Power VR Furian

https://www.imgtec.com/news/press-release/imaginations-new-powervr-furian-gpu-architecture-will-deliver-captivating-and-engaging-visual-and-vision-experiences/

Already licensed to multiple partners.
Anandtech analysis:

http://www.anandtech.com/show/11186/imagination-announces-powervr-furian-gpu-architecture

LONDON, UK – 8th March, 2017 – Imagination Technologies (IMG.L) unveils its next-generation PowerVR Furian architecture, an entirely new GPU architecture designed for the evolved graphics and compute needs of next-generation consumer devices.

Applications such as VR/AR and convertibles require higher graphics resolutions and frame rates, and emerging applications such as ADAS and machine intelligence require increased compute efficiency. Devices designed for these applications are often designed in sub-14nm process technologies. Furian addresses these needs through a multi-dimensional approach to performance scalability, with an extensible design and a focus on easy system integration and layout in the latest processes. With Furian, embedded products will be able to deliver high-resolution, immersive graphics content and data computation for sustained time periods within mobile power budgets.

Furian’s architecture improvements are designed for enhanced power efficiency, widening the industry-leading performance per mW gap over competing solutions, with the benchmark already set by the PowerVR Rogue architecture. Going forward with both Furian and Rogue, Imagination will provide the industry’s most complete and efficient range of GPU IP cores across a wide range of performance operating points.

Says Sam Rosen, managing director and VP, video, OTT and AR/VR, ABI Research: “Emerging applications such as AR/VR and machine learning put intense new requirements on the GPU. For such applications, GPU systems must do more than in typical rendering scenarios, including a great deal of general purpose computation. It’s important to have a GPU microarchitecture that is adept at mixing graphics and compute workloads at different stages inside a single frame of rendering. With Furian, Imagination has leveraged its deep GPU expertise to create an architecture designed to fully deliver these next-generation applications.”

Says Mark Dickinson, EVP PowerVR business unit, Imagination: “We created Furian to address a new class of emerging applications, with a focus on efficient scalability that will extend to multiple generations of PowerVR IP cores. We’re excited to start rolling out the first 8XT IP cores based on Furian. These cores will further cement the leadership of PowerVR at the high end of mobile performance.”

Furian Architecture Highlights

The Furian architecture incorporates many of the compelling features on which PowerVR has built its technology leadership. This includes Imagination’s Tile Based Deferred Rendering (TBDR), which has been proven over multiple generations of PowerVR GPUs to provide the most highly efficient embedded graphics.

Furian is designed for:

• Multi-dimensional performance scalability: Designed to achieve the most efficient core utilization and performance density via multiple approaches to scaling, Furian can address a wide range of markets and requirements. Different designs for low- and high-end IP cores prevent compromises in scalability.
• Ease of SoC and system level integration: Furian is optimized for ease of layout in new sub-14nm processes, leading to reduced layout times and resources and enabling easier scaling to higher performance points.
• Extensibility: Furian is designed to allow future function-specialized pipelines to be tightly integrated with the GPU to deliver functionality that may be too expensive or not feasible to implement on a CPU/GPU/DSP, such as ray tracing capability.
• GPU compute: Furian is designed to address the increasing compute requirements across multiple applications and market segments with efficient use of compute APIs including OpenCL® 2.0, Vulkan® 1.0 and OpenVX 1.1*. Furian adds a bi-directional GPU/CPU coherent interface for efficient sharing of data; and a transition to user mode queues from kernel mode queues which reduces latency and CPU utilization for compute operations.

Significantly, Furian features a new 32-wide ALU cluster design for increased performance density and efficiency. A new instruction set architecture (ISA) in the primary and secondary ALU pipelines enables improved utilization of resources and thus efficiency, and multi-threading optimizations allow efficient and very flexible access to on-chip local compute memory.

Furian by the Numbers

Improvements in performance density, GPU efficiency, and system efficiency lead to lower power and a better user experience for next-generation applications. Compared to Series7XT Plus GPUs in the same process technology and at same clock frequency for cores with similar silicon area budget, Furian achieves:

• 35% GFLOPS density improvement for improved compute and gaming performance efficiency
• 80% fillrate density improvement for improved UI and casual gaming performance efficiency
• 70-90% gaming density improvement – real world application results even better than the sum of the parts

Availability

Imagination has already licensed the first Furian IP cores to multiple partners with initial RTL delivered. The first GPU core variants based on Furian will be announced in mid-2017. Contact info@imgtec.com for more information.

MWC 2017 news

Official confirmation of Mediatek X30 (PowerVR 7XT Plus) and also long awaited news from Spreadtrum (SC9861G-IA platform, featuring Power VR GT7200)

http://www.spreadtrum.com/en/show_news.html?id=fe766282-e9cc-4ffd-b211-e3d19675d3f7

https://www.imgtec.com/news/press-release/imaginations-powervr-graphics-provide-huge-performance-boost-and-power-savings-in-mediateks-new-helio-x30-chipset/

Both deals were flagged by the outgoing team of course, so we still await significant wins from Heath and Co. -  there are rumours (Sammobile, fairly reliable site) of a win at Samsung, which would be a major achievement - the new guys certainly have a better chance with Samsung than HY et al imo (bad blood). IMG are also presenting at GDC tomorrow The Future of VR and Mobile Graphics) with a panel featuring Chris Peri, Director, Mobile Platform and Solutions, Samsung Electronics - been a long time since they sat around the same table.

