MWC 2013

MWC Barcelona is here again. All IMG-related announcements will be collated here (as with CES last month) during the week.

http://renesasmobile.com/news-events/news/2013/next-generation-low-power-lte-high-performance-processing   (APE6 the first mobile SoC featuring PowerVR Rogue announced)

http://withimagination.imgtec.com/index.php/powervr/renesas-electronics-previews-their-range-of-powervr-based-ape6-processors-at-mwc

http://www.engadget.com/2013/02/25/intel-launches-dual-core-clover-trail-mobile-atom-processors/

http://www.engadget.com/2013/02/24/lenovo-a1000-a3000-s6000/

http://www.engadget.com/2013/02/24/acer-Smart%20Display-DA220HQL-hands-on/

http://www.engadget.com/2013/02/24/alcatel-idol-x-hands-on-video/

http://www.engadget.com/2013/02/25/asus-fonepad-announced/

http://www.itproportal.com/2013/02/25/mwc-2013-exclusive-dual-core-st-ericsson-novathor-l8580-soc-crushes-competition-benchmarks/

The Official IMG MWC releases:

http://www.imgtec.com/News/Release/index.asp?NewsID=730  (PowerVR Rogue G6100)

http://www.imgtec.com/News/Release/index.asp?NewsID=731

http://www.imgtec.com/News/Release/index.asp?NewsID=729

http://www.imgtec.com/News/Release/index.asp?NewsID=728

http://www.imgtec.com/News/Release/index.asp?NewsID=726

http://www.imgtec.com/News/Release/index.asp?NewsID=732 (ZTE/Hellosoft)

Post-MWC Summary from IMG:

Imagination delivers key messages on power and mobile technology influence at mobile world’s main event

London, 7th March 2013: Imagination Technologies (IMG.L), a leading multimedia, processor, communications and cloud technologies company, reports that at Mobile World Congress (MWC) 2013 in Barcelona, many leading semiconductor suppliers, mobile and telecom OEMs, and key strategic ecosystem partners expressed their strong support and enthusiasm for Imagination’s PowerVR graphics, video and vision roadmaps, as well as the rationale behind the recent acquisition of MIPS Technologies.

Imagination presented its premise that power consumption and thermal envelope considerations are becoming a dominant factor in mobile SoC design decisions, and how the benchmark industry, customers and partners must fully take power into consideration when assessing GPU or CPU performance.

Imagination also explained how technologies created for mobile devices, such as advanced GPUs and 4K capable video decoders and encoders, are influencing the broader consumer electronics market towards higher convergence as other devices try to catch up to phones and tablets in ‘smartness’.

Says David McBrien, EVP sales and business development at Imagination: 

“This was our busiest MWC ever in terms of engagements with both existing and new customers, not only feeding our sales pipeline across all our mobile technologies but showing the industry’s strong interest and confidence in the roadmaps for our entire IP portfolio. 

“Partnerships developed at previous MWC’s have led to the strong range of products that use our technologies across the mobile and telecom segments on show throughout MWC this year, both in public and in private. We expect even more compelling results for MWC 2014 as we execute on plans developed at this year’s event.”

Says Tony King-Smith, EVP marketing at Imagination:

“MWC 2013 was another great event for us, with the leadership of our licensees and their customer’s mobile and telecom products clearly on show throughout the event. 

“It was also the first opportunity for us to show our new portfolio of MIPS processor IP and to reveal our new brand identity too. We were delighted with the overwhelmingly positive response to our latest technologies, strategies and roadmaps, and look forward to further strengthening our breadth of IP deployment and influence throughout every aspect of the mobile industry.”

For the first time, Imagination demonstrated its MIPS family of processor IP alongside its market-leading PowerVR graphics, video and vision IP, innovative Ensigma communications IP, HelloSoft V.VoIP IP and Flow cloud connectivity IP solutions.

Imagination announced:

• The PowerVR G6100, a new entry-level PowerVR Series6 GPU IP core which delivers the smallest area of any member of the ground-breaking PowerVR Series6 ‘Rogue’ family and will enable mass-market adoption of OpenGL ES 3.0
• Imagination’s HelloSoft VoLTE solution is now available on commercial ZTE VoLTE-enabled handsets, powered by the MetroPCS 4G LTE network at Dallas MetroPCS stores
• Ceragon Networks Ltd, is leveraging MIPS microprocessor cores in its latest generation of packet radio solutions - their new FibeAir IP-20C targets the unique demands of 4G/LTE-A networks, leveraging breakthrough multi-core technology that employs a parallel radio processing engine to deliver up to four times the capacity of existing solutions.

