Apple Q3

Apple announced Q3 last night:

http://seekingalpha.com/article/745271-apple-s-ceo-discusses-f3q12-results-earnings-call-transcript?part=single

For IMG, the relevant numbers are:
iPhone 26m sold
iPad 17m sold
iPod Touch - approx 3.5-4m sold
Apple TV 1.3m sold

Giving a total in region of 48m IMG'd devices for the quarter. The comparable figure this time last year was 33m, so pretty healthy advance there for IMG.
Last year, the volume figure for iOS devices in Apple's Q4 was little changed from Q3, due to October release of iPhone 4S, so there is little to suggest things will be different this time round unless there is an earlier release of iPhone 5 (or other rumoured devices). IMG's H2 will be huge due to iPhone 5 roll-out and anything else Apple have up their sleeve.
The big difference this time for IMG's H1 though is the Mediatek ramp, at 15-20m per quarter. There is also greater breadth of new SoCs being released (eg. SiS, Sigma, Realtek) in H1.

Intel Q2

Intel reported Q2 last night, just a few IMG-related bits in the CC:


'We are also tracking more than 20 Windows 8 Tablet designs based on our low power and low cost Clover Trail Atom SoC in addition to a number of core based tablets'

'In the smartphone space, we saw the launch of Medfield-based phones from Lenovo, Lava and Orange to great reviews. These launches further established Intel in the market building on the wide presence we have in baseband.'


'Specifically, to your question, no, it's not predicated on doing more sales in either tablets or in smartphones, but don’t take from that, those aren’t important segments. We think we are on a path to have a lot of products in the market, we’re wining design wins, which really is the momentum that builds into 2013'

'As Intel based tablets are shipping both on Windows 8 and Android, we expect to be able to participate in that fast growing market, but I don’t think those numbers are going to be material this year. I think that just because of the start on, the timing of the start is going to be a slower ramp'

Full transcript:  http://seekingalpha.com/article/727571-intel-s-ceo-discusses-q2-2012-results-earnings-call-transcript

Next week should be more interesting with Texas Instruments Q2 on Monday 23rd and then  Apple Q3 on Tuesday 24th - iPhone shipments for the quarter are expected to remain at over 30m, whilst iPad should see a ramp up to over 20m.

Mediatek announces MT6577 platform for sub-$200 smartphones

Great news from IMG's partner today with the availability of MT6577, an integrated platform (apps processor+3G/HSPA modem) running Android 4.0, featuring Power VR SGX 531.

There is no doubt this platform will take large market share in China (from Qualcomm mainly) and result in Mediatek becoming the 2nd largest volume partner for Imagination  (Apple no.1 of course). 

This comes just a few days after the Mediatek takeover of MStar (another IMG partner) was announced, something which has the potential to accelerate IMG's move to becoming no.1 graphics IP supplier in the DTV SoC market (instead of Mali) over the coming 12-18 months.

Full PR:

HSINCHU, Taiwan, June 27, 2012 /PRNewswire via COMTEX/ -- MediaTek Inc., a leading fabless semiconductor company for wireless communications and digital multimedia solutions, today announced the availability of the MT6577, a dual-core platform developed specifically for sub-$200 smartphones, the fastest growing segment of the global smartphone market. The MediaTek MT6577 features a dual 1GHz Cortex(TM)-A9 application processor from ARM, a PowerVR(TM) Series5 SGX GPU (graphics processing unit) from Imagination Technologies, MediaTek's proven 3G/HSPA modem, and runs the latest Android 4.0 "Ice Cream Sandwich" operating system. By integrating a dual-core application processor architecture widely deployed in the majority of today's premium smartphones, the MT6577 boosts application and browser performance by up to 40% compared to single-core platforms, bringing unprecedented levels of user experience to mid- and entry-level smartphones.