PowerVR 8XE Plus cores released

https://www.imgtec.com/news/press-release/imaginations-new-powervr-gpus-deliver-leading-performance-lowest-area-mid-range-markets/

Important bit:
Series8XE and Series8XE Plus GPUs have already been licensed by multiple customers for TVs, set-top boxes, mid-range mobile devices, ultra-low cost phones/tablets, and automotive applications

Anyone's guess who the licensees are but hopefully the likes of Mediatek etc.

LONDON, UK – 17th January, 2017 – Imagination Technologies (IMG.L) announces a new family of GPUs that provides the ideal balance of performance and fillrate needed to enable gaming and compute applications on cost-sensitive devices. PowerVR ‘Series8XE Plus’ GPUs expand the company’s highly successful range of entry-level and mid-range GPUs with three new IP cores optimized for gaming and compute on devices such as premium set-top boxes, mid-range smartphones, and automotive infotainment systems. The new GPUs also have more features for enhanced in-system efficiency. In addition, Imagination is extending its complementary line-up of PowerVR Series8XE GPUs with two new IP cores, supporting one pixel per clock (PPC) and eight PPC.

Series8XE and Series8XE Plus GPUs deliver the best performance/mm2 while incorporating advanced features and support for the latest APIs. Fillrate optimized Series8XE GPUs are ideal for GUI/casual gaming focused markets including DTVs, set-top boxes, streaming sticks/dongles, automotive HMI, and entry-level mobile devices. Series8XE Plus GPUs have increased GFLOPS to provide a step up to mid-range devices targeting 1080p displays, with the ability to scale to 4K and beyond.

Series8XE Plus GPU hardware is optimized to work not only with the latest graphics APIs but also advanced compute and vision APIs such as OpenVX™ 1.1 and OpenCL® 1.2. In mid-range markets, this support is critical since such devices don’t typically incorporate dedicated hardware for vision and compute. 8XE Plus GPUs provide an area and power efficient solution for these tasks.

Jon Peddie, president, JPR Research, says: “With these new GPUs, Imagination has demonstrated the greatest compute and fillrate density in the minimum silicon area. Balancing fillrate and FLOPS is the right approach for mid-range devices to provide consumers an enhanced experience, while maintaining the low area needed for price sensitive categories.”

Says Graham Deacon, VP PowerVR business operations, Imagination: “With 8XE we are seeing customers move to PowerVR from competitor GPUs. We expect this to continue with the introduction of the new 8XE and 8XE Plus cores as we are now addressing even more performance and area points. Series8XE Plus GPUs represent the industry’s best graphics cores for gaming and compute on 1080p displays in cost sensitive devices, and demonstrate Imagination’s continuing technology leadership.”

Inside Series8XE Plus GPUs

The initial Series8XE Plus GPUs each deliver up to four pixels per clock and incorporate advanced features such as hardware virtualization, OmniShield™ multi-domain security, and support for the latest APIs including OpenGL® ES 3.2, OpenCL® 1.2, Vulkan® 1.0 and OpenVX 1.1*. Micro-architectural tuning translates into reduced bandwidth usage and improved in-system performance through a reduced number of small inefficient bursts for higher fabric/memory utilization. The GPUs are optimized to provide customers with specific solutions for their application. The new GPUs build on the successful Series8XE GE8300 GPU, which also has four PPC:

• GE8320: 2x FLOPS for low- to mid-range mobile devices
• GE8325: 2x FLOPS plus features including PVRIC and 10-bit YUV for set-top boxes and HDTV gaming applications
• GE8340: 4x FLOPS for ultimate gaming on mid- to high-end mobile devices

The micro architectural enhancements in PowerVR Series8XE Plus GPUs are now also incorporated into Series8XE GPUs including the one PPC area optimized GE8100 IP core and the eight PPC GE8430 GPU which has the vastly increased throughput required for high resolution 2K/4K screens.

With Series8XE and 8XE Plus, customers can choose the appropriate core for their specific application – be it GUI, gaming or compute focused. Compatibility across the range means that licensing partners can benefit from using PowerVR GPUs across their entire product line from entry-level to high-end.

Series8XE and Series8XE Plus GPUs have already been licensed by multiple customers for TVs, set-top boxes, mid-range mobile devices, ultra-low cost phones/tablets, and automotive applications.

Software and tools support

Imagination provides developers with free access to the cross-platform PowerVR SDK, designed to support all aspects of 3D graphics application development; as well as tools and utilities that ease development of 3D graphics and GPU compute applications. Developers can join the PowerVR Insider community, download the SDK for free and interact through developer forums at http://community.imgtec.com/developers/powervr/.

