing solutions that go beyond CPU/DSP cores to deliver sustained video-rate processing of HD content.

Continues King-Smith: “Imagination’s technology roadmaps anticipate and increasingly drive these trends, as we focus on providing not only the cutting-edge PowerVR GPUs and MIPS CPUs that we are known for, but also the communications engines, video and vision processing engines, and heterogeneous processing platforms that are all secure, and deliver interoperability through open standards. We’re excited to work with our partners to deliver the technologies that will form the backbone of tomorrow’s mobile society.”

Imagination announces new Chairman

IMG announced ex-Sony Ericsson President Bert Nordberg as the man to replace Geoff Shingles. It will be interesting to see the influence of this mobile industry heavyweight over the coming years.

Imagination Technologies Group plc (LSE: IMG, “Imagination”, “the Group”), a leading multimedia, communications and processor technology company, has today appointed Bert Nordberg as a non-executive director and Chairman designate, with effect from 20 March 2015. He will succeed Geoff Shingles, who is retiring on 20 March 2015.

Bert Nordberg joins the board following an executive career spanning 30 years in the technology sector, latterly as President and CEO of Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications. He was President and CEO of Sony Ericsson from 2009 to 2012 and Executive Vice President at Ericsson from 1996 to 2009.

He is currently Chairman of Vestas Wind Systems A/S and is a non-executive director of AB Electrolux and SCA - Svenska Cellulosa Aktiebolaget. He was a non-executive director of Blackberry Limited.

David Anderson, senior independent director, commented:

“It is a great pleasure to welcome Bert to Imagination. His considerable expertise in running and chairing international technology companies will be a great asset to the Group”. 

Bert Nordberg, commented:

“I am delighted to be appointed Chairman at a very exciting time for the Group. I look forward to working with the board to capitalise on the significant opportunities across the business.”

The Group confirms that there is no information to disclose relating to Mr. Nordberg under rules 9.6.13 (1) to (6) of the Listing Rules of the UK Listing Authority.

Imagination @ CES 2015

Imagination today released a detailed CES summary (as they did last year), designed to show they are increasingly active across all 3 major divisions (PowerVR, MIPS, connectivity).
(No mention of the new Mediatek MT5595 unfortunately, so the GPU identity remains unknown for that important TV chip):

London, UK – 12 January, 2015 – Imagination Technologies (IMG.L) reports that an impressively broad range of products at the recent International CES 2015 incorporated one or more of its  technologies, reflecting a growing recognition of Imagination’s leadership capabilities helping to drive industry trends such as higher quality graphics, audio and video; high-performance and highly-efficient processing; and on-chip connectivity. Imagination’s technologies were at the heart of products ranging from the most embedded smart devices for automation and control to the latest high-resolution entertainment products (listed in part below), and featured in notable SoC launches at the show from Actions and RockChip .

Says Tony King-Smith, EVP marketing at Imagination: “It’s been a great start to the year for us. At CES 2015 we saw more ‘smart’ and connected products than ever before using our technologies, including a number of new IoT and wearable products as these segments begin to ramp volume. In home entertainment, CES confirmed there is an overall move toward studio-quality audio and video, migration of 4K TV to mainstream, and growing interest in 8K, along with the re-emergence of OLED as a potential volume TV display technology. These trends all point to the growing demand for Imagination’s scalable technologies and customizable platforms that enable differentiated products as well as feature and performance leadership.”

Products powered by Imagination’s IP (intellectual property) cores at CES included the latest devices in Imagination’s core markets including smartphones, tablets and TVs, and a wide range of smarter connected consumer devices incorporating Imagination’s technologies for communications across both connectivity and broadcast, wireless audio, automotive and intelligent vision. An increasing number of products also combine multiple Imagination IP technologies including including PowerVR multimedia, MIPS CPUs, Ensigma connectivity, Caskeid audio, HelloSoft VoIP, and FlowCloud device-to-cloud technologies.

