ATI and Nokia announce strategic relationship

[jkemp]

http://press.nokia.com/PR/200605/1049032_5.html

 

[hkultala]

http://press.nokia.com/PR/200605/1049032_5.html

So, propably nokia is going to use bitboys-developed graphics on their phones but waited until the ATI/BB deal happened before publishing it.

 

[Zaphod]

Nokia owned part of BitBoys (14%), so this is probably a byproduct of the acquisition.

 

[Nappe1]

So, propably nokia is going to use bitboys-developed graphics on their phones but waited until the ATI/BB deal happened before publishing it.

my crystal ball tells me following:
Bitboys had some sort of contract with Nokia. Still, Nokia as big company wanted someone bigger to back bitboys up and requested from them to get bigger partner to fullfil the deal. When this was noticed by ATI and nVidia, they also realized that they were dropping the ball big time. Eventually both concluded that only way get in the game the way it's ment to be played, they had no chance than try to buy Bitboys. Forceful attack via stockmarket was impossible, because they were dealing with privately owned company. This also means that both knew that company isn't easy buy out and company owners knew their price.

Both showed up to negoatite the deal, but eventually ATI won the deal. when nVidia noticed that it lost movile huge customer, they rushed out to get some sort of foothold near Nokia. Soon enough they found Hybrid Graphics as possibility to keep some sort of touch to market by owning pretty much whole driver and major developing tools development in the market. While this was going on, Nokia backed up Bitboys with 14% owning stake, so that possible failure in ATI merger would not leave them with small player that is running out of money.

As seen here, Bitboys --> ATI deal succeeded and ATI become owner of custormer base that Bitboys had. Bitboys now got their "big partner" to full fill the deal, Nokia got their high tech GFX development partner with finland based development team and ATI got part of Nokia phones cashflow.


Can I prove this? no. so take it as grain of the salt.

 

[roninja]

Next step is to see how TI react, being major suppliers to Nokia with OMAP based SoCs with OMAP 2 and OMAP3 having MBX inside.

 

[Roger Kohli]

As seen here, Bitboys --> ATI deal succeeded and ATI become owner of custormer base that Bitboys had.

NEC used Bitboys stuff, but have recently licensed SGX from IMG, coincidence?

 

[NocturnDragon]

NEC used Bitboys stuff, but have recently licensed SGX from IMG, coincidence?

Well, the stuff that NEC used from BitBoys and SGX are 2 completely different kind of products for 2 completely different kind of devices, unless NEC is planning to make LCD's
with a SGX inside anytime soon.

 

[Lazy8s]

NEC had also licensed Bitboys's G34 OpenGL ES 1.1+ IP.

 

[roninja]

IMG's response to recent developments

Graphics technology is increasingly becoming an essential element of
future mobile handsets. This is being driven by the gaming and
entertainment requirements as well as the needs of the next generation
of user interfaces for such devices. The emergence of standards such as
OpenGLES and OpenVG are accelerating the above two areas respectively.


In a few years time hardware graphics acceleration will be as generic to
mobile handsets as it is to PCs today except that the mobile market is
almost an order of magnitude larger. Also the power consumption and
efficiency needed in the mobile market makes the challenges very
different from the PC market.


Imagination has been a pioneer in this mobile space. It has an open and
proven licensing business model. It has proven, efficient, low-power
advanced technology and a world-class roadmap. Very importantly
Imagination has the scale of relationships, 7 out of the top 10
semiconductor manufacturers have selected PowerVR, that provides it with
a unique position for benefiting from this market.

 

[Lazy8s]

The meaning of this deal is that Nokia are considering ways to use the ATi technology platform in their products, including involvement in hardware and/or software, separate chip and/or SoC. The deal does not make ATi into their exclusive supplier for those arrangements.