"MediaTek's existing HSPA smartphone platforms - the MT6573 and MT6575 - have been extremely well-received by customers and consumers worldwide, and are currently shipping with major international brands such as Lenovo, TCL/Alcatel, and other top tier Chinese OEMs," said Ching-Jiang Hsieh, President of MediaTek. "The MT6577 adds the next level of performance and enhanced user experience to the MediaTek smartphone family, delivering enhanced user interactivity, mobile connectivity and rich multi-media experience previously only available on high-end devices. Consumers everywhere will now benefit from the affordable, high-performance devices enabled by the MT6577. MediaTek is proud to be in the vanguard of companies enabling the democratization of smartphones."

"Dual-core processors account for over 20% of current smartphone processor shipments, with these devices being mostly in the premium segment and addressed by standalone application processors. MediaTek's new MT6577, with integrated dual-core processors and 3G/HSPA modem is well suited to bringing similar user experiences to the fast-growing mid and entry smartphone segment which is forecast to grow from under 200 Mu in 2012 to over 500 Mu in 2016," said Stuart Robinson, Director, Handset Component Technologies service at Strategy Analytics.

The MT6577 is designed to deliver rich multimedia experiences, with an 8MP camera, support for up to high-definition 1080p video playback and the ability to support high-resolution displays up to HD720 (1280x720) resolution. The platform also pre-integrates MediaTek's leading 4-in-1 connectivity combo that provides support for dual-band 802.11n Wi-Fi, BT4.0, GPS and FM. The MT6577 is pin-to-pin compatible with the previously released MT6575, allowing handset manufacturers to easily produce multiple tiers of devices leveraging a single PCBA hardware development effort.

The MT6577 dual-core platform is currently being incorporated into smartphone devices by MediaTek's leading global customers, and the first smartphone models based on this new chipset are expected to ship commercially in Q3 2012.

Imagination announces superb results

Yesterday, Imagination announced an excellent set of full year results. Highlights below:

Imagination Technologies Group plc (LSE: IMG, “Imagination”, “the Group”), a leading multimedia, communications and embedded processor technology company, today announces results for the year to 30 April 2012.

Financial highlights

• Group revenue up 30% to £127.5m (2011: £98.0m)
  • Technology revenues increased 41% to £98.2m (2011: £69.8m)
    • Royalty revenue up 55% to £63.8m (2011: £41.3m)
    • Licensing revenues up 21% to £34.4m (2011: £28.5m)
  • Pure revenues of £29.3m (2011: £28.3m)
    • Strong overseas growth (36% of revenues now international) offsetting tough UK retail environment
• Adjusted pre-tax profit* up 53% to £36.8m (2011: £24.0m)
• Reported pre-tax profit up 74% to £28.5m (2011: £16.4m)
• Adjusted earnings per share* up 39% to 11.0p (2011: 7.9p**)
• Reported earnings per share 7.9p (2011: 7.7p)
• Cash balance increased to £66.3m (2011: £49.4m)

* The reconciliation from reported results to adjusted results is set out in Note 3.
** Using normalised tax rate of 26%

Business highlights

Technology business

Royalties and design wins

• Partner chips shipped up 33% to 325m units (2011: 245m), substantial acceleration in H2 to 202m units (H2 2011: 138m)
• Significant volume shipments in mobile phone, tablets/mobile computing, PMP (personal media players), game consoles, TV/STB (Set-Top Box), digital radio and automotive markets
• Strong growth in chip design wins with 136 active partner chips (2011: 115); 60 in production (2011: 48)
• Average royalty rate maintained due to enhancing mix of IP, despite significant volume ramp-up and strong lower-end handset growth

Licensing

• Maintained strong licensing activities across all of our IP
  • Several new partners added including Actions Semiconductor, Allwinner, Compound Photonics, HiSilicon, Huawei, Ingenic, MStar, Qualcomm, Ricoh, Rockchip, ZTE
  • Many new and extended agreements with existing partners including CSR, Frontier Silicon, Intel, MediaTek, Realtek, Renesas, Samsung, Sigma, Sony, ST, ST-Ericsson, Sunplus, Toumaz
  • Significant new partner engagements and license closure in China
• 30 important customers involving 49 silicon IP core licenses - almost 50% up over the last year
  • Addressing all markets - mobile phone, tablets/mobile computing, TV/STB, PMP/Camera, in-car navigation/dashboard and industrial/enterprise equipment
  • Including graphics, video, display, broadcast/connectivity and processor silicon IP cores, as well as V.VoIP technologies
• Continued active pipeline of prospects across all IP families