Key demonstrations at Imagination’s stand included:

• The latest PowerVR Series6 GPU chipsets running full OpenGL ES 3.0 demonstration applications
• PowerVR Series5XT GPUs running unique OpenGL ES 2.0 extensions enabling OpenGL ES 3.0 capabilities on today’s PowerVR-enabled SoCs
• OpenCL and Filterscript demos showing the benefits of GPU compute for performance and power consumption for mobile devices
• A growing range of highly competitive Android tablets targeting low-cost markets featuring PowerVR graphics
• The latest PowerVR video decode and encode IP cores supporting the latest video standards as well as 4K Ultra-HD
• Advanced cameras using early examples of forthcoming PowerVR vision IP
• MIPS processors using multithreading to perform LTE advanced baseband processing, delivering a performance increase of 45% over a single-threaded platform
• High performance, low cost (sub-$100) Android tablets based on MIPS processors
• State of the art multiroom streaming audio solutions using Ensigma Wi-Fi and Meta Audio IP
• HelloSoft voice and video over IP and LTE technologies as well as RCS (Rich Communications Services) running across multiple mobile and computing platforms

Other notable highlights from Imagination’s partners at MWC 2013 include:

• Numerous handsets from leading OEMs including ZTE, Huawei, Blackberry, ASUS and Lenovo, all powered by partner devices
• Renesas APE6 – the first mobile apps processor SoC with PowerVR Series6 ‘Rogue’ graphics
• Intel’s launch of Atom CloverTrail+ devices incorporating PowerVR SGX544MP2 graphics and PowerVR VXD & VXE video technologies
• Devices based on Intel’s Atom Z2420 ’Lexington’ smartphone processor for emerging markets, with PowerVR graphics and video
• ST’s highly integrated apps processor on 28nm FD-SOI featuring PowerVR graphics
• MediaTek apps processors using PowerVR in an extensive range of handsets, particularly for the Chinese market
• MIPS-Based products from Altair Semiconductor, Broadcom, Cavium, Ceragon Networks and others
• Demonstrations from key Imagination partners including: Vadaro, Metaio, Unity, I Feel Smart, Plingm, Rightware, Renesas, SAI Technology and Ingenic Semiconductor

Reflecting its growing strength as a leading innovative supplier of a broadening portfolio of synergistic, advanced technologies being used throughout the world, Imagination also debuted its new branding at MWC 2013.

END

Next week we have the IMS followed 2 days later by the Samsung Galaxy S4 announcement in NYC (should confirm non-LTE versions with Exynos 5 Octa/SGX 544MP inside)

Imagination enters the CPU Licensing market

A couple of days ago, IMG announced the completion of the MIPS acquisition. This will prove to be a landmark moment in IMG's history as a new industry-leading force is created.
Pretty much none of this is factored into IMG's share price at the present time imo.

Imagination Technologies Group plc (LSE: IMG, "Imagination") has completed the acquisition of the operating business and certain patent properties of MIPS Technologies, Inc. (Nasdaq: MIPS, "MIPS") as well as license rights to all of the remaining patent properties.

MIPS is a leading provider of CPU (central processing unit) architectures and IP cores.

The cash consideration of US$100 million was paid on completion, financed from Imagination’s existing cash resources and a new acquisition facility.

At the MIPS Stockholder Meeting held on 6 February 2013, MIPS stockholders voted by the requisite majority on all proposals to enable the acquisition to complete.

Imagination has now commenced implementation of its detailed integration programme. Further details on this will be provided in the Interim Management Statement in March.

Hossein Yassaie, Group Chief Executive, Imagination, said:
"We are delighted to have completed this acquisition, which has been welcomed by both companies' customers and the electronics industry at large, and also to welcome our MIPS colleagues to the Imagination family.

“The combination of MIPS' capabilities with our existing Meta CPU technologies will accelerate our growth in the substantial CPU IP market across many segments."

Blackberry 10 smartphones

Blackberry finally unveiled its first BB10 smartphones yesterday (Z10 and Q10) :

http://press.blackberry.com/press/2013/blackberry-10-re-designed-re-engineered-and-re-invented.html

From the information available so far (Anandtech etc), it looks like the non-LTE versions (and non-US/Canada) of those devices are powered by TI OMAP 4470 (featuring Power VR SGX 544MPx). The other versions are Snapdragon S4.

Apple Q1 2013

http://seekingalpha.com/article/1129431-apple-s-ceo-discusses-f1q-2013-results-earnings-call-transcript?part=single

The numbers (from IMG perspective):

iPhones 47.8m
iPad 22.9m
iPod 12.7m (>50% Touch)
Apple TV 2m

Over 75m iOS devices in total for the quarter.
From April-December 2012 this gives approx. 170m iOS devices. Adding this to the continued Mediatek ramp (and all the other stuff !) IMG remain on track for well north of 500m royalty volume in the FY.
Near-term we have the Blackberry 10 launch (OMAP 4470) and then MWC where no doubt there will be multiple major SoC and product wins announced.