Entertainment is better with Imagination

On display at CES were some of the latest TVs with PowerVR technology. Imagination demonstrated next-generation 4K user interfaces on an LG smart TV. In addition Imagination featured up to four HD streams being manipulated using advanced graphics effects to deliver an outstanding user experience thanks to combining PowerVR VPU and GPU capabilities on the Intel-based Google Nexus Player. Also on display were a new TV from S2-Tek that uses a demodulator chip for DVB-T2 and DVB-S2 based on the Ensigma Explorer RPU and a soon-to-be-released OTT streaming device that features a Toshiba chip with PowerVR graphics and video as well as Ensigma Wi-Fi 802.11ac 2x2 connectivity. Imagination’s PowerVR GPU technology was also featured in a number of new TV models from LG announced at the show.

During the show, Google announced that it is working to reimagine the living room alongside an ecosystem of TV partners, highlighting Imagination as key participant in its Android TV initiatives.

The latest smartphones, tablets and smartwatches have Imagination

Many of the latest smartphones and tablets announced at the show make use of Imagination’s high-performance, highly efficient PowerVR graphics and video technologies. Products with PowerVR video included the Acer Iconia One 7 B1-750; E-Fun Nextbook 8”; FuHu DreamTab; HP Stream 8; Huawei Honor 6 Plus and Ascend P7 flagship phones; Lenovo Yoga Tablet 2 10” (1051F), 8” (830F) and Pro 13” (1380F); Ramos i9s; SurfTab xintron i 7.0 and more.

Products with PowerVR GPUs included the ASUS Fonepad 7 (FE171CG), MeMo Pad 7 (ME572CL), and Zenfone 2; the extremely thin Dell Venue 8 7000 Series tablet – which won the prestigious 2015 CES “Best of Innovation” award; Lenovo P90 phone; KD Kurio Tab (Kurio Xtrem); Illumination Minion Pad and Tectoy Disney Frozen Tablet among others. In addition, the Nokia N1 tablet was made available for pre-orders during the show, selling 20,000 units in just four minutes, as reported by Nokia on its Weibo social media channel, with around half a million others wanting to buy.

Imagination’s customers also unveiled new chipsets with PowerVR Rogue GPUs for tablets and beyond, including the new Falcon Series ATM9009 from Actions Semiconductor, a 64-bit quad-core solution for high-end Android tablets and OTT set-top boxes; and the RK3368 from RockChip, a 64-bit octa-core SoC for tablets and 4K UHD media players.

New smartwatches featuring Imagination’s IP included the Motorola Moto360 smartwatch which features a PowerVR GPU, and new MIPS-based smartwatches including the GEAK Watch 2 and a new smartwatch from iPPea.

The future of high quality audio with Imagination

Imagination’s Caskeid wireless audio IP platform was demonstrated at CES playing back Meridian MQA (Master Quality Authenticated) content. Caskeid is the first wireless multiroom streaming solution to support MQA, a revolutionary new technology that lets listeners hear sound exactly as it was captured in the studio. (See full press release at: http://www.imgtec.com/news/detail.asp?ID=950)

Imagination also demonstrated the latest audio products using technologies including its Ensigma, MIPS and Caskeid technologies. Among the products demonstrated were the PEAQ Munet Smart PMN300 speaker, the Pure Pop Mini radio, and updates to Pure’s Jongo multiroom wireless speakers including the S3X, T2X, and T4X with new family sound, digital equalization and app assisted setup. Philips also showed the new Philips Spotify wireless multiroom speakers which is based on Imagination’s technologies.

The Geek Wave Portable Music Player, a MIPS-based compact music player designed to deliver the highest-resolution audio available, and funded by a highly successful indiegogo campaign, was also shown at CES.

Driving the latest automotive products with Imagination

New automotive products at CES with Imagination IP inside included the Ford SYNC 3, a connected communications and entertainment system that incorporates TI’s Jacinto automotive SoC featuring a PowerVR GPU.

Other demonstrations included the latest Kanzi dashboard UI from Rightware on platforms with PowerVR GPUs including the Renesas R-Car H2 and TI Jacinto 6 platforms. In addition, QNX Software showed an ADAS system, infotainment system, and digital instrument cluster in a QNX reference vehicle based on a Jeep Wrangler, running on the Jacinto 6 processor.