Physical Design Optimization Kits (DOKs) for Imagination’s PowerVR Series8XE Plus GPUs will also be available, offering customers the flexibility to optimize for power, performance and area (PPA). Imagination DOKs are comprised of optimized reference design flows, tuned libraries from partners, characterization data and documentation.

Availability

PowerVR Series8XE and Series8XE Plus GPUs are available for licensing now. Contact info@imgtec.com for more information.

Mark Dickinson announced as Power VR EVP

https://imgtec.com/news/press-release/imagination-appoints-industry-expert-lead-powervr-business-unit/

Already known but now officially announced at CES, definitely a positive move by the new team:

International CES, Las Vegas – 5th January, 2017 – Imagination Technologies (IMG.L) announces the appointment of industry expert Mark Dickinson as executive vice president of its PowerVR business unit. Dickinson brings a wealth of industry knowledge and expertise to the role, with more than 20 years of management experience in semiconductors and IP. Dickinson is part of the executive management team put together by CEO Andrew Heath to deliver long-term growth and innovation to Imagination.

Andrew Heath, CEO, Imagination says: “As we enter 2017, Imagination is focused and energized to drive the company to an even stronger position in the industry. We refocused Imagination in 2016 on our core businesses of PowerVR, MIPS and Ensigma, around our leading technologies in graphics and multimedia, CPUs and wireless communication. We are investing in all three businesses to deliver differentiated solutions to customers for their SoCs. PowerVR, with its proven history of leadership in graphics and multimedia as well as innovation in vision technology, is key to our success. That’s why we’ve brought Mark on board. We believe he is the right person to steer this new phase of growth and innovation for PowerVR.”

Mark Dickinson says: “I’m delighted to join Imagination at this very exciting time for both the company and the PowerVR team. We’re seeing unprecedented uptake of our XE series of cores for cost sensitive applications, and we’ll be rolling out a number of compelling new GPUs this month. I expect PowerVR to continue to grow in traditionally strong areas such as mobile devices, tablets, TVs, set-top boxes and automotive, and I see exciting new opportunities in emerging applications including Advanced Driver Assisted Systems (ADAS), AR/VR and machine learning.

“With its remarkable scalability and efficiency, as well as powerful ray tracing, vision and security capabilities, PowerVR will drive the agenda for innovation in graphics, compute, multimedia and AI across a growing range of next-generation products.”

Prior to joining Imagination, Dickinson was vice president and GM of ARM’s Media Processing Group. In this role he was responsible for graphics, video, and display products, as well as gaming middleware. He was previously with Altera Corporation for 15 years in a number of VP and GM roles, most recently leading product planning and strategic marketing for their communication products and IP. Earlier, as GM of the Excalibur Business Unit at Altera, he was responsible for the company’s embedded processor products and IP. Prior to Altera, Dickinson was head of the Semiconductor Products Group at TTPCom. He holds a PhD in electronics from Birmingham University and a M.A. in physics from Oxford University.

Imagination 16/17 interims + CC notes

Interims + new chairman today:

https://imagination-technologies-cloudfront-assets.s3.amazonaws.com/presentations/interim16/Interim-Results-2016.pdf

https://imagination-technologies-cloudfront-assets.s3.amazonaws.com/presentations/interim16/IMG-half-year-report-2016.pdf

Highlights
 • Total partner shipments in line with expectation, with revenues from continuing operations up 6% to £64.4m (H1 FY16: £60.8m), as a consequence of the strong US dollar
 o Royalty revenue up 6% to £52.5m (H1 FY16: £49.6m) − Total partner unit shipments 584m (H1 FY16: 584m)
o Licensing revenue up 7% £11.8m (H1 FY16: £11.0m) − PowerVR licencing slow with deals moving to H2 − Ensigma revenue up 144% to £4.4m (H1 FY16: £1.8m) - significant deals signed with large customers
• Group returned to profitability
o Continuing operations adjusted EBIT* up 65% to £12.2m (H1 FY16: £7.4m) o Continuing operations operating profit of £2.9m (H1 FY16: loss £5.5m) o £27.5m annual cost savings delivered
 • Restructuring nears completion - Pure and most of IMGsystems sold, IMGworks near disposal
 • Net debt of £40.8m (April 2016: £33.0m, October 2015: £35.4m), H1 outflows reflecting one-off restructuring costs and £5.2m exchange loss on dollar denominated debt. Continuing operations generated £9.5m cash from operating activities
• Peter Hill will take over as non-executive Chairman on 1 February 2017 - see separate press announcement

Andrew Heath, Chief Executive, said: “We have successfully executed the restructuring programme, initiated last February, on time and in line with our expectations. The £27.5m of cost savings, identified earlier in the year, have been delivered – this has enabled the business to return to profitability. Our Ensigma unit achieved strong licence sales as we have made good progress in agreeing deals with a number of major customers. The underlying trading performance of the Group for H1 is in line with our expectations and we additionally benefitted from the strong dollar. “We are now in a much better position to exploit our leading technologies, across a range of increasing opportunities and execute our refreshed strategy. “For our continuing operations, we remain on course to deliver an underlying trading performance for the year in line with our expectations and anticipate that we will continue to see an additional benefit from the strong US dollar.”