Imagination CES 2013 higlights

IMG today issued an rns summarising their excellent success during this year's CES, particularly with respect to the TV/Consumer markets.  Of course, they are unable to mention Samsung Exynos 5 Octa SoC specifically at this stage, but it looks like that will come (via the Galaxy S4) at next month's MWC.

16 January 2013: Imagination Technologies, a leading multimedia and communications technologies company, reports significant growth in penetration in TV and other consumer markets. This was demonstrated by yesterdays’ announcement regarding Mediatek and a record number of new product announcements from its partners at CES 2013 in Las Vegas.

Imagination’s SoC partners are at heart of the ‘smart’ revolution in consumer electronics, based on two pivotal sets of technologies:

• multimedia which enable smooth UI, rich graphics and high quality video
• connectivity which give devices ‘live’ intelligence and features such as location services, content on demand and social networking

Products from Imagination’s partners in the consumer market will deliver new industry-leading levels of performance and capabilities to users in 2013, as the ‘smartness’ enabled by Imagination’s technologies increases its presence in TVs, STBs, tablets and other consumer devices.

Yesterday, Imagination also announced that it has signed a further license agreement with Mediatek for a multi-core member of Imagination's PowerVR SGX Series5XT graphics processor family, to be deployed in SoC devices targeting the digital TV market.

This announcement is the most recent demonstration of the TV and STB SoC industry’s growing commitment to Imagination’s IP, as Mediatek joins Entropic, Intel, LG, MStar, Realtek, Sigma, SiS and other leading SoC partners not yet announced.

Notable products on show at CES 2013 include:

• LG Cinema 3D Smart TVs, the world’s first announced TV products with advanced PowerVR Series6 GPUs, as well as PowerVR Series5XT in mid-range products
• Windows 8 Ultrabook PCs and tablets from a range of leading brands including Samsung, Acer and Panasonic Toughpad, based on Intel’s Z2760 ‘Clovertrail’ Atom processor with PowerVR graphics and PowerVR video decode and encode
• Archos 80 and 97 Platinum tablets using the AllWinner A31 processor with PowerVR SGX 544MP GPU
• Low cost, high performance Android tablets from multiple Chinese OEMs featuring Ingenic Semiconductor’s JZ4780 application processor with dual-core MIPS CPU and PowerVR Series5 ‘SGX’ GPU
• Lenovo K900 smartphone based on Intel Z2580 CloverTrail+ with PowerVR SGX544MP GPU
• Archos ‘TV connect’, a low cost Android add-on to any TV with HDMI featuring Full Access Google Play Store, using TI’s OMAP4470 with PowerVR SGX
• Alcatel One Touch Scribe HD mobile phone with MediaTek MT6589
• Garmin's K2 car infotainment platform, based on TI’s new Jacinto 6 platform (based on OMAP5) and PowerVR SGX544MP
• Many other products from brands including Acer, Hampoo, Karbonn Mobile, Lava Mobile, and ZTE

Semiconductor highlights included:

• Mediatek’s latest MT6589 featuring PowerVR Series5XT graphics
• Intel's Atom Z2420 'Lexington' smartphone processor for emerging markets, with PowerVR graphics and video
• SiS330 multi-standard global TV receiver platform with Ensigma UCCP320 RPU (radio processing unit)
• ST-Ericsson NovaThor L8580 LTE smartphone platform featuring a PowerVR SGX544 GPU running at 600MHz, using 28nm FD-SOI
• The new TI OMAP 5-based ‘Jacinto 6’ SoC, designed for automotive applications with PowerVR SGX544MPx graphics

A number of undisclosed products from major brands containing Imagination’s technologies were also shown behind closed doors throughout CES in the TV, mobile, automotive and other consumer markets.

Says Tony King-Smith, VP marketing at Imagination:

"It’s been another barnstorming year for Imagination at CES 2013, with record numbers of meetings with our many licensee, tools, developer and OEM partners. A growing number of leading edge TV products such as LG’s 4K TVs relying on PowerVR Series6 and Series5/5XT graphics, Win8 PC ultrabooks and tablets featuring PowerVR graphics and video decode/encode, together with ground-breaking automotive products such as Garmin’s K2 infotainment system, demonstrated Imagination’s tremendous progress across all consumer markets as well as mobile."

Imagination’s next major event will be MWC, where further major product announcements for both SoCs and end products using Imagination’s IP will be made.

Mediatek extends DTV partnership with Imagination

The day after Anandtech revealed IMG had replaced Mali for the new Samsung Exynos 5 Octa SoC, we have this announcement:

MediaTek extends licensing partnership with Imagination to TV market

Imagination Technologies Group plc (LSE: IMG; "Imagination"), a leading multimedia, communications and embedded processor technology company, reports that it has signed a further license agreement with MediaTek Inc., a leading fabless semiconductor company for wireless communications and digital multimedia solutions, for a multi-core member of Imagination's PowerVR SGX Series5XT graphics processor family.