Pure business

• Continued softness in UK revenues offset by momentum in overseas growth
  • Ongoing DAB adoption worldwide and growing demand for Pure's connected audio
• Continued strategic development and pathfinding role
  • Focus on development of technologies for digital broadcast, connected devices and Cloud solutions
• Key recent new products launched
• New Pure wireless streaming products including new flagship Sensia and first Airplay enabled product
• Second generation Highway in-car digital radio and audio adapter launched with Halfords & OEM agreement with Alpine
• Cloud-based on-demand music service launched in the UK with other services and regions adding soon

Hossein Yassaie, Chief Executive, commented:

“We have maintained our momentum and seen another strong year of financial and strategic progress which has fundamentally strengthened our overall position. The excellent growth in licensing partnerships, which expanded across all our IP families, and significant volume ramp-up resulted in a material jump in full-year revenues and profits.

“Our ‘smart’ technologies are being adopted more widely across new and existing partners, creating a solid base for continued momentum in future volume growth making our stated goal of around 1bn annual unit shipment by 2016 a realistic objective.

“Despite the current slow-down in consumer spending, Pure continues to effectively showcase and help to drive key strategic connectivity technologies. We expect to also see a financial improvement in this division over the medium term, driven by international markets and new product opportunities.

“Despite the global economic environment, over 1 million devices are now being shipped with our IP daily. We remain very confident of our continued good progress, given the growing demand across our IP families, the growth in design wins across a widening range of end user markets and the momentum in our partners’ chip volume.”

END

Full report is here:

http://www.imgtec.com/corporate/newsdetail.asp?NewsID=687

Analyst meeting presentation slides are here:

http://www.imgtec.com/corporate/presentations/prelims12/index.asp

Audio broadcast (you have to register) is here (seems to work better on Safari and iPad 2/iPhone 4S imo)

http://www.imgtec.com/corporate/investor%5Faudio/investor_login.asp?restricted=true&accessdenied=%2Fcorporate%2Finvestor%5Faudio%2Findex%2Easp

Some of the bear analysts came up with  a new angle of attack: over-reliance on one customer (ie. Apple), as if being the sole supplier to iOS devices (for many years to come) is a bad thing.

Jen-Hsun , Warren East, and Paul Jacobs would give their right arm for the iOS graphics slot (imho). 

The bull analysts have updated their estimates and I will update the Broker estimates in due course (there's quite a few !) .

There was special emphasis on IMG's success in the A/V/TV markets and as I said in earlier posts, IMG will soon (12-24 months imo) overhaul Mali's no.1 position in the DTV market - especially when the Apple HDTV arrives.

Congratulations to HY and his brilliant team at IMG (TKS, Susi, John Metcalfe, Dave McBrien and the hundreds of top-notch engineers) on these results. Next stop...half a billion units.

Imagination announces 2 new Power VR Series 6 Rogue cores

With just a few days to go before the Final Results, IMG made a number of announcements today. Of particular interest was this one:

Imagination Technologies, a leading multimedia technologies company, announces the latest IP cores in its ground-breaking PowerVR Series6 GPU core family.

The PowerVR G6230 and G6430 GPU IP cores are the latest in a growing family of PowerVR Series6 GPU cores and deliver high compute efficiency while minimising power and bandwidth requirements. 

Following on from the G6200 and G6400 cores, the PowerVR G6230 and G6430 offer two further design points in the Series6 family, which now includes two ‘two-cluster’ and two ‘four-cluster’ IP cores.