END

Initial market reaction is positive. Good to see Ensigma starting to get wins as predicted (and good to see new team actually closing deals,including a Tier 1)  by the IoT markets getting off the ground - the new management are right to continue investment in this important area imo. Looks like the Mediatek/Spreadtrum PowerVR deals concluded by HY in his final few months will start to deliver next year and resume royalty growth in our most important division, whilst Apple revenues are actually fairly stable (taking into account dollar rate and also reduced iPhone/iPad volumes vs. 1 year ago) despite ill-informed 'expert' predictions of a fall due to increasing Apple in-house technology usage .
MIPS aiming to be profitable in FY18 -  seems to have been stabilised by the well-respected Jim Nicholas. Ensigma aiming for profit in FY20.

EDIT:

CC notes:

A confident (but cautious)  performance from Heath and Millward at the CC, you really get the impression that the new CEO has given IMG his full attention in the recent months, started to make important customer relationships, done some studying to improve his tech knowledge and believes in his plan.

http://seekingalpha.com/article/4028679-imagination-technology-group-plc-ignmf-ceo-andrew-heath-q2-2017-results-earnings-call?part=single

Excerpts:

for mobile, our focus is certainly there in terms of graphics and multimedia with PowerVR certainly growing market share in mobile, particularly in the mid-tier markets, where the Series8XE has being seen to getting a lot of design wins and proven to be very successful. It's been the most successful product launch that we've had as a business so far.

In the consumer, we maintain a very strong presence in digital TV and set top boxes both with MIPS which typically have 40%, 50% market share in that area. But also with PowerVR and the Series8XE that we launched for mid-tier phones has been successful in mid-tier phones is also proving to be a great fit for digital TVs, 

As I said, the 8XE has been a very successful product launch. It's been actively designed in by number of licensees. And as a consequence we expect royalties and unit shipments to increase as we go into calendar year 2017. And we are seeing that being licensing in mobile, in digital TVs and in automotive. So it's getting a very broad pickup from a number of customers.

We've also seen that Mediatek have announced that our GPU architecture is in there Helio X30 product, and as we look forward we fully expect a number of the developments there to continue to grow

And finally, we've been very clear, Guy mentioned this that we fully anticipate PowerVR to be at least a minimum 40% margin business, so certainly trading in a 40% range margin. That's very much our intention and to get back to those levels we have been there in the past to get back those levels as quickly as possible.

And our differentiated technology certainly in terms of multi-threading, and that's the reason we got into mobile, baseband, modems, it's the reasons we won Mobileye and their EyeQ5 products, so that differentiated technology again is another touch point and why we believe MIPS can be successful in those markets spaces we've selected.

In terms of notable deals, what caused that uptick in licensing in the first half, where we had made deals with a mobile computing with some large industry players, also unmanned systems and also in IoT and one of the deals was with a significant Tier1 provider as well. So I think that's all are important validation of the strength of Ensigma's offering

So, one thing that I would like to be clear about is that, there has been quite a bit of speculation in some of the sort of industrial press around sort of how embedded is our technology in one of our leading customers. I just like to reaffirm our view is highly embedded. Their ecosystem has been built over many years off the back of a lot of our IP, and I'll just say the ecosystem they have established is high reliant on a number of the architectural aspects of our IP, which I am sure therefore will endure going forward

Imagination and Actions Semi strengthen MIPS partnership

No RNS, but good announcement for MIPS division: 

London, UK and ZHUHAI, China – October 17th, 2016 – Imagination Technologies (IMG.L) and Actions Semiconductor Co., Ltd. (Nasdaq: ACTS) announce they are strengthening their long-term partnership around the MIPS architecture. Actions, one of China’s leading fabless semiconductor companies that provides comprehensive portable multimedia and mobile internet system-on-a-chip (SoC) solutions for portable consumer electronics, recently renewed its license for a range of MIPS CPUs from entry-level to high-performance. With these IP cores, Actions is creating SoCs targeting smart living room, Wi-Fi/Bluetooth audio, multimedia audio and video products.

Dr. Zhenyu Zhou, CEO of Actions Semiconductor: “Working with MIPS CPUs and the strong ecosystem supporting them, Actions has achieved numerous generations of successful chipsets based on this highly flexible and efficient architecture. We are continuing to create new generations of MIPS-based SoCs, and we are seeing these devices successfully expanding into a range of new segments. We are delighted to extend our relationship with Imagination for future generations of MIPS-based chips.”

Actions recently introduced the new MIPS-based V100 high-performance chipset for personal 3D cinema headsets which allows users to enjoy a high definition 3D big screen experience at anytime from anywhere. In addition, Actions’ MIPS-based, highly integrated, high-performance, low-power ATS3603 SoC is being used in a new robot, which is entering mass production this month.