MediaTek will deploy the technology in SoC devices targeting the digital TV market.

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

END

The initial DTV announcement for 5XT was back in 2011, so I'm expecting an IMG'd Mediatek DTV SoC anytime soon.

CES 2013

I'll try to collate all CES 2013 IMG-related announcements over the next few days.
IMG enter CES 2013 in pretty confident mood with the successful takeover of MIPS and a well-deserved knighthood for HY (Sir). Mediatek have also released the quad-core MT6589 and orders are flooding in it seems. IMG are also now the leading supplier of graphics to the rapidly growing Chinese tablet market.
CES is not normally that big on the IMG news front (most of that comes with next month's MWC) but things are looking different this time round:

http://www.imgtec.com/News/Release/index.asp?NewsID=716
The big news there is the unveiling of the first Rogue products, including TVs (? Sony ?LG).

Here we go - it's LG !
http://www.imgtec.com/News/Release/index.asp?NewsID=719

'One highlight of CES 2013 is the launch by LG of their new CINEMA 3D Smart TV products, featuring PowerVR Series6 graphics. This demonstrates the unstoppable trend towards high performance GPUs in TVs becoming a ‘must-have’ feature.

Imagination’s licensees in the consumer space include: Entropic, Intel, LG, MStar, MediaTek, Orca, Renesas, Realtek, SiS, Sigma Designs, Sony, Sunplus, ST Microelectronics and others. '

http://withimagination.imgtec.com/index.php/powervr/the-next-generation-smart-tv-from-lg-premieres-at-ces-2013-shows-off-powervr-series6-rogue-graphics (Confirms LG H13 chip using Rogue)

http://www.imgtec.com/News/Release/index.asp?NewsID=718

http://www.imgtec.com/News/Release/index.asp?NewsID=717

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/automotive-infotainment-re-defined-tis-jacinto-6-automotive-omaptm-processor-paves-the-way-for-an-unparalleled-in-vehicle-experience-2013-01-07

http://www.theverge.com/2013/1/10/3862538/qnxs-car-platform-2-0-1080p-display-lte-video-calling

http://ces.cnet.com/8301-34438_1-57562374/garmin-k2-platform-previews-the-dashboard-of-the-near-future/

http://www.prnewswire.co.in/news-releases/ittiam-unveils-next-generation-vcs-room-conferencing-with-audio-beam-forming-and-seamless-call-continuity-for-an-unmatched-video-calling-experience-in-living-rooms-185861452.html

http://www.engadget.com/2013/01/09/archos-tv-connect-hands-on/ (OMAP 4460)

http://gadgets.ndtv.com/tablets/news/panasonic-unveils-windows-8-pro-running-fz-g1-android-running-jt-b1-touchpads-315329

http://www.engadget.com/2013/01/07/alcatel-one-touch-scribe-hd/

http://www.engadget.com/2013/01/07/acer-announces-iconia-b1-a71/

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/highly-integrated-mips-based-tm-140000977.html   (Vivante replaced by IMG)

http://newsroom.intel.com/community/intel_newsroom/blog/2013/01/07/intel-delivers-broad-range-of-new-mobile-experiences
(Z2420 using SGX540 and Clovertrail+ Z2580 using SGX544MP+)

http://www.engadget.com/2013/01/08/lenovo-k900-intel-clover-trail/

http://www.pcper.com/news/Systems/CES-2013-Prototype-Intel-TV-System-Spotted-Imagination-Suite

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/mips-highlights-extensive-connected-entertainment-140000531.html

http://www.itproportal.com/2013/01/09/ces-2013-archos-97b-platinum-set-to-rival-ipad-4/

http://www.engadget.com/2013/01/04/velocity-micro-unveils-tiny-edge-mini-cruz-d610-and-q610/

http://www.eetimes.com/design/communications-design/4404880/Analyst-praises-Renesas-big-little-LTE-processor

http://www.sigmadesigns.com/uploads/library/press_releases/130107d.pdf

http://www.stericsson.com/press_releases/L8580_eQuad.jsp  (new NovaThor L8580 with SGX544MP+)

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/broadcom-powers-worlds-first-android-130300620.html

http://www.anandtech.com/show/6602/samsung-announces-exynos-5-octa-soc-4-cortex-a7s-4-cortex-a15s (interesting speculation from Anandtech on GPU inside new Samsung Exynos 5 Octa)

And then....
http://www.anandtech.com/show/6654/samsungs-exynos-5-octa-powered-by-powervr-sgx-544mp3-not-arms-mali

Imagination Interim Results 2012/13

IMG today announced the 6-month interims (until 31.10.12):
Full statement is here:
http://www.imgtec.com/corporate/presentations/interim12/Half_Year_Results_Statement_12Dec2012.pdf


