Freescale Semiconductor License with Imagination Technologies

[roninja]

Imagination Technologies Group plc (LSE:IMG; "Imagination") – a leader in System on Chip Intellectual Property (" SoC IP") – reports that Freescale Semiconductor (NYSE:FSL; NYSE:FSL.B; “Freescaleâ€￾) has signed a multiple-use licence agreement with Imagination which enables Freescale to deploy Imagination’s PowerVR MBX Lite core alongside a wider range of CPUs and to also use Imagination’s PowerVR VGP Lite core in its SoCs.
Freescale has previously licensed PowerVR MBX Lite, which is integrated in its iMX.31 mobile application processor.
Under the terms of its licensing arrangements Imagination receives license fees and royalty revenues on SoCs incorporating Imagination’s IP shipped by its partners.

 

[darkblu]

the fruit of that labor: MPC512X: 32-bit Embedded Processors (actually SoCs)

 

[Lazy8s]

The LimePC range of portable computers are powered by that SoC.

 

[roninja]

A pity Freescale did not licence SGX, though they may have it via the back door i.e. the acquisition of Sigmatel, though if you look at the IMG website not much is inferred about the Sigmatel licence.

 

[Ailuros]

Way OT:

but the new facelift of IMG's website looks quite good; they even set up a PowerVRInsider Forum. At the moment the forum and downloads don't seem to work yet.

 

[roninja]

Also way OT: Notice how they seem to be linking Marvell PXA310 to PowerVR MBX (2700g?).

http://www.imgtec.com/partners/Marvell.asp

 

[darkblu]

looks like freescale's latest i.MX (515) is finally getting an sgx, albeit an entry/mid level one?

• OpenGL ES 2.0 and OpenVG 1.1 hardware accelerators

Powerful Graphics Acceleration
3-D graphics are the key to mobile game
designs. The i.MX515 processor provides an
integrated 3-D graphics processing unit that
has been improved over the i.MX31 to provide
an incredible 27 Mtri/sec and effective 664
Mpix/sec (with overdraw).

perhaps a 535?

 

[Arun]

Stop making roninja dream, it's public knowledge that's an Imageon core... However who knows what'll happen longer-term with AMD's handheld group being bought by Qualcomm.

 

[Ailuros]

Stop making roninja dream, it's public knowledge that's an Imageon core... However who knows what'll happen longer-term with AMD's handheld group being bought by Qualcomm.

Still 27M Tris/s? Errr.....

 

[roninja]

Still 27M Tris/s? Errr.....

Never assume anything, its most likely to be ATI unless its an SGX via the Sigmatel licence....as posted earlier in the thread..

 

[Wishmaster]

However who knows what'll happen longer-term with AMD's handheld group being bought by Qualcomm.

What do you think will happen? Do you have any assumptions?

 

[Grumpy]

Given that Freescale licensed separate 2D & 3D cores from AMD and the i.MX also contains 2 cores then I'd say it's very likely none of that comes from IMG (unless FSL actually went to the step of integrating GPUs from 2 vendors, which sounds a bit unpleasant...)

 

[darkblu]

Given that Freescale licensed separate 2D & 3D cores from AMD and the i.MX also contains 2 cores then I'd say it's very likely none of that comes from IMG (unless FSL actually went to the step of integrating GPUs from 2 vendors, which sounds a bit unpleasant...)

wait a sec. i thought it was common knowledge that i.MX31 had an mbx lite, no?

 

[Grumpy]

I was talking about the low likelihood of having GPUs from different vendors in the same chip (i.MX515)

 

[darkblu]

bah. i guess i'm slow these days. i blame it on the metabolism.

 

[Ailuros]

Never assume anything, its most likely to be ATI unless its an SGX via the Sigmatel licence....as posted earlier in the thread..

I wasn't thinking in the IMG direction for that one; the listed triangle rate just seems way too high.

I was talking about the low likelihood of having GPUs from different vendors in the same chip (i.MX515)

Sounds completely impossible to me. Even if do you have a theoretical scenario which would make sense adding two different GPUs into a SoC?

 

[roninja]

Could Freescale have swapped out the Imageon (Qualcomm core) and relaced with the Simgatel licenced SGX?

http://www.directinsight.co.uk/products/karo/triton-tx51-imx51.html

The TRITON-TX51 is suited to a wide range of demanding tasks, including video and DSP processing - thanks to the Neon Vector Floating Point unit and dedicated video codecs providing D1 encode and 720p decode for MPEG-4/H264. Graphics applications are accelerated by the Imagination PowerVR unit, which offers OpenGL ES 2.0 support which enables specialist UI environments such as Microsoft Silverlight and Adobe Flash Lite to be used with excellent results. Security, medical and industrial projects will find many uses for these capabilities.