Says Jim Nicholas, EVP MIPS Processor IP, Imagination: “Actions has long been an important partner of Imagination, working closely with us around products incorporating MIPS CPUs and PowerVR GPUs. With its world-class IC design capability and focus on innovation, Actions is taking these products into emerging segments such as VR and robotics. We look forward to working closely with Actions as it brings new generations of differentiated SoCs to market.”

Imagination offers a wide range of 32- and 64-bit MIPS CPUs: https://imgtec.com/mips/.

About Actions Semiconductor

Actions Semiconductor is one of China’s leading fabless semiconductor companies that provides comprehensive portable multimedia and mobile internet system-on-a-chip (SoC) solutions for portable consumer electronics. Actions Semiconductor products include SoCs, firmware, software, solution development kits, as well as detailed specifications of other required components. Actions Semiconductor also provides total product and technology solutions that allow customers to quickly introduce new portable consumer electronics to the mass market in a cost effective way. The Company is headquartered in Zhuhai, China, with offices in Shanghai, Shenzhen, Hong Kong and Taipei. For more information, please visit the Actions Semiconductor website at
http://www.actions-semi.com.

New MIPS I6500 adopted by MobilEye EyeQ5

Jim Nicholas clearly doing a great job at MIPS:

https://imgtec.com/news/press-release/imagination-rolls-new-heterogeneous-inside-mips-cpu/

London, UK – October 12th, 2016 – Imagination Technologies (IMG.L) announces the new MIPS Warrior I-class I6500 CPU, a multi-threaded, multi-core, multi-cluster design that delivers new levels of system efficiency and scalable computing for many-core heterogeneous designs. Target applications include advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) and autonomous vehicles, networking, drones, industrial automation, security, video analytics, machine learning, and others which increasingly rely on heterogeneous computing.

Today’s heterogeneous SoC designs require a mix of high-performance CPU clusters and GPU or accelerator clusters all processing common datasets. The I6500 provides a highly scalable solution which can coherently implement optimized configurations of CPU cores within a cluster (‘Heterogeneous Inside’) as well as a variety of configurations of CPU clusters and GPU or accelerator clusters on a chip depending on the requirements of the system (‘Heterogeneous Outside’).

Says Jim Nicholas, EVP MIPS Processor IP, Imagination: “With the I6500 we are setting a new standard for scalable, heterogeneous many-core designs – and providing a highly differentiated solution for visionary companies that want to transform markets. One of these visionary companies is Mobileye, which is leading the way in ADAS and autonomous driving technologies with advanced, proven technology that continually pushes the envelope of innovation.”

The I6500 CPU will be at the heart of heterogeneous coherent processing clusters in Mobileye’s next-generation EyeQ®5 SoC, which is designed to act as the central computer performing sensor fusion for Fully Autonomous Driving (FAD) vehicles starting in 2020. The EyeQ5® will feature eight multi-threaded MIPS CPU cores coherently coupled with eighteen cores of Mobileye’s Vision Processors (VPs). The VPs provide exceptional computing power within extremely low power budgets by combining Mobileye’s broad range of algorithms for mono/multi-camera driver assistance/ autonomous systems, supported by its special vision accelerators and Imagination’s MIPS CPUs for ultra-efficient, real-time processing and control.

Elchanan Rushinek, SVP engineering, Mobileye, says: “Imagination’s multi-threaded MIPS CPUs have helped us achieve performance increases of more than 6x with each successive generation of EyeQ® SoCs. Now with the EyeQ5® we are looking at an 8x increase. The combination of Mobileye’s VPs and MIPS CPUs enables us to provide unrivalled computing power on a single processor while maintaining a very low power budget, and the hardware virtualization capability in the I6500 CPUs provides a solid foundation for an open software platform with multiple operating systems.”

Inside the MIPS I6500 CPU

The MIPS I6500 CPU is a 64-bit, multi-threaded, multi-core, multi-cluster CPU that is scalable from embedded to cloud. Key features include:

• Heterogeneous Inside: In a single cluster, designers can optimize power consumption with the ability to configure each CPU with different combinations of threads, different cache sizes, different frequencies, and even different voltage levels.
• Heterogeneous Outside: The latest MIPS Coherence Manager with an AMBA® ACE interface to popular ACE coherent fabric solutions such as those from Arteris and Netspeed lets designers mix on a chip configurations of processing clusters – including PowerVR GPUs or other accelerators – for high system efficiency.
• Simultaneous Multi-threading (SMT): Based on a superscalar dual issue design implemented across generations of MIPS CPUs, this proven feature enables execution of multiple instructions from multiple threads every clock cycle, providing higher utilization and CPU efficiency.
• Hardware virtualization (VZ): I6500 builds on the real time hardware virtualization capability pioneered in the MIPS I6400 core. Designers can save costs by safely and securely consolidating multiple CPU cores with a single core, save power where multiple cores are required, and dynamically and deterministically allocate CPU bandwidth per application.
• SMT + VZ: The combination of SMT with VZ in the I6500 offers “zero context switching” for applications requiring real-time response. This feature, alongside the provision of scratchpad memory, makes the I6500 ideal for applications which require deterministic code execution.
• Ideal for compute intensive, data processing and networking applications: The I6500 is designed for high-performance/high-efficiency data transfers to localized compute resources with data scratchpad memories per CPU, and features for fast path message/data passing between threads and cores.
• OmniShield-ready™: Imagination’s multi-domain security technology used across its processing families enables isolation of applications in trusted environments, providing a foundation for security by separation.
• Straightforward software development: The I6500 is based on the mature MIPS ISA which is broadly supported in the development ecosystem by multiple vendors. Customers adopting the I6500 can enjoy a wide choice of compilers, debuggers, operating systems, hypervisors and application software all optimized for the MIPS ISA.