The overall tone was bullish, and I am sure this will be reflected in the analysts CC later this morning.
A number of things were striking about these results:

1. The royalty volume, at 237m was well ahead of most estimates and showed the strength/breadth of contribution outside of the big 2 (Apple and Mediatek) customers.
2. The asp worked out at 26cents/chip (blended) , due to the large Mediatek ramp, and the outlook for this is stable for the rest of the FY (due to increased contribution from higher asp chips). Some years ago, most would have expected much lower asp by the time IMG reached 500m chips/year.
3. Licensing was a concern for many but it worked out higher than many predicted. For the first time, IMG refer to 'subscription licenses' in the statement. Obviously that relates to the biggies such as Apple , Sony etc.
So lack of license rns is no longer an indicator of reduced licensing.
4. Opex was higher than predicted but this is a short-term effect of IMG sucessfully recruiting the required engineers for the scaling-up of the business. Opex growth will slow substantially in H2.
5. IMG chose to specifically address the Intel and TI issues (obviously with permission from those two companies) - the strength and depth of the relationships was emphasised. There is a difference between press perception and what actually happens behind the scenes.
6. Further high profile product launches are expected this FY from key OEMs in the mobile, tablet and STB/TV areas. ( I would expect news from LG and  ST in regard to TV/STB areas in early 2013.)
7. Design wins in the Chinese tablet market (white-box) was emphasised .
8. The all important figure of SoCs: now have 146 design wins, 69 of which are shipping/about to ship and 77 in-design (future royalties).

Well done IMG.

Financial highlights

• Group half-year revenue up 27% to £71.4m (2011: £56.3m)
  • Strong Technology performance maintained with revenues increased 34% to £57.3m (2011: £42.6m)
    • Royalty revenue jumps 66% to £39.1m (2011: £23.6m)
    • Another strong level of 1H licensing revenues of £17.8m (2011: £19.0m, 2010: £11.6m)
  • Pure revenue improved to £14.1m (2011: £13.7m)
    • Slightly improved UK retail but mixed international markets
• Adjusted pre-tax profit* up 10% to £16.8m (2011: £15.3m)
• Reported pre-tax profit of £10.5m (2011: £10.4m)
• Adjusted earnings per share* 5.4p (2011: 4.9p)
• Reported earnings per share 3.0p (2011: 3.0p)
• Cash balance of £54.5m (30 April 2012: £66.3m)
  • £12m investment in new building and £5m of strategic investments

* Adjusted results exclude non-recurring items, non-cash based share incentive charges and amortisation of intangible assets acquired from acquisitions. The reconciliation from reported results to adjusted results is set out in note 6.

Business highlights

Technology business

Royalties and chip/end-product design wins

• Partner chips shipped up more than 90% to 237m units (2011: 123m)
• Significant volume shipments and momentum in all mobile segments, tablet/personal computing, gaming, TV/STB & automotive
  • Including very strong share in lower-end handset and emerging markets growth
  • Average royalty rate reduced as expected with overall revenue effect very positive
• Strong growth in chip design wins with 146 active partner chips (2011: 125); 69 in production (2011: 54)
• Growing number of end-products across key OEMs in all regions including China
• Other high profile products from several key OEMs in the pipeline with a number close to launch
• First ray tracing solution targeting professional market launched and receiving very positive feedback from developers

Licensing

• Maintained good licensing activities across all of our IP including
  • Many new and extended agreements with existing partners including Allwinner, Greenplug, MediaTek, Realtek, Renesas, TI, Toumaz
  • Also a number of on-going long-term subscription licenses with certain key partners
  • Several new partners added including Entropic, Ineda and Socle
• 12 important agreements involving around 20 silicon IP core licenses
  • Addressing all our markets - mobile phone and tablets/mobile computing with both segments across high, mid and low-end categories, TV/STB, PMP/Camera, in-car navigation/dashboard, home connectivity and automation, digital radio and industrial/enterprise equipment
  • Including graphics, video, broadcast/connectivity and processor silicon IP cores, as well as V.VoIP technologies
• Continued active pipeline of prospects across all IP families

Pure business

• UK revenues marginally up and international revenues variable reflecting local markets
  • On-going DAB adoption worldwide and growing demand for connected audio
• Continued strategic development and pathfinding role
  • Focus on development of technologies for digital broadcast, connected devices and home cloud solutions
• Key recent new products launched to drive and complement Imagination key IP

Hossein Yassaie, Chief Executive, commented:

"An increasingly diverse range of product shipments, across our many partners and in all regions, have resulted in more than 90% growth in unit shipments to 237m for the first half – ahead of our target. On average around 1.5 million devices are now being shipped with our IP daily, despite the global economic environment.

"The Group is continuing to build on this momentum and with further significant chip and end-product level design wins anticipated we now expect the full year unit shipments to be close to the 500m unit mark. 