PowerVR G6200 and G6400 are designed to deliver the best performance at the smallest area possible for two and four cluster architectures respectively, while the PowerVR G6230 and G6430 ‘go all out’, adding incremental extra area for maximum performance whilst minimising power consumption.

All ‘Rogue’ architecture cores deliver a power / performance ratio unmatched by competitor solutions, without compromising on feature set. 

Says Tony King-Smith, VP marketing, Imagination: “With the four cores announced so far PowerVR Series6 can target a wide range of markets and requirements. PowerVR Series6 has already set a new benchmark for high performance, ultra-low power GPU cores. With G6200, G6230, G6400 and G6430 we deliver power, performance and area that fits the wide range of differentiated designs our licensing partners want to create.”

PowerVR Series6 is based on the highly scalable ‘Rogue’ architecture and further cores will be announced to deliver the widest range of performance for licensing partners seeking to deploy the industry’s leading graphics IP solution with the optimal intersection of product differentiation and the shortest time to market.

Inside Rogue 

Based on a scalable number of compute clusters, the PowerVR Rogue architecture is designed to target the requirements of a growing range of demanding markets from mobile to the highest performance embedded graphics including smartphones, tablets, PC, console, automotive and TV. Using these arrays of programmable computing elements PowerVR G62xx and G64xx deliver high compute power efficiency while minimising power and bandwidth requirements. The PowerVR G62xx and G64xx, have two and four compute clusters respectively. 

PowerVR Series6 GPU cores are designed to offer computing performance exceeding 100GFLOPS (gigaFLOPS) and reaching the TFLOPS (teraFLOPS) range enabling high-level graphics performance from mobile through to high-end compute and graphics solutions. Rogue cores are specified to ensure the fill rates required for the latest smartphones, tablets and TVs, as well as the multiple screen support demanded by the automotive industry.

Rogue meets requirements for compute APIs including OpenCL 1.x and Renderscript Compute, delivering an optimal balance of performance versus power consumption for mobile and embedded devices. All members of the Series6 family are designed to support all features of the latest graphics APIs including the next generation of the OpenGL ES API*, OpenGL 3.x/4.x, and DirectX10 with certain family members extending their capabilities to full WHQL-compliant DirectX11.1 functionality.

The PowerVR Series6 family delivers a significant portfolio of new technologies and features, including: advanced scalable compute cluster architecture; high efficiency compression technology including lossless image and parameter compression and the widely respected PVRTC2™ texture compression; an enhanced scheduling architecture; dedicated housekeeping processor based on Imagination’s Meta technology; and a new generation Tile Based Deferred Rendering architecture. These features combine to produce a highly latency tolerant architecture that consumes the lowest memory bandwidth in the industry while delivering the best performance per mm2 and per mW.

END

Imagination also recently announced further collaboration with TSMC:

http://www.digitimes.com/news/a20120615PR204.html

GPU IP vendor Imagination Technologies has announced a collaboration with TSMC to ensure that licensees of all of Imagination's IP cores can optimize speed, area and power consumption on TSMC's most-advanced 28nm and below processes.

Imagination is already a member of TSMC's Soft-IP Alliance program. The IP licensor said the announcement is made as part of its closer relationship with the foundry partner.

Imagination's IP core families in this collaboration include PowerVR graphics, PowerVR video and display, Ensigma communications, and Meta processors. Meta is a 32-bit hardware multi-threaded processor architecture.

"Many of our licensees rely on TSMC to provide them with leading edge low power, high performance silicon foundry capabilities. This strengthening of our relationship with TSMC reflects our determination to deliver the best possible SoC solutions on the latest silicon processes for our SoC IP licensing partners," said Tony King-Smith, VP marketing, Imagination. "We believe this initiative will ensure that Imagination's licensees to continue to push the boundaries of what is possible for future generations of advanced SoCs."

In addition, Imagination noted that the firm has grown its licensee portfolio in Taiwan. Through the support of its Taiwan-based partners including MediaTek, MStar, Realtek, Sunplus and SiS, Imagination is able to reach the local OEM and ODM companies in China, the GPU IP licensor said.