Green Hills Software announced the addition of virtualized, accelerated graphics support for Renesas R-Car H2 processors in its INTEGRITY Multivisor virtualization solution, targeting next-generation graphics-intensive automotive applications such as reconfigurable clusters, navigation systems, ADAS and infotainment. The update to INTEGRITY Multivisor leverages work performed by Green Hills Software, Renesas and Imagination.

A connected, smart home with Imagination

CES attendees could see a demonstration of a variety of smart home applications running on the new MIPS-based Securifi Almond-2015 router, through which Zigbee enabled functions can be controlled via a touchscreen or connected app on Android and iOS devices.

Imagination’s FlowCloud device-to-cloud technology was demonstrated in healthcare and smart home applications, including a home heating control system built on the chipKIT WiFire development board which features a MIPS-based PIC32 MCU from Microchip Technology.

In addition, Imagination showed its HelloSoft HD video, VoIP and echo cancellation software integrated with its mobile FlowTalk client software running on devices including Android and iOS smartphones and tablets. The EVQM (Enhanced Voice Quality Management) and DVQM (Dynamic Video Quality Management) algorithms ensured superior voice and video quality even in the crowded wireless environment at the show. Imagination’s WebRTC and VoIP software was also demonstrated embedded in a home gateway and a new MIPS-based IP camera.

Imagination powers the connected experience

Ikanos Communications announced that ST&T, which has a track record of providing home automation products to top global OEMs and carriers including Honeywell, AT&T and NTT, selected its MIPS-based Ikanos Fusiv Vx500 chipset for next-generation high-performance gateway platforms targeting a range of home automation, monitoring and other smart-home applications.

Quantenna Communications and Lantiq announced availability of a joint system solution, leveraging Lantiq’s MIPS-based GRX300 communications processor family, designed to address the Ethernet retail router market. Liquid Image announced that it selected Altair Semiconductor’s 4G chipsets – which are based on MIPS – for the Ego LS Camera developed to live stream videos and images through the Verizon 4G LTE network to social networks and cloud servers.

Also on display at CES was the Chiwawa, a compact Wi-Fi module with a MIPS-based Qualcomm Atheros AR9331 SoC which supports a Linux distribution based on OpenWrt called Linino.

New Imagination technologies will power future consumer products

Imagination showed the power of its new PowerVR imaging framework for Android, highlighting GPU compute features including image processing, live camera stream processing, face detect and fluid dynamics, on phones from Lenovo and tablets from Dell and ASUS. During CES, Luxoft announced that it has implemented its advanced image and video enhancement technology, Pixerra, to leverage Imagination’s PowerVR imaging framework for Android, achieving optimal SoC performance and power-efficiency.

Imagination demonstrated the latest PowerVR Rogue graphics features, including 4K textures, high-triangle throughput, physically based lighting, HDR (high dynamic range) rendering and hardware tessellation on a variety of products including the latest tablets, smartphones, smartwatches, smart TVs and OTT set-top boxes. In addition, Imagination showed hybrid rendering with ray tracing running on a PowerVR ‘Wizard’ development platform. Using the new Huawei Honor 6 phone, Imagination showed how H.264 video can be played back, captured by a PowerVR video encoder and sent over the network to a receiver via Miracast with exceptionally low latency.

Highlighting the benefits of combining PowerVR GPUs and video processors, Imagination showed region of interest encoding with an algorithm using GPU compute for face detection in bandwidth-limited scenarios. Imagination also showed how GPU compute can enable powerful retail analytics functionality in a demonstration using a Vadaro camera with a PowerVR GPU.

The connected products of tomorrow are only as secure as their weakest links, making Imagination’s hardware virtualization based multi-domain security a must for next-generation connected products. Multiple hypervisors including the FEXEROX hypervisor from SELTECH Corp. were demonstrated on a MIPS M5150 platform, showing how virtualization-based security enables multiple operating systems to run separately and securely on one CPU.

Imagination powers innovation with Creator

The recent announcement of the Creator CI20, the first of a series of advanced low-cost boards targeting developers and featuring not only MIPS and PowerVR technologies, but also Imagination’s innovative FlowCloud IoT infrastructure, continue to stimulate tremendous interest with schools and universities as well as developers and entrepreneurs worldwide. New projects demonstrated or developed on the MIPS Creator CI20 development board at CES included a wide range of Linux desktop and Android applications running at full HD resolution, such as OpenArena and the popular VLC media player.