Imagination offers a wide range of 32- and 64-bit MIPS CPUs: https://imgtec.com/mips/.

Availability

The I6500 CPU is available for licensing now, with general availability expected in the first quarter of 2017. 

Pure sold off, finally

Sold for peanuts, but a serial loss maker and not IP. Holding on to Pure was the single biggest reason for HY's (and IMG's) fall from grace - if only he'd listened to us PI's 5 years ago. 

Imagination Technologies Group plc (LSE: IMG, “Imagination”, “the Group”), a leading multimedia, processor and communications technology company, announces the sale of its Pure digital radio business and a trading update for the first quarter of Imagination’s financial year.

The Pure business, with its assets and liabilities, is being sold on a cash and debt free basis to AVenture AT GmbH, an Austrian company, for £2.6 million in cash. The buyer has also been granted an option to acquire one of the Group’s properties in Kings Langley, Hertfordshire for £4.5 million. The cash will be used to reduce the Group’s debts.

In the year to 30 April 2016, Pure’s loss before tax was £7.9m and it had gross assets of £5.2m. The deal is expected to complete on 30 September 2016.

The performance of the Group’s continuing operations in the first quarter of the financial year to 30 April 2017 continues to be in line with the Board’s expectations.

The sale of other non-core cash consuming activities is progressing with on-going discussions with several interested parties. A small part of IMG Systems was sold earlier in September for minimal consideration.

Andrew Heath, Chief Executive, said:

“With the difficulties of last year behind us, continuing operations have traded in line with expectations in the first quarter.

“I would like to thank the staff of Pure for their contribution to Imagination over the years and wish them, and Pure’s new owners, well for the future. The sale underlines the Group’s focus on its core IP licensing activities.”

END

2016 AGM

Many thanks to Roninja for this AGM report:

Location and timing - both wrong!! Surreal to see such a poor turnout. Clearly management wanted it this way but it cannot be allowed to continue.

Jeffries offices by the River Thames are pretty ordinary. The receptionist asked if I was here for the board meeting - should have said I was!!

Being first to turn up I was glad to see David Harold arriving and we had a quick chat mostly about Susie and HY.

A 9am start for an IMG AGM - who would have ever thought, given the lavish days of past! 11am would be more appropriate. If there needs to be a board meeting same day just hold it before.

The room wasn't completely empty as we had what look like reps from the auditors and some other firms.

As for PIs fortunately I wasn't the only one in the room, at the start there were 4 and fortunately joined by 2-3 latecomers. 
There was also a fund-manager who said he had 1-2million in IMG and was very happy with the change of management.

Onto proceedings, Bert went through the AGM formalities in fast forward mode. Very disappointing there was no presentation from either CEO or CFO. 

So onto Q&A: this would have been limited to a meagre 10mins if it hadn't been for one late-comer who had a list of questions for the board.

Post Q&A both Andrew and Guy made themselves available for further conversations.

Key takeaways in no particular order:

- licensing : market is still slow and therefore deals are slow to materialise. No pick up in FY17.

- royalties : forecast flat. Dollar strength though implies some positives.

- cost base and profitability. Eliminating the £27m was a straightforward exercise given previous management had attempted to over diversify. Taking this cost out it is expected to deliver a profitable FY17.
Investment is now channelled towards PowerVR, MIPS and Ensigma. Staff are 75%,of costbase.

Ensigma is still embryonic and management will give it sometime to either establish or make a strategic decision. 

MIPS is strategic and will be invested in. They will not go after all markets as ARM is too dominant. MIPS will thrive were embedded multithreaded competitive advantages are key.

- Ray tracing : there are no licences yet. The tech is in silicon and hugely disruptive. Licenses are still 12-18months away as the solution is further enhanced. It is already 50x more efficient and better looking than a comparable high end Nvidia solution. Ray Tracing will come through to workstations, AR/VR and consoles first. Andrew doesn't believe it will extend to mobile or fully to tablets. One throwaway remark (HY style) was in workstations there is AMD and Nvidia. IMG will not be in completion with both!?!