For instance, many China-based OEMs have developed MediaTek-based phones. MediaTek has licensed Imagination's PowerVR Series6 for its smartphone processors.

In China, Imagination has expanded its local licensee base to include HiSilicon, Ingenic and Rockchip, the IP vendor revealed. Imagination is also partnering with well-known chip suppliers such as TI, whose processors adopted by China's OEMs including Lenovo and Huawei.

And to respond to its growing business in Asia, Imagination has moved to increase its local engineering and sales support, China and Taiwan, the UK-based IP supplier noted.

END

ARM recently had an analyst investor day, during which they gave the impression (imo) that they were winning the battle for GPU in the China/Taiwan territory. A quick look at some of the names in the above article would suggest otherwise. 

Mediatek re-iterated its estimate of smartphone chips at the AGM earlier of 75m for the full-year and these are IMG'd, so it is quickly becoming our no.2 chip shipper (after Apple of course). It should not be too long before the IMG'd TV chips from market leaders Mediatek and MStar (currently Mali) also start shipping. 

So things are looking great for IMG in China/Taiwan with much more to come. We should get more information on 19th June in the Full Year statement from IMG and the presentation slides.

Imagination scores huge win at HiSilicon

Imagination today announced a hugely significant win at HiSilicon. This is very exciting news for several reasons:

1. HiSilicon is essentially the chip arm of Huawei (spun off in 2004), the large Chinese OEM with global ambitions and plenty of financial muscle to back it up. HiSilicon made news at MWC (Barcelona) with its K3V2 quad-core processor with '16 core GPU' (turned out to be Vivante designed). Clearly, they didn't want to settle for Vivante (or any other cheap solution eg.Mali) and wisely,went for the best.
2. The license is for multiple IP across the PowerVR range (ie. it's a biggie), including graphics, video and display cores.
3. HiSilicon becomes the 9th PowerVR Rogue licensee (5 named, 4 not confirmed). The top companies are keen to secure the best future graphics technologies and ecosystems.

The PR:

Imagination Technologies Group plc (LSE: IMG; "Imagination"), a leader in System-on-Chip Intellectual Property ("SoC IP"), has signed a license agreement with HiSilicon Technologies Co., Ltd. ("HiSilicon") covering multiple PowerVR multimedia IP cores from Imagination, including graphics, video and display technologies. Under the license agreement HiSilicon has licensed a member of the PowerVR Series6 'Rogue' GPU graphics family.

HiSilicon will deploy Imagination’s technology in SoCs targeting the mobile and consumer markets.

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

Separately the CEO Hossein Yassaie has been featured in a number of press interviews lately, and here is the latest one:

http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/markets/article-2138580/CITY-INTERVIEW-The-quiet-Iranian-smart-phones.html#ixzz1tmt9fq5f

Sunplus Technology Extends Relationship with Imagination

Since much earlier license agreements for PowerVR MBX (old days) we haven't heard much from Sunplus. So it was a nice surprise for IMGers to see this PR today:

Imagination Technologies Group plc (LSE: IMG; "Imagination"), a leader in System-on-Chip Intellectual Property ("SoC IP"), has signed a license agreement with Sunplus Technology Co., Ltd. ("Sunplus") (TAIEX: 2401, LSE: SUPD) for IP from Imagination's PowerVR SGX graphics family.
Sunplus will deploy Imagination's PowerVR SGX graphics technology in SoCs targeting the Home Entertainment market.
Says Dr. Archie Yeh, President of Sunplus:
"Advanced graphics performance is becoming increasingly important for future Home Multimedia System. We are pleased to extend our partnership with Imagination Technologies, the leader in embedded graphics, for Sunplus' SoC products."
Says Tony King-Smith, VP marketing, Imagination:
"We are pleased that, having assessed the available technologies, Sunplus has again selected PowerVR. This latest expansion of our partnership will help both companies to further drive and exploit the latest graphics trends."
Under the terms of its licensing arrangements, Imagination receives licence fees and royalty revenues on SoCs incorporating Imagination's IP.
END

