Imagination Technologies Shows Next Generation Of Mobile Multimedia Technologies At MWC 2008
MWC, Barcelona, February 11th 2008: With its technologies already shipping in many of the latest cellphone, in-car, digital radio and mobile TV enabled products, Imagination Technologies – a leader in mobile multimedia technologies – is demonstrating how its technologies are bringing further advancements to mobile consumer products at MWC 2008. Imagination’s technologies complement each other to create comprehensive multimedia platform solutions.
Says Hossein Yassaie, CEO, Imagination Technologies: “Mobile multimedia, the converged capability of devices to handle quality graphics, video, audio and broadcast reception, has reached a level of maturity that is making it essential for most new devices. Video playback, graphical user interfaces, gaming and music delivery are key to sales of new mobile phones and driving ongoing growth in the media player and personal navigation segments.”
Examples of user interface, mobile gaming, entertainment, navigation and mobile TV and radio are on display at Imagination’s booth (Hall 2, #2A05) as well as demonstrations showing the graphics and video technologies being adopted by manufacturers now for the next generation of mobile multimedia devices.
Continues Yassaie: “Imagination Technologies is the number one mobile and embedded multimedia IP provider. We are enabling SoCs from the leading semiconductor providers including Texas Instruments, Intel, Renesas, NEC, Samsung and others – not just in phones, but also in automotive, PMP, digital and mobile TV and MID/UMPC. At MWC 2008 we will be demonstrating the front-line technologies that have made Imagination the favoured multimedia and broadcast receiver technology partner of the top operators, handset manufacturers and developers as well as a significant industry advisor and influencer.”
On Imagination Technologies’ stand show-goers will see:
• The latest technologies for mobile graphics, video, digital radio and audio
• Advanced gaming, user interface and multimedia applications on cellphones from companies including Nokia, Sony Ericsson, Motorola, Sharp, NEC, Panasonic, Fujitsu, and Mitsubishi
• Development boards from Imagination’s partners, including Sharp, Texas Instruments and Freescale
• Demonstrations from industry leading software developers including: Antix, Kishonti, Advanced Geospatial Solutions, TAT, Jadestone, Ideaworks3D, FutureMark
Key demonstrations from Imagination Technologies include:
• POWERVR enabled acceleration of OpenGL ES 1.1, OpenGL ES 2.0, OpenVG, Java and Adobe Flash content
• Hardware vs. Software graphics acceleration – the difference is clear
• POWERVR SGX OpenGL ES 2.0 silicon devices showing advanced shader graphics including Texas Instruments’ new OMAP3 application processor
• POWERVR VXD370, the smallest and lowest power multi-standard, multi-stream HD video decoder technology
• ENSIGMA Universal Communications Core (UCC): a multi-standard solution to the problem of standards fragmentation in international TV and radio reception
• Proven, highest performance and lowest power mobile TV receiver solution with multi-standard 1Seg ISDB-T, DVB-H and T-DMB reception on one low-power device
• The latest Sharp Mobile TV module
• Unified platform for digital radio, internet radio, audio streaming and FM radio; demonstrated on Imagination’s multi-threaded META processor, under Linux
Imagination Technologies offers a comprehensive array of licensable Intellectual Property (IP) targeted towards System-on-Chip (SoC) semiconductor devices for mobile multimedia applications such as: smart and feature phones; multimedia computers; mobile TV; personal media players; and ultra-mobile PCs (UPMC).
Imagination works closely with its licensees, which include many of the world’s top semiconductor vendors and some of the most innovative consumer electronics companies and start-ups, to create advanced solutions driving the future of mobile multimedia.
Inside Imagination’s Key Technologies
Imagination has established its place as a leader in mobile multimedia and communications by offering a comprehensive range of complementary technologies for SoCs. Combined these technologies can enable complete single-chip solutions for mobile devices, or they can be deployed alongside licensees’ existing technologies.
POWERVR MBX graphics is the de facto standard for mobile 3D, 2D and vector graphics acceleration and is being used today by the majority of leading semiconductor companies for their mobile graphics solutions.
POWERVR SGX graphics provide a powerful and flexible solution for all forms of next-generation embedded multimedia processing, including 3D, 2D and vector graphics, advanced anti-aliasing and image processing.
The POWERVR Video family includes multi-standard, multi-stream HD High Profile H.264 at ultra-low power and enables the combination of video and graphics which will be key for future mobile multimedia. A full range of image de-interlacing and enhancement technology as well as ‘TV-out’ is also included in the family.
The ENSIGMA UCC technology family is centred on a receiver technology that offers multi-standard radio and TV reception with no silicon or power overhead over competitor’s single-standard solutions. This is vital due to the fragmented state of standards across broadcast markets. Imagination enables mobile TV, digital / FM radio and digital TV today and will provide WiFi in the near future. This technology family is the leading enabler of digital radio devices and Imagination strongly believes digital radio and FM will be a must-have alongside mobile TV in future mobile devices. The family’s legacy support for terrestrial TV standards enables its use even in countries struggling to deploy sufficient mobile content.
The META multi-threaded processor/DSP family is the key to building a truly optimal, high- calibre, low-power and low-cost SoC. SoCs thrive on processors like META which are designed to handle high-bandwidth system-on-chip data flow. META is latency tolerant, making it ideal for SoC hardware developers. It also provides fast context switching making it real time application friendly for software developers. This ‘best of both worlds’ approach extends to META’s ability to combine both general purpose and DSP threads in the same device. For example, operating systems such as Linux, Nucleus or MeOS can run on one thread, while DSP executes audio on another.
The POWERVR Insider ecosystem, now 2500 members strong, supports POWERVR users across the hardware and software spectrum. ENSIGMA Insider and META Insider ecosystem programmes are coming in 2008.