- Intel : Andrew Heath still pushing to get them back onboard. He is visiting in 2 weeks.

- Mediatek : will dual source but have selected IMG for a range of SoCs across high and mid-range. They've licensed MIPS for baseband which should start shipping this FY.

- Spreadtrum / RDA both licenses will ship 8XE starting FY17, expectation is this will drive volume but too early to say how much.

- HiSilicon : looking to gain a larger share of business with 8XE

8XE has led to strong take up. IMG see being able to design software (Vulkan) across mid to high end as essential and are better positioned than previous years.

8XT is being actively licensed - though it hasn't been formally launched.

- Apple : no change in a strong relationship. 

- Mobile-eye - IMG remain key players in the roadmap despite ARM presence. 

- Pure - on track for 2016 sale. Down to a short list of serious parties. Likely they will want the building as well.

- Investor recordings will have the Q&A included going forward.

- an IMS will come out late September although IMG will not move to quarterly reporting.

END

I guess whilst HY and his team had serious issues with costs/business focus, they were pretty good at making licence deals with large semis/OEMs ie. they had credibility and relationships . Any royalty growth in the short/medium term is dependant on the big deals made by HY with Spreadtrum and Mediatek in his last few months as CEO. It still looks to me as though Heath & Co. are intent on selling IMG, hence the continued support from Institutional Investors.

Imagination Full-Year Results

The first results post-HY:

https://imagination-technologies-cloudfront-assets.s3.amazonaws.com/presentations/Full-Year-Results-Statement-FY2015-16.pdf

Presentation:
https://imagination-technologies-cloudfront-assets.s3.amazonaws.com/presentations/FY16-Results-Presentation.pdf


So, Heath & Millward are trying to make the 'best of a bad job' it's fair to say. The cost-cutting (Pure, Hellosoft, IMG Works) and streamlining  (IP business: PowerVR, MIPS, Ensigma = simples)  continues in earnest, licensing has fallen off a cliff, royalties are impacted by Apple slowdown. The proof of the pudding will be if the new team can get licensing going again, no easy task imo. Great to see the financial transparency in the results and slides of course.

Imagination Technologies Group plc (LSE: IMG, "Imagination", "the Group"), a leading multimedia, processor and communications technology company, today announces results for the year ended 30 April 2016.

FY16 financial performance

·      Results in line with trading update published 26 May 2016

·      Group revenue from continuing operations £120.0m (2015: £156.8m)

§ Licensing revenue from continuing operations £17.1m (2015: £37.8m) - includes one-off £5.7m revenue reversal for SoC Design contract

§ Royalty revenue from continuing operations £102.7m (2015: £118.4m)

·      Adjusted operating loss* for continuing operations £16.5m (2015: profit £29.8m)

·      Reported operating loss from continuing operations £61.5m (2015: profit £5.7m)

·      Adjusted loss per share was 9.2p (2015: earnings 6.3p); reported loss per share was 29.8p (2015: loss 4.9p).

·      Cash generated by operations was £16.7m (2015: out flow £4.0m)

·      Net debt at the year-end was £33.0m (30 April 2015: £27.2m and 31 October 2015:  £35.4m)

Restructuring initiative launched in February 2016

·      Focus on three core businesses; graphics and multimedia (PowerVR), processing (MIPS) and connectivity (Ensigma)

·      Sale of Pure and other non-core cash consuming activities on course - Pure attracting considerable interest

·      Substantial reduction in cost base - £27.5m of cost reduction in FY17

Operational review - identified where to focus resources to exploit leading positions

·      PowerVR - R&D prioritised on retaining technology leadership and consolidating position in mobile, automotive and DTVs/STBs

§ Good opportunities in emerging markets: AR/VR, vision systems and ray tracing

·      MIPS - focused on embedded processor market segments where we have strong positions and can exploit capabilities to build long-term, defendable positions

·      Ensigma - longer-term play, significant opportunity is emerging to license its connectivity IP, especially with the growth of IoT

·      MIPS and Ensigma - look to improve the prospects through partnerships, aimed at building necessary ecosystems and reaching scale more quickly

·      Group continues to see strong demand for licences for its core technologies and expects revenues to improve in FY17

Andrew Heath, Chief Executive, said:

"As previously indicated in our trading update in May, the last year has been particularly challenging for Imagination. The results reflect a combination of difficult trading conditions and a significant restructuring of the business.

"However, we have now taken the necessary action to put Imagination back onto a sound financial footing.

"We have also conducted a comprehensive operational review.  Going forwards Imagination will be an IP licencing business.  We will increase investment in PowerVR, which reported significant profits, building on our leading position and exploiting new markets.  We will focus MIPS and Ensigma where we have, or can build, differentiated, defendable positions.  We will also look to improve the prospects for both business units through partnership arrangements aimed at building the necessary ecosystems and reaching scale more quickly.

"Despite recent trading challenges, I see a bright future for Imagination. The market for our IP remains large.  We now have a sound financial position and have maintained our strong positions with leading customers.