"Our 'smart' technologies continue to be adopted 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 depressed consumer spending, Pure continues to showcase effectively and help to drive strategic connectivity technologies as part of our overall plans. Whilst the tight economic environment is as expected impacting Pure's performance in the short-term, we anticipate seeing a financial improvement in this division over the medium term, driven by new product opportunities and international markets.

"We remain 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"

Imagination acquires MIPS

Imagination surprised pretty much everyone today by announcing a takeover of MIPS.  At the AGM HY and the management team were confident about taking on ARM in the CPU space, but all the signals were this would be via our existing META technology. It now transpires HY had MIPS in mind. It also explains how IMG will easily surpass 1 billion units/year in royalty volume sooner than otherwise expected . It is thought that several of IMG's partners will have supported the acquisition.

On the plus side, this 'adds weight' to IMG's CPU offerings, and expands the ecosystem significantly to include new and important players (eg. Broadcom) from the important digital home market. There also plenty of concerns however, not least the effect on the asp (MIPS chips go for about 5 cents each cf. with 31c for IMG) and the fact that it is loss-making.
Regardless of the many pros/cons, it is certainly testament to the ambition of HY for Imagination.

Imagination acquires operating business, certain patent properties and license rights to other patent properties of MIPS Technologies Inc., a leading provider of CPU architectures and cores, for US$60 million

Imagination Technologies Group plc (LSE:IMG, "Imagination"), a leading multimedia, communications and embedded processor technology company, has signed an agreement to acquire the operating business and certain patent properties, as well as license rights to all of the remaining patent properties, of MIPS Technologies, Inc. ("MIPS"), a leading provider of CPU (central processing unit) processor architectures and cores, for a cash consideration of US$60 million.
In addition to the operating business of MIPS, Imagination’s purchase includes ownership of 82 key patent properties (the “Retained Patent Properties”) that are directly relevant to the MIPS® architecture, and comprehensive license rights to all of the remaining 498 MIPS’ patent properties (the “Divested Patent Properties”). In a separate transaction, the Divested Patent Properties are being sold to Bridge Crossing LLC, by MIPS for US$350 million.

Strategic Highlights

• Strengthens Imagination’s presence in the substantial and growing CPU IP segment in both established and new markets
• Combines complementary CPU technologies, resources, expertise and market presence of Imagination and MIPS to deliver enhanced scale on several fronts
• The integrated business aims to create a new industry-leading force in CPU development and licensing
• MIPS is one of the small number of CPU architectures directly supported by the Android™ OS
• Imagination secures ownership or license rights to the entire MIPS portfolio of 580 patent properties

Transaction Highlights

• Imagination to retain certain key patent properties directly relevant to the MIPS architecture
• Royalty-free, perpetual license to be granted to Imagination in respect of the Divested Patent Properties
• Anticipated to be accretive to Imagination's earnings in FY2014 (excluding one-off items)
• To be financed from existing cash resources
• Expected to close in Q1 CY2013

MIPS Overview

• MIPS pioneered modern 32-bit and 64-bit RISC CPU architectures
• MIPS’ customers shipped over 700 million royalty earning units in its financial year ended 30 June 2012
• MIPS had 56 royalty-paying licensees in its financial year ended 30 June 2012
• MIPS CPU intellectual property core licensing business generated c.US$60.0 million in revenue in its financial year ended 30 June 2012
• MIPS has recently launched new performance and area efficient Aptiv™ Generation of cores

Hossein Yassaie, Chief Executive Officer, Imagination said:

"MIPS is the company that pioneered the RISC CPU architecture and created an iconic and widely respected technology. I am absolutely delighted to welcome MIPS and its team to the Imagination family.
"I believe that the combination of our existing Meta CPU technologies and activities with MIPS'; capabilities will help us to create a new force to be reckoned with in the CPU IP market. I am confident the acquisition will accelerate our growth in the substantial CPU IP market across many segments.
"We have been working closely with MIPS for several years now and have a number of mutual customers and partners. I believe that this transaction will be welcomed by both companies'; customers and the electronics industry at large."

Sandeep Vij, President and Chief Executive Officer, MIPS said:

"The synergy between Imagination and MIPS makes the proposed transaction a notable step forward, not only for the two companies, but for the whole electronics industry.
"It was key for us that our customers and partners were assured of a strong, long term future for MIPS' architecture, cores and other technologies, and thanks to this agreement we are confident we have found the ideal partner to take that forward.
"The industry needs semiconductor IP companies with a breadth of respected processor architectures for all SoC processing requirements. This acquisition is a strong and welcome step in addressing such needs."

Strategic opportunity

The acquisition will bring together two of the world's top five semiconductor design IP vendors delivering benefits to both companies' customers and partners as well as generating significant new business and revenue opportunities.