See Imagination for yourself

The next opportunities to see Imagination will be at Embedded World, Mobile World Congress and the Game Developers Conference (GDC), where further announcements will be made around SoCs and end products using Imagination’s IP. 

Imagination 14/15 interims

IMG posted interims yesterday, which were well received by the market (judging by the 16% SP rise on the day)
The headliners on the day were future prediction of 30-40% EBIT margin ie. where it should be for an IP company (currently around 12-15%), strong emphasis on reduced cost-base growth (aiming for 5-10%) , better than expected MIPS numbers. Non-MIPS ASP was 28c (vs.26c last year), due to the mix , and MIPS 5.1c .
Other interesting bits were the mention of Loongson, and the fact that 2 companies now each contribute >10% of total revenue: Apple around 30% as usual and another US company (?BCOM) 16%.
In some ways it feels like ground zero again, but this time IMG has done the heavy spending in the '3 legs' and is 'good to go' for the next 5 years. Here's hoping...

CC (good performance from HY and even RS, no laryngitis this time!)
http://www.imgtec.com/Investors/audio/index.asp

Presentation:
http://imgtec.com/investors/presentations/161214/IMG-Half-yearly-Presentation-2014.pdf

Results:

http://imgtec.com/investors/presentations/161214/IMG-Half-yearly-Report-2014.pdf

Summary:

Imagination Technologies Group plc (LSE: IMG, “Imagination”, “the Group”), a leading multimedia, processor and communications technology company, today announces results for the six months to 31 October 2014.

Overview
• Financial performance for H1 in line with expectations, with strong progress in licensing and design-wins
• Current financial year represents a transitional year from heavy investment in strategic product lines to a position where the core products are all either generating or moving towards generating revenues
• Complete product line now enables increased leverage of full capabilities in many existing or developing and emerging markets
• Group anticipates a much stronger H2 financial performance

Financial highlights
• Technology revenues increased 3% to £72.8m (2013: £70.8m)
- Licensing revenues up 11% to £16.0m (2013: £14.4m)
- Royalty revenues robust at £56.3m (2013: £56.2m)
• Group half-year revenues of £82.2m (2013: £85.2m)
• Adjusted operating profit* of £5.0m (2013: £12.4m); Reported operating loss of £9.0m (2013: profit £1.4m)
• Adjusted earnings per share* 1.3p (2013: 3.8p); Reported loss per share 3.9p (2013: loss 0.4p)

Business highlights
• Growing customer engagement with significant agreements signed with over 20 partners during the period
 Strong licensing progress – 49 licenses signed (2013: 43)
 Agreements signed with partners including Ali, Avago, Broadcom, Celeno, Fujitsu, Intel, Lantiq, Loongson, MediaTek, Siklu, Texas Instruments, Toshiba and Toumaz
• Significant increase in new committed SoCs with over 35 SoC design-wins added which will contribute to future royalties
• Royalty revenues on track, with both MIPS shipments and average royalty rate above expectations
• Operating costs continue to be tightly managed now that the heavy investment is over and actions taken have led to refocus of Pure business. Rate of operating cost growth reduced dramatically from previous years

Outlook
• Based on active pipeline of prospects, continue to target 10% growth in licensing revenue in FY2015
• On track to meet market expectations for royalty revenue, with strong performance in average royalty rate and MIPS volumes offsetting flat non-MIPS royalty units
• In line with previous guidance, FY2015 underlying operating costs around 10% higher than FY2014
• Expansion of operating margins in medium-term with longer-term target of 30%-40%

Hossein Yassaie, Chief Executive, commented:

“I am pleased with our progress in the first half. During this transitional year for the Group we have seen continued progress in licensing, robust royalty revenues and disciplined cost control. As a result we remain confident of achieving our targets for the year.

“Now that our product lines are complete and the heavy investment phase is over, we expect to see lower rates of operating cost growth going forward and increased focus on financial returns. Our market relevant and complementary technologies combined with our increased scale enable us to take advantage of the natural leverage to improve the financial performance of our business. As a result we now expect to see significant expansion in operating margins in the medium-term.”

END