IMG confirm that Intel is using SGX
- Thread starter tangey
- Start date
Saw that news earlier on bloomberg, most likely for a mid/tablet, on a "suck-it-and-see" basis. Be awfully brave to commit to phones at this stage. But I'm guessing medfield is looking like it'll be competitive in the phone segment. Given who is hosting the conference call (Intel's Anand Chradraskher), it will almost certainly imply IMG involvment.
Intel and Nokia Announce Strategic Relationship
Full press release here:-
http://www.intel.com/pressroom/archive/releases/20090623corp_b.htm?iid=pr1_releasepri_20090623rb
Vague and aspirational, but if any end product comes from it, it'll probably be good for IMG. The losers are likely to be ARM and possibly Symbian.
Full press release here:-
http://www.intel.com/pressroom/archive/releases/20090623corp_b.htm?iid=pr1_releasepri_20090623rb
Vague and aspirational, but if any end product comes from it, it'll probably be good for IMG. The losers are likely to be ARM and possibly Symbian.
NOKIA has always been trying to not depend on only one supplier. If NOKIA is truly looking into entering markets above smartphones it could very well be that Intel is a lot closer in having SoCs ready with SGX54x integrated than TI's OMAP4.
Why the hell is Intel doing this? Right now they really don't take advantage of IMG hardware and for the future they are working on their own GPUs (plus SIMD Accelerator etc.).
the IMG Financial Highlights are out http://www.imgtec.com/corporate/newsdetail.asp?NewsID=472
Pre-tax profit* jumps 56% to £5m and chip unit volume up 83% to 86m
* 12 major agreements involving over 25 silicon IP core licences
o Strategically and financially important deals with Apple, Intel, MediaTek, NXP, Samsung, Sigma Designs, SiRF, and Toumaz as well as a significant agreement with a second major international OEM
Pre-tax profit* jumps 56% to £5m and chip unit volume up 83% to 86m
* 12 major agreements involving over 25 silicon IP core licences
o Strategically and financially important deals with Apple, Intel, MediaTek, NXP, Samsung, Sigma Designs, SiRF, and Toumaz as well as a significant agreement with a second major international OEM
Indeed, Nokia always try to get different suppliers. The problem with going with Intel is that only Intel controls Atom core. With ARM at least they can put ST vs TI vs Samsung vs etc.
The number of suppliers, platforms, and OSes at Nokia is really spiraling out of control. Even with their massive scale, I don't buy that they can justify this insane lack of focus. Sorry for being such a party pooper, but it reminds me of one thing and one thing only: Motorola, exactly three years ago. It is noteworthy that according to Qualcomm, Nokia is now behind Samsung for 3G phones. So it would seem much of their current power comes from their amazing position (well earned, IMO) in emerging markets and 2G phones in general.
Regarding IMG: Very impressive, good to see it's all finally paying off
(not saying it wasn't before, but it'd be hard to argue that these results and especially these forecasts and statements aren't the future aren't extremely positive)
Regarding IMG: Very impressive, good to see it's all finally paying off
(not saying it wasn't before, but it'd be hard to argue that these results and especially these forecasts and statements aren't the future aren't extremely positive)Havn't seen anything to suggest that Larabee can address the power/performance/die space in the way that IMG can. Have seen anything to the contrary either, but perhaps thats the issue. Also
Finanicials from IMG today suggest a move into Laptop and PC space with intel (previously only netbook and mids were referred to).
This would encourage me in the belief that pinetrail does indeed have SGX graphics, and that a nehalem based variant will have on chip/die SGX too.
In what regard isn't Intel taking advantage of IMG's IP?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PowerVR
see the list of devices for the GMA500/Poulsbo alone.
And that's not even taking into account any upcoming SoCs with >SGX535 as found in Poulsbo.
Yes they're working on "high end" GPUs with LRB but Intel would be extremely dumb if they'd try to embed even one LRB core with its current power consumption and die area into an SoC and that SIMD accelerator has been defined to be a graphics core per se or just an advanced multimedia accelerator?
Just for the record's sake from IMG's final results:
Yes but as I said assuming that NOKIA truly wants an SoC for a bigger device than a smartphone and Intel probably being faster done with something more powerful than OMAP3/SGX530, Intel would be the more obvious choice since it'll still take some more time for OMAP4 from TI as an example.
What I meant is that they only use SGX in an Atom version that sells very little compared to the other Atoms with Intel GPUs (which Intel is keeping around another year). And the SGX that they are selling are so badly supported that it's not even worth mentioning (drivers that are just good enough to run windows compared to what the SGX could really do).
SGX is also used in Canmore CE3100. It will also feature in Moorestown and Medfield, likely pinetrail, and possibly a Nehalem variant.
MBX has previously featured in the CE2110 and the 2700G (now sold to Marvell)
The Intel/IMG relation is only at the beginning, putting AI into small platforms only started a year or so ago.
The latest Win7/Vista drivers apparantly are being MUCH better received in some quarters.
And in which other coming SoCs are they going to deploy further SGX variants?
That's something to blame Intel for; drivers are being supplied for Intel from Tungsten graphics while PowerVR has reference drivers for their IP that show far higher performance. Word has it that Tungsten isn't using the onboard firmware of the chip and it naturally falls back to software rendering.
How well do you know actually Intel and their driver quality for their own IGPs on the other hand? In other words it isn't a problem that's exclusive to SGX or any other graphics processor up to now sold from Intel. It's a problem that's there for years and it has absolutely nothing to do with what Intel will continue to use in future SoCs or if Intel choses to invest in Imagination Technologies.
One step further when Intel LRB's long chain of delays finally ends and the GPU finally hits shelves I honestly hope they will have changed their philosophy.
intel have different departments providing support for different intel GPUs. for instance, their current (oss) support for the gma4500 line (g45 & co) is outstanding - it's among the poster drivers in the DRI2 tree. in contrast, last time i checked gma500, it was more-or-less left on auto-pilot (read: was using a premordial tungsten edge for the 3d part).
i'm glad to see intel being so committed to using the SGX architecture, but their left and right hands need to work toward the common goal before you call intel's SGX integrations a viable product.
Sega could be working on something, but the RNS from IMG stated the licence was from a "major international consumer electronics company". Given that Sega havn't made any hardware in years, I don't think you could describe them as such.
Think Sony.
And there it is:
http://www.imgtec.com/corporate/newsdetail.asp?NewsID=473
I thought Apple would buy more, but better than nothing