The acquisition will further strengthen Imagination's position and opportunities in mobile, TV/set-top-box, consumer, and other embedded markets, as well as increase its penetration into networking, infrastructure and other markets where MIPS has enjoyed significant success.

The acquisition of MIPS adds highly respected RISC-based 32-bit and 64-bit CPU applications processor architectures that complement Imagination's existing Meta 32-bit embedded CPU IP product family. The architectures have similar philosophies in several key areas including hardware multi-threading whilst also bringing highly complementary capabilities. The resulting combined CPU IP offering will become one of the industry's strongest and most comprehensive.

The acquisition also adds a well-established ecosystem of customers, developers, operating systems and tool providers, who will all benefit from the strengthened position and broader IP offering that the newly combined business has to offer.

Imagination strongly believes that the selection of each major IP block for SoCs is a key and complex strategic decision of its customers. Imagination customers have received and will continue to receive the fullest support possible when they use Imagination IP alongside CPUs, or other IP cores, developed internally or licensed from other suppliers. Any customer wishing to use Imagination's CPUs (including MIPS' CPU), GPUs (graphics processors), VPUs (video processors) or RPU (radio processors) with IP cores from sources other than Imagination will be fully supported by Imagination without compromise. This customer-centric and supportive IP business philosophy has always been central to Imagination's business model, is valued by Imagination's partners and has resulted in widespread market penetration.

MIPS

MIPS (www.mips.com) is a US technology company listed on NASDAQ and is a leading provider of industry-standard processor architectures and cores for home entertainment, networking, mobile and embedded applications. MIPS is headquartered in Sunnyvale, CA and has c.160 employees.

The MIPS architecture powers some of the world's most popular electronic products such as digital televisions, set-top boxes, Blu-ray players, broadband customer premises equipment (CPE), WiFi access points and routers, networking infrastructure and portable/mobile communications and entertainment products.

MIPS' major customers are global semiconductor companies and system original equipment manufacturers. MIPS' customers pay it license fees for the use of MIPS' architectural, product and intellectual property rights, as well as royalties based on processor unit shipments.

In the 12 months to 30 June 2012 MIPS had 56 royalty-paying licensees and MIPS' customers shipped over 700 million royalty earning units.

In the 12 months to 30 June 2012 the MIPS processor licensing business generated c.US$60.0 million in revenue and a loss before tax of c.US$9.0 million. MIPS' licensing business had gross assets* of c.US$20 million at 30 September 2012.

*Excluding cash and short term investments.

Funding and anticipated financial effects of the acquisition

The total consideration payable by Imagination is US$60 million in cash. The consideration will be financed from Imagination's existing cash resources.

Based on current business prospects, Imagination anticipates that the acquisition of MIPS will be marginally dilutive to earnings per share for the 2013 financial year, and accretive to earnings per share in 2014 (excluding one off items).

As part of the documents relating to the acquisition, MIPS has agreed to hold back approximately c.US$100 million in cash in respect of various ancillary transaction matters including a tax liability that is likely to arise as a result of the sale of the Divested Patent Properties and liabilities of MIPS relating to employee retention and severance payments.

Terms of the agreement and conditionality

Imagination and MIPS have entered into a definitive acquisition agreement under the terms of which Imagination intends to acquire the entire issued and to be issued share capital of MIPS. The agreement is subject to various conditions which are set out in the acquisition agreement. The acquisition is conditional, amongst other things, upon completion of the acquisition of the Patent Portfolio by Bridge Crossing LLC and applicable regulatory approvals as well as approval of the transaction being obtained from MIPS' shareholders.

Patent Portfolio sale

MIPS has also entered into a definitive acquisition agreement with Bridge Crossing LLC, whereby Bridge Crossing LLC is to acquire 498 out of 580 of MIPS' patent properties for US$350 million in cash in a separate transaction that will complete before Imagination's proposed acquisition of MIPS completes. The sale of the Divested Patent Properties is also conditional on MIPS' shareholders approving such sale but it is not conditional on Imagination completing the acquisition of MIPS.

Expected Timetable

If the conditions to which the acquisition of MIPS is subject (including the approval of MIPS' shareholders) are satisfied, then the transaction

Apple Q4

Apple released another record set of results last night for Q4;

http://seekingalpha.com/article/952971-apple-s-ceo-discusses-f4q12-results-earnings-call-transcript

Approx 45m iOS devices were sold:

iPhone 26.9m
iPad 14m
iPod Touch approx 3.5m
Apple TV 1.3m

This follows from approx. 48m iOS devices in Q3, giving a total for April-September of approx. 93m iOS devices. The IMG H1 period is May-October, and a royalty is counted from when the SoC ships (rather than when the OEM product is sold), so taking into account the iPhone 5 launch and other recent high profile announcements, we must be looking at >100m volume from Apple alone in IMG's H1 period.
Add to that the Mediatek ramp and other high shipping products (eg. Bezos revealed Amazon Kindle Fire HD is the no.1 global product on amazon.com) then the H1 royalty volume must be well north of 170m imo (vs. 126m for H1 2011/12). Many are now, justifiably, expecting the 500m barrier to be smashed for FY.