TKS is of course referring to cheaper (but inferior in terms of both graphics ,ecosystem and support) alternatives such as Mali and Vivante.
Sunplus are another Taiwanese player focused on SoCs for BD players, HDTVs and STBs.
ARM continue to make a lot of noise regarding Mali's supposed 70% (?) market share of 3D HW graphics enabled HDTVs, but IMG have the following significant partners in this area:

MStar (2013) - no.1
Mediatek - no.2
LG
Sigma Designs/Trident
Intel
NEC/Renesas
NXP
Sunplus
Fujitsu
SiS
Qualcomm (Display and UCC cores)

IMG will soon be making significant in-roads to that 70% figure imo. Then there's always the prospect of a future real Apple TV...


In other news, Amazon's blowout Q1 revealed the Kindle Fire remains the no.1 item on Amazon.com since launch.  Research firm comScore revealed Kindle Fire has taken 54.4% of US market share of Android tablets in February.
Lastly, Mediatek just came out with Q2 figures and raised their target of smartphone chipsets to 75m for the year (up from 50m) - pretty much all of these are IMG'd (see SoC list). Great stuff !

Apple Q2 numbers

Another stunning set of numbers from Apple last night.
For iOS (IMG'd) devices we have:

iPhone = 35.1m (well above forecasts)
iPad = 11.8m ( just above forecasts and only includes 2 weeks of new iPad sales)
iPod = 7.7m (above forecast, over 50% again iPod Touch)
no numbers given for Apple TV this time
The total iOS devices for the quarter was over 50m

This gives the following running totals from 1/4/2011 - 31/3/2012 (Apple's last 4 quarters):

iPhone = 109.2m
iPad = 47.5m
iPod Touch = 19-20m
Plus 3-4m Apple TV

Giving a total of approx. 179m iOS devices in that time period .
IMG's year runs from 1/5/2011-30/4/2012, so this translates to massive royalty volume for IMG in FY 2011/12. The IMG guidance of 300-320m royalty volume for this FY looks comfortable certainly.

Full transcript with Q&A here:
http://seekingalpha.com/article/524451-apple-s-ceo-discusses-q2-2012-results-earnings-call-transcript

Imagination signs up Qualcomm for Ensigma UCC

Qualcomm, the undisputed leader of the mobile chips world, has signed up for Ensigma UCC IP, which is used in  broadcast, communications and connectivity chips. This is a major endorsement of Ensigma UCC, and Qualcomm becomes the 2nd Tier One licensee of this technology (other one suspected ,but not confirmed, to be Broadcom).

It is also a broadening/deepening of the IMG/Qualcomm relationship, which will hopefully extend into PowerVR Graphics/Video in the near future.

Until now, analysts (even the bulls), have not modeled revenue for the Ensigma division, but with this announcement things may be about to change imo.

PR:

Imagination Technologies Group plc (LSE: IMG; "Imagination"), a leader in System-on-Chip Intellectual Property ("SoC IP"), has signed a license agreement with Qualcomm Incorporated (Nasdaq: QCOM), a world leader in 3G and next-generation mobile technologies, for certain IP from Imagination’s Ensigma UCC broadcast, communications and connectivity IP family.
Under the terms of its licensing arrangements, Imagination receives license fees and royalty revenues

END


Well done all at IMG.

Imagination market share update

Recently, JPR put out a release stating Qualcomm were the dominant player in mobile graphics with 33% market share.

Closer analysis showed IMG's share was at least 50% if you added up the various suppliers (Apple, TI etc) in his table ,but he made no comment about IMG at the time.

A few weeks later and we have this 'update' , demonstrating PowerVR are the clear leaders in terms of graphics IP, whichever way you wanna slice it. IMG's PR chief Dave Harold puts the suppliers market share at over 60% currently (rather than the 50% in the chart). Even more impressive is the near 80% share when GPU IP companies only are considered (takes out Qualcomm).

