IMGTEC Threatens To Return Back To The Desktop Space.

[TEXAN*]

With the recent cash injections from Apple and Intel, it would seem PowerVR is gearing up for a desktop return.

http://channel.hexus.net/content/item.php?item=20357&page=7

On the back of that description, tile based deferred rendering seems like a good idea. So we asked King-Smith why everyone doesn't use it. "It's hard," he said.

To conclude we asked King-Smith what we can expect to see from Imagination in the future. The performance you're seeing from us today is at the low end of what we're capable of," he said.

"The intersection point between what we do and what the likes of NVIDIA and AMD do right now is in that netbook space. But we see ourselves as a sort of wave-front moving out across across these markets and you will definitely see us in new market areas, which those guys probably think should belong to them. I'd say we're one of the most important companies you've never heard of."

If I was Nvidia or AMD, I'd be shitting my pants right about now.

Equal die size, equal transistor count, equal price, the best of the best IMR architecture would get savagely slaughtered against a TBDR.

There is nothing that nVidia or AMD can do, apart from await their imminent doom.

 

[rpg.314]

Equal die size, equal transistor count, equal price, the best of the best IMR architecture would get savagely slaughtered against a TBDR.

There is nothing that nVidia or AMD can do, apart from await their imminent doom.

Let's not jump the gun. Let them confirm that they plan to actually release something for the desktop/laptop market. Same with LRB. Let's get excited over products, not powerpoint slides.

 

[Tim Murray]

I already spent all my PowerVR yearning on Series 5

 

[Arun]

I already spent all my PowerVR yearning on Series 5

So you don't like SGX? Awww (I know, I know, that's really Series 6 no matter what IMG claims - but architecturally it's very unlikely it'd have been as cool as SGX anyway)

The only thing that stands in IMG's way is Intel's NIH syndrome. The die size of their IGPs is embarrassing and while I'm *far* from convinced SGX would beat a leading modern GPU like RV870 (per mm²), I'm sure it'd beat Intel's crap quite nicely. Given their volumes, they could have gotten a license with absurdly low royalties. Their decisions on this matter have been frankly embarassing.

But then again, when your idea of a strategic investment is Clearwire (and WiMax in general), I'm not sure why I'm pretending to be surprised.

 

[FrameBuffer]

the only place I could see them making any significant in roads with regards to desktop space MIGHT be the Sub $70 market where it would have to compete (and might do so very well) against the likes of RV710/810. I think in that area in regards to die size/performace they would do well but given their past record I dont see them competing in the mainstream/performance area ((though in all honesty I WOULD love to see them)).

 

[Tim Murray]

So you don't like SGX? Awww

No fair, I thought you disappeared!

 

[Richard]

If I was Nvidia or AMD, I'd be shitting my pants right about now.

<snip>

There is nothing that nVidia or AMD can do, apart from await their imminent doom.

Is this sarcasm, I can't tell.

 

[Freak'n Big Panda]

It'd be really cool if they made a return to the desktop space but i don't see it happening any time soon.... i could however see them in a future console, which might give them the $$ they need to take a stab @ the desktop market but the market is so cut throat I just don't see why they'd want too. They would pretty much have to come in on top (i.e performance advantage over ATI & NV) so stand any sort of chance of gaining and keeping market share.

 

[Lazy8s]

In device spaces constrained by the costs of power consumption, die area, and/or heat dissipation, device makers wield PowerVR technology to give their products features the competition can't match.

As higher-end spaces like set-top and desktop devices start to reach cost constraints, PowerVR will be the weapon of choice for the successful device makers there, too.

 

[Rolf N]

He used the word "important", so it can't be about desktop PCs. Maybe a console deal?

 

[Ailuros]

So you don't like SGX? Awww (I know, I know, that's really Series 6 no matter what IMG claims - but architecturally it's very unlikely it'd have been as cool as SGX anyway). The only thing that stands in IMG's way is Intel's NIH syndrome. The die size of their IGPs is embarrassing and while I'm *far* from convinced SGX would beat a leading modern GPU like RV870 (per mm²), I'm sure it'd beat Intel's crap quite nicely. Given their volumes, they could have gotten a license with absurdly low royalties. Their decisions on this matter have been frankly embarassing.

But then again, when your idea of a strategic investment is Clearwire (and WiMax in general), I'm not sure why I'm pretending to be surprised.

Agreed on Intel's syndromes and connected strategies but I can understand it somewhere too. Use just as much as is actually needed up to the point to not embarass your own stuff until hopefully later on you have something far better in the pipe.

SGX is and will remain an embedded design; even if it would reach DX11 compliance you know better than anyone else that there are lightyears of space in between an embedded GPU and a standalone GPU, even more so if you go as high as to the performance/high end level.

As for the real Series6 when it'll get announced we can then speculate about future embarassments even more. And no I don't think it's intended to move out of the embedded space either. It's just that IMG is obviously hoping to enter the PC space with SoCs which doesn't suggest anything of what some might be expecting. If Intel isn't biting the PC bullet for IMG who else would? I can't come up with any reasonable alternatives at this point, so the only other ticket itself still sounds like Intel only. I don't see anything moving in that direction today, so why would it change in the future?

Or better why if things work out as Intel expects them with their own IGP stuff why would they need to move a finger anyway?

 

[roninja]

Well given the two largest non-institutional stakeholders in IMG are Intel and Apple I would argue both would be taking a lead role with Series 6. Given there appears to be a higher end SGX XT multiple core yet to be announced I can only expect a Series 6 announcement next year although sooner the better.

 

[neliz]

He used the word "important", so it can't be about desktop PCs. Maybe a console deal?

Sega will be back in business?

Performance of RV810 for instance is way up (P2K) and it's offering the most Perf/W of anything out there.

 

[Ailuros]

Sega will be back in business?

Performance of RV810 for instance is way up (P2K) and it's offering the most Perf/W of anything out there.

Depends what one means with console.

RV810 isn't an embedded design and since AMD sold it's handheld department to Qualcolmm there won't be anything comparable until after 2011 probably.

 

[neliz]

RV810 isn't an embedded design and since AMD sold it's handheld department to Qualcolmm there won't be anything comparable until after 2011 probably.

RV810 numbers was in reference to a desktop design. (something that hasn't been posted here before)

 

[Ailuros]

RV810 numbers was in reference to a desktop design. (something that hasn't been posted here before)

You do understand the difference between a GPU and an embedded GPU in a SoC?

 

[Richard]

You do understand the difference between a GPU and an embedded GPU in a SoC?

If I may interject... one is fast, the other slow? :|

 

[Ailuros]

If I may interject... one is fast, the other slow? :|

Each in it's own class can be fast or slow. By the millisecond you realize that you can't compare apples with oranges you get closer to that point. In an SoC any graphics unit is going to have to share bandwidth with the CPU.