"Overall we are well positioned to take advantage of a number of attractive end markets and deliver profitable growth."

Year end trading update

IMG announced a restructuring and trading update today. Andrew Heath, was also confirmed as permanent CEO.

Imagination Technologies Group plc (LSE: IMG, “Imagination”, “the Group”), a leading multimedia, processor and communications technology company, publishes a trading update for the year to 30 April 2016 and an update on its restructuring initiatives.

The Group’s underlying performance, before one-off items, has continued to be broadly in line with expectations, as stated in the announcement published on 17 March 2016. Royalty revenue was slightly ahead with licensing revenue behind.

The Group now expects revenues and adjusted loss before interest and tax from continuing operations to be materially below market expectations, as a result of one-off System-on-Chip (SoC) design services revenue contract adjustments and bad debt write-offs on two specific customers, neither of which can be treated as exceptional items. The one-off contract adjustments and bad debts have no negative impact on FY17 and the contract re-negotiations are expected to be incremental to FY17 revenues and profits.

We have been very focussed on cash and are pleased to report that year-end net debt was £33.0m (2015: £27.3m), better than expectations.

The restructuring initiatives announced in February and March, which include the sale of Pure and other non-core cash consuming activities, are on course, with Pure attracting considerable interest from potential buyers. The benefits of £27.5m will be delivered in full in the 2017 financial year.

The restructuring currently being undertaken is also likely to result in an exceptional charge in excess of £50.0m, to be expensed in full in FY16, which is in addition to the one-off items above. The cash cost of the restructuring will be less than £7.0m, around a quarter of the savings made. Further details are below.

The operational review, initiated on 8 February 2016, is progressing well. It will identify where Imagination needs to focus its resources in order to exploit its leading positions and ensure attractive returns. The Group expects to announce the initial results of this review along with its year end results on 5 July 2016.

The Group continues to see strong demand for licences for its core technologies and expects revenues to improve in FY17. Some of this improvement is already contracted through re-negotiated licensing and services contracts, which are part of the Group’s SoC design services activities.

Andrew Heath, who took over as Interim Chief Executive on 8 February 2016, has been appointed as permanent Chief Executive with immediate effect – see separate announcement.

Andrew Heath, Chief Executive, said:

“I am delighted to have been asked to lead Imagination on a permanent basis – the business has great technology, a very capable team around the world and strong prospects.

“Last year was notably difficult for the business. The restructuring initiated in February is progressing to plan. We will see the benefits from it in FY17. Our expectations for the new financial year remain unchanged.

“The operational review is also advancing well. I am increasingly confident that by re-focusing on our core IP licensing activities with disciplined capital allocation, we will deliver profitable growth and shareholder value.”

Financial impact of restructuring programme

Revenue

As previously announced, the Group has refocused and rescaled its SoC design service activities. As part of this work, the Group has re-negotiated certain loss-making agreements in order for those contracts to trade profitably going forward. This resulted in a significant revenue adjustment in FY16, part of which had previously been recognised in FY15.

The Group has also classified a further £2.2m of revenues as discontinued operations as part of its ongoing programme to sell or close certain activities.

The strengthening US dollar in FY16 has resulted in currency gains in revenue of around 6%.

Cost base

Operating costs are in line with expectations except for provisions for long standing debts with two specific customers. The operating cost reductions announced on 17 March 2016 are proceeding as planned and a full year saving of £27.5 million will be achieved in FY17, by divesting or shutting non-core and/or cash consuming units as well as reducing overheads.

Exceptional charges

As part of the restructuring currently being undertaken, the Group has made asset write-downs, incurred redundancy and onerous lease costs as well as recording a number of contract and tax provisions. In total, this is likely to result in an exceptional charge in excess of £50.0m.

Cash

The cash cost from the restructuring will be less than £7.0 million. It is restricted to redundancy payments and future property lease payments, where new tenants have not yet been found, and will be funded from existing resources.

Pure and other discontinued activities

The sale of Pure is progressing according to plan with the Group seeing considerable interest. Imagination is aiming to sell the business by the end of 2016. Pure has continued to trade in line with expectations during the sale process.

The Group also plans, as previously announced, to sell or close down other non-core, cash consuming businesses.

Tsinghua Unigroup takes stake in IMG

http://www.investegate.co.uk/imagination-tech-plc--img-/rns/holding-s--in-company/201605090700075791X/

Interesting development with Tsinghua (owners of Spreadtrum) taking a 3% stake in IMG. This feels like a defensive move, similar to the Apple and Intel strategic investments of yesteryear. In his final few months at the helm, SHY concluded two big deals important for re-establishing growth at PowerVR: one with Mediatek and the other with Spreadtrum, hence the relevance of this small investment.
Tsinghua and the importance of China as a future semiconductor powerhouse received special attention from SHY in the interims slide presentation.
I'm guessing the sight of Heath & Co scuttling across to Cupertino within 2 weeks of SHY's resignation , in order to try and sell off IMG didn't fill Tsinghua with confidence, so a statement of intent was perhaps required.