Vivante has also put in a respectable performance, beating both Nvidia and ARM Mali (!) - courtesy of Marvell pretty much (family connection).

The IMG bear analysts have been crowing for some time about how Mali and Nvidia are 'catching up' to PowerVR, no doubt they will ignore this report and make up some fantasy numbers instead.

A/V market shares (DTV,STB etc) are not included but would also make interesting reading given the strength of IMG's partners - Intel, Sigma Design,Renesas,LG, Mediatek, MStar. STM...

http://www.powermanagementdesignline.com/electronics-news/4304118/Imagination-outstrips-all-other-GPU-IP-suppliers

According to the latest research of the embedded graphics market by Jon Peddie Research (JPR), Imagination Technologies supplies more GPU IP then all other suppliers combined.

The research provides estimated mobile devices graphics chip shipments for 2011. Increasingly mobile devices have a graphics processor and those processors are integrated in the device’s system on a chip (SoC) application processor.

Application processors are made by a dozen plus semiconductor manufacturers including Broadcom, Intel, Marvell, MediaTek, Nvidia, ST-Ericson, Renesas, Texas Instruments, Qualcomm, Samsung, and others. All these companies fall into one of two categories, vertically integrated, and IP buyers.

Nvidia, Qualcomm and ZiiLabs are the vertically integrated companies with their own GPU designs; all the others buy GPU IP from one of five IP suppliers, ARM, DMP, Imagination Technologies, Takumi, and Vivante.

The exceptions to this tidy categorization, says JPR are Broadcom and Samsung which buy IP and also have an internal GPU design. Apple makes an SoC, but does not sell it commercially.

GPU IP only suppliers market share

The leading high volume suppliers of application processors are Apple, Texas Instruments, Qualcomm, and Samsung. Three of the four use Imagination Technologies’ GPU IP as well as several other smaller competitors.

Market share of mobile devices GPU IP

Other SoC suppliers buying GPU IP include Actions Semiconductor, Freescale, Huawei, Ingenic, Rockchip, and Wonder Media/VIA. These companies have products in the feature phone market; some are just entering the smartphone and tablet segment.

JPR says it expects the market share to be shift dramatically through 2012 as the existing players get more aggressive, customers lose share, and two new IP companies to enter the market.

Imagination says it has eight licensees for its Series 6 cores including: ST-Ericsson, Texas Instruments, Renesas and MediaTek (plus JPR believes  Apple, Intel, and Samsung). This is along with MStar, Ricoh and Rockchip, joining existing partners like Sony, Sigma and Realtek for the company’s PowerVR Series5 family.

Vivante is the surprising number two in IP GPU suppliers. Products incorporating Vivante technologies are based on the Marvell Armada and PXA communications processor. The PXA920 ships in mass market China Mobile OMS and Android TD smartphones from ASUS, Huawei, Lenovo, Samsung, ZTE and many others.

Vivante’s other licensees include Texas Instruments, Freescale, HiSilicon, Ingenic, Rockchip, and many more. Included in JPR's definition of 'mobile' are Smartphones, high-end feature phones, tablets, portable game consoles, cameras, and vehicles. JPR believes that plenoptic cameras with interactive performance using GPUs and embedded cameras with GPUs like Lytro and Ximea will show up this year.

JPR did not include navigational units as it couldn't find many that used a GPU and specifically excluded TVs, STBs, DVD players, watches, MP3 players, and digital picture frames.

JPR believes that as GPU IP prices drop and the quest for differentiation continues, combined with everything being on-line all the time, and the internet of things, GPUs will find their way into these other devices. But, it didn’t happen in 2011.

END

Confident IMS from Imagination Technologies

Imagination today gave its IMS, a very confident statement all round.
Licensing - remains robust after an excellent H1
Royalty volume - 300-320m indicated for full year, (H1 123m) , so the 'substantial acceleration' in volume IMG predicted at H1 results is materialising during H2 (177-197m for H2).
Royalty rate - expecting at least 31c/chip (blended)
Ensigma UCCP3 - sounds like more licensing has taken place
Even PURE does not sound too bad.

