Imagination Technologies Chief Executive change

I hope they can win some new soc design for the gpu part. It's all they have with PowerVR now... But it seems everyone except Apple is making their own gpu now, so it'll be hard. I don't know what their endgame is... The day they lose Apple, they're kind of dead, no ?

I love PowerVR, I'm still nostalgic about PCX1, 2, Series 2 & all that stuff.

 

IMG has way more than a single big customer, although Apple is its most famous one and probably the one generating the most income.

 

PowerVR is still an essential element of Dreamcast 2.

 

Everyone, really? Care to name those, beyond Qualcomm, who are actually shipping their own GPU tech in the mobile AP space in any significant way? I can think of only one significant vendor that has had their own parallel ongoing GPU development, and even they continue to ship licensed GPU IP in the majority of their products.

 

They aren't killIng IMG works, but are refocusing. I suspect a lot of the business came from non-core, i.e. associated with the radio business or in relation to some of the companies they had significant shares in (now sold). If that's the case then it's logical it'll need downsizing.

 

Well, Samsung is not using PVR anymore, right ? Ok Samsung doesn't make MALI, but still. And they are working on their own. At one point, Apple, Intel, Samsung (and other) used PVR. Now, it's only shrinking for them.

Eh maybe my vision is false/wrong, I hope for them.

 

Arstechnica running a story today citing "a source with knowledge of the discussions", that Apple are in advanced talks to buy IMG.
http://arstechnica.co.uk/gadgets/2016/03/apple-acquire-imagination-powervr-gpu/#p3

With IMG in a current state of flux, it's not surprising that these sort of things rear up. Apple have long been seen as the only potential buyer of IMG, given Apple's bottomless pit of money, it's history of buying in tech, and it's total reliance in PowerVr for it's entire IOS line of products. The fact that IMG had this completely irrelevant and loss making PURE division was seen as a good reason not to buy. One of course can take retrospective facts and fit a story, but selling PURE, closing down a lot of tangential departments, getting rid of non-relevant shareholdings, cutting the workforce by 20%, could be pre-conditions of, or indeed just nicely make the company somewhat more attractive to, a purchase, or none of the above.

I can't see what Apple would do with MIPS, I can see that Apple might find much of the Ensigma IP relevant to their products.

ARM of course would love to see IMG GPU becoming Apple's in-house GPU. It would effectively leave the entire 3rd party GPU IP business to them, and they could also start increasing prices.

 

In an unusual move, Apple has just released a statement:-

Very VERY unusual for Apple to get public like this about their discussions with others. Confirms that they have indeed spoken to IMG in relation to a potential acquisition.

You might expect IMG to make the announcement, but given their NDA is so tight that employees are required to use public key encryption if they want some granny smiths at the greengrocers, its probably not so surprising if they had to request Apple to make one.

 

Ars Technica also updated their piece with this:

 

I'm of two minds regarding this news. It would have been interesting to see where their GPU tech could have gone with the full financial weight and focus of Apple to back them up. On the other hand, a more independent ImgTec refocused on their core business is also interesting.
An ImgTec diversifying into dead ends is the least appealing option in my book.

 

What's happening to their raytracing tech? Unaffected by the cuts, or did it get amputated?

 

Never read anything by Nick Farrell.

However, there is bound to be something interesting buried here. If Apple were actually considering buying ImgTech, when was it, and why did they reconsider? Problem is, there is no way we can do more than speculate.

 

Some loose lips that might not impress Apple. I seem to recall the "a" word was used more than once by the new/interim Ceo in one of his conference calls. And now we have what looks like a leak. That leak of course could be from a disgruntled employee who has recently lost his/her job, but that person would have to be very senior to know the discussion were taking place.