Apple unveils 4th Gen iPad and iPad Mini

Apple unveiled 2 more products yesterday utilising IMG graphics and video.
There was the expected iPad Mini, sporting an A5 chip (Power VR SGX 543MP2) but also a 4th Generation iPad (which no-one expected), featuring a new A6X chip said to be twice as fast (dual core CPU) and twice the graphics performance (quad core , identity not yet confirmed but probably SGX 543MP4 clocked higher) of A5X .

Specs:
http://www.apple.com/ipad/specs/

http://www.apple.com/ipad-mini/specs/

With these 2 products, together with iPhone 5, new Amazon Kindles, and continued Mediatek ramp-up, IMG are going to be off to a flyer (volume-wise) in H2.

H1 2012 Mobile GPU Shipments - Imagination still top of pile

JPR has released his estimates for GPU shipments in H1 2012 for mobile devices (ie. tablets and smartphones).
ARM were expected to increase, courtesy of Samsung (Galaxy III etc) and also Chinese tablet market, but Vivante have also done very well. Qualcomm market share drops more than most were expecting, whilst Imagination remains fairly steady. Nvidia's share remains very low despite all the hot air.
All of this is within a growing market overall.
H2 will be interesting, with the rapid acceleration of Mediatek (all IMG) and iPhone 5 release (plus new IMG'd Amazon tablets and iPad Mini) having an impact. I'd also expect Qualcomm to take back some market share from ARM/Vivante.

TIBURON, CALIF. — Jon Peddie Research (JPR), the industry’s research and consulting firm for graphics and multimedia, announced estimated mobile devices graphics chip shipments for the first half of 2012. Mobile devices include smartphones, tablets, and game consoles.

The market for portable devices (mobile devices that we can carry) continues to soar in spite of economic difficulties and general uncertainty. Although portable devices are not necessarily replacing the PC, they are outselling the PC. All of these devices have a graphics processor (GPU) integrated in the device’s system on a chip (SoC) application processor.

The application processors are made by a dozen-plus semiconductor suppliers (Broadcom, Apple, Intel, Marvell, MediaTek, Nvidia, ST-Ericsson, Texas Instruments, Toshiba, Qualcomm, Samsung, etc.). All of those companies fall into one of two categories: vertically integrated or IP buyers. Nvidia and Qualcomm are the vertically integrated companies with their own GPU designs; all of the other companies buy GPU IP from one of four IP suppliers (ARM, DMP, Imagination Technologies, or Vivante). The exceptions to this tidy categorization are Samsung, which has an internal GPU design and buys IP from ARM and Imagination Technologies, and Broadcom, which has an internal design GPU and buys IP from ARM.

The leading high-volume suppliers of application processors (i.e., SoCs) are Apple, Texas Instruments, Qualcomm, and Samsung. ARM supplies GPU IP for some of Samsung’s mobile phones, while Imagination Technologies’ GPU IP is used in Apple, Texas Instruments, and some of Samsung’s mobile phones and tablets.

The upcoming SoC suppliers with impressive design wins to their credit are Intel (Imagination Technologies’ GPU) and Nvidia (proprietary GPU).

Other SoC suppliers that buy GPU IP are Freescale, Huawei, MediaTek, Rockchip, and Wonder Media/VIA. These companies have participated in the feature phone market, and some of them have recently entered the smartphone and tablet segment.

One area that is fueling the growth of portable SoCs is the exploding tablet market in China, which is contributing significantly to the astounding growth that ARM and Vivante are experiencing. As a result of this tablet surge in China, dramatic changes are expected during the next 12 months. Apple will introduce a 7-inch tablet, Microsoft will bring out its Surface tablet, and Texas Instruments will continue to supply Amazon (even though the company is pulling back from the smartphone market as Nokia loses market share).

The market for SoCs with GPUs grew 91.3% from the first half of 2011, with market shifts occurring as shown in Table 1 below.

Supplier		1H'12		1H'11
Qualcomm		26.4%		36.4%
Nvidia		2.5%		3.5%
ZiiLabs		0.1%		0.2%
ARM IP		12.9%		6.2%
DMP IP		1.7%		2.2%
Imagination Technologies IP		46.5%		49.1%
Vivante IP		9.8%		2.5%
TOTAL		100.0%		100.0%
Table 1: Market share changes for portable devices from 1H’11 to 1H’12

As a result of the turbulence in the market, we expect market shares to shift dramatically through 2012, and we look for a new IP company to enter the market in 2013.

END

Read more here: http://www.heraldonline.com/2012/10/19/4350464/imagination-technologies-still.html#storylink=cpy