No doubt HY will be on top form during the CC this morning.

Imagination Technologies Group plc ('Imagination', LSE: IMG), a leading multimedia, communications and embedded processor technology company, is today issuing its Interim Management Statement for the period from 1 November 2011 to 7 March 2012.
Trading update
Following the strong performance in the first half of the financial year, the momentum in the business continued. The Group’s revenue showed good growth against last year as expected.
A combination of new product launches, the traditional holiday period uplift and continuing momentum across the customer base, all contributed to the expected ramp in royalty volumes (quarter ended December 2011). Royalty rates remain firm as the proportion of royalty volume incorporating newer IP was maintained.
Steady progress in licensing continued, following high levels of activity in the first half. The Group signed new licences with both existing and new customers across all key IP product families.
Despite the tough UK retail environment and weak global consumer demand, PURE revenues remained marginally ahead of last year. The strong growth in overseas markets continued.
Technology update
PowerVR graphics & video - the first two Series6 ‘Rogue architecture’ cores were launched in January (PowerVR G6200, G6400). PowerVR Series6 graphics delivers up to 20x performance improvement over the previous generation comparable GPU cores, targeting the same markets. Production versions of the IP cores have been shipped to lead customers.
The optimised combination of GPUs (graphics processors) and VPUs (video processors) continued to gain traction, stimulating growing interest in the Group’s PowerVR VXD video decoders and VXE encoders alongside GPUs.
Ensigma communications - the Group saw continued growth in interest and licensing for the Group’s multi-standard Ensigma Series3 UCCP DTV solutions, as customers appreciate the value of the technology able to target global multi-standard TVs and STBs.
The on-chip connectivity support in the form of Wi-Fi and other standards continue to interest more customers, looking to integrate such functions for connected consumer audio and multimedia products for home, mobile and automotive use.
Hellosoft V.VoIP and VoLTE - Imagination saw good progress and momentum, including strong engagement in key initial LTE network deployment. It had a positive reception to the new Social Communicator V.VoIP products shown at MWC 2012. These integrate voice and video over IP (V.VoIP) into Facebook and other social media services.
Caustic Professional - good progress was made in the initial engagement in the professional market segment. Technology development and initial delivery are making good progress with the first ray-tracing test chip now manufactured and in use by the development team.
Outlook
The licensing pipeline remains robust. This is expected to result in another good year of growth in licensing revenue, although as ever the timing of deal closures is not always certain.
The royalty volume trend for the full year is in line with the expected range (300m – 320m units) with royalty rates likely to remain at least at the level shown in the first half of the financial year.
Revenue for the financial year from PURE is expected to show a modest improvement on last year, although the environment remains challenging.
The Board remains confident that the Group is on track for continued progress, with the full year results expected to show another good year of growth.
Hossein Yassaie, Imagination’s Chief Executive said:
"The demand for our technologies continues to grow strongly. They are powering the transition in several markets to "smart" devices - in particular phones, tablets, TVs and in cars, where our state-of-the-art multimedia and connectivity offering are key drivers.
"Our strategy to identify and create disruptive technologies is paying off - it is set to continue to fuel further strong progress over the next few years."

New iPad gets PowerVR SGX 543MP4 graphics

Apple announced the new iPad today , with 'quad-core graphics' , in other words, SGX 543MP4.

http://www.apple.com/ipad/features/

presentation:  http://events.apple.com.edgesuite.net/123pibhargjknawdconwecown/event/index.html

In the presentation Tim Cook and others repeatedly mentioned the amazing graphics capability (and improved video output:1080p , courtesy of PowerVR also). It seems like the main point of this iteration is:

1. Killer graphics/video , better than anything competitors can manage for 2012 and much of 2013
2. LTE/4G ready, so competitors like Android and Windows 8 do not have an advantage with connectivity either.

Sadly for Nvidia, Tim Cook was keen to point out the graphics performance of A5X chip was 4X that of Tegra 3 !