Intel Capital will invest £5.28m in Imagination (PowerVR)

Pottsey · 2 Oct 2006 at 09:33

This came at a bit of a surprised. There where plenty of rumours around about the two companies and as much as I wanted to believe them, I have to admit I put it down to wishful thinking.

“Hossein Yassaie, CEO, Imagination Technologies says: “Our relationship with Intel, the world’s largest semiconductor company, has reached a new stage that will see the companies working together to enable a growing range of Intel processors with Imagination’s industry-leading graphics and video capabilities. We are delighted to continue and extend this relationship with Intel for our new generation of PowerVR graphics and video cores.”

http://www.imgtec.com/News/Release/index.asp?ID=643 full press. I wonder what 3dchips will come out of this investment.

Gibbo · 2 Oct 2006 at 09:58

Hi there

Its good but £5.5m really won't go far.

Tooks · 2 Oct 2006 at 10:32

I agree that £5.5m won't go far in chip development terms, but Intel wouldn't be throwing any money in if it wasn't going to lead somewhere.

My guess is that is the start of some kind of investment strategy to see if they can come up with anything. What that is, I'm not sure, but it could be something to do with GPU's being incorporated into CPU's for the low cost/emerging markets?

It probably won't be anything earth shattering though!

EDIT: Note to self, read the press release before posting!

After wading through the press release bull, it seems Intel have got some shares in IT for their cash, and 'the two companies are going to be working more closely' in the future. Not sure what that says really!

cleanbluesky · 2 Oct 2006 at 10:48

Gibbo said:
Hi there

Its good but £5.5m really won't go far.

Yes, it might be a trial sum. For example, Intel are probably offering the money for a specific project, and the outcome of the project may decide whether Intel will offer more funding

paradigm · 2 Oct 2006 at 10:50

Pottsey said:
Imagination’s industry-leading graphics and video capabilities.

Er, since when?

Its been a LONG time since they were anywhere near "industry-leading".

Pottsey · 2 Oct 2006 at 11:02

“Er, since when?
Its been a LONG time since they were anywhere near "industry-leading"
They only have something like 90% of the 3Dmobile market (*) and are only a good 2 generations ahead of ATI and Nvidia in those markets. Not really industry-leading at all. Things like unified shaders and vertex engines and FSAA with no performance loss are not industry-leading

.

Doing pretty well in the arcades as well and oddly slot machines

*Mobile as in PDA’s, Mobile phones e.c.t not laptops.

EDIT:
http://img275.imageshack.us/img275/2143/img43696053ff.jpg
http://www.nokia.com/nseries/index.html?lang=en&country=US
http://www.mobilewhack.com/reviews/nokia_n93_cell_phone.html
http://pandora.luxus.fi/e3blog/e3_06/games/games/one_next.aspx

Cyber-Mav · 2 Oct 2006 at 12:05

looks like they are going to be developing a highy efficient rendering core that is low on power consumption and low on heat. would be ideal for lappys and pda;s

Boogle · 2 Oct 2006 at 17:02

Cyber-Mav said:
looks like they are going to be developing a highy efficient rendering core that is low on power consumption and low on heat. would be ideal for lappys and pda;s

Rumour has it that Intel may use PowerVR for all their graphics, including integrated. They've already done with with the MBR, oh, sorry - Intel 2700G. Found in the Dell X50v/X51v.

The Running Man · 2 Oct 2006 at 17:22

but where is my kyro3?!

VeNT · 2 Oct 2006 at 18:18

Pottsey said:
“Er, since when?
Its been a LONG time since they were anywhere near "industry-leading"
They only have something like 90% of the 3Dmobile market (*) and are only a good 2 generations ahead of ATI and Nvidia in those markets. Not really industry-leading at all. Things like unified shaders and vertex engines and FSAA with no performance loss are not industry-leading .

Doing pretty well in the arcades as well and oddly slot machines

*Mobile as in PDA’s, Mobile phones e.c.t not laptops.

EDIT:
http://img275.imageshack.us/img275/2143/img43696053ff.jpg
http://www.nokia.com/nseries/index.html?lang=en&country=US
http://www.mobilewhack.com/reviews/nokia_n93_cell_phone.html
http://pandora.luxus.fi/e3blog/e3_06/games/games/one_next.aspx

FOR CRYING OUT LOUD LEARN TO USE THE QUOTE BUTTON!

tbh 5mill = peanuts at this level, but maybe we'll see intel take them over for the graphics end? intel DX 10 graphics cards anyone?

Naffa · 2 Oct 2006 at 18:52

Roffle.

rippling · 2 Oct 2006 at 19:52

maybe we will see ati and nvidia run for the hills now!
power vr has the tech to blow them away there cores are renond for low power , and amazing performace ,
intel wont have to spend millions developing a chip design etc , as pvr has all the designs all ready , multi core gpu`s etc , all they need is a company to produce them , and who better than intel?

Pottsey · 2 Oct 2006 at 19:57

Someone else on another forum made a great post which I think sums up the money perfectly

“I don't know what this is about, but the amount of money is too small to be greatly signficant and too big to be greatly insignificant.”

rippling · 2 Oct 2006 at 20:00

Pottsey said:
Someone else on another forum made a great post which I think sums up the money perfectly

“I don't know what this is about, but the amount of money is too small to be greatly signficant and too big to be greatly insignificant.”

perfect!

queamin · 2 Oct 2006 at 23:22

A 3rd player would shake the pot up a bit, i do hope that they can catch up if they trying to so we have a thrid chioce

Cyber-Mav · 2 Oct 2006 at 23:42

i could do a lot with 5million./

matt100 · 3 Oct 2006 at 00:15

Cyber-Mav said:
i could do a lot with 5million./

buy some more memory?

Cyber-Mav · 3 Oct 2006 at 01:12

matt100 said:
buy some more memory?

naw got enough of that, would buy other cheapo bits and bobs. like a coolermaster stacker case.

locutus12 · 3 Oct 2006 at 03:34

Pottsey said:
“Er, since when?
Its been a LONG time since they were anywhere near "industry-leading"
They only have something like 90% of the 3Dmobile market (*) and are only a good 2 generations ahead of ATI and Nvidia in those markets.

lol, your obviously not aware that X1800XT`s and 7900GTX`s are now available on laptops, benchmarks here.
http://www.notebookcheck.net/Mobile-Graphics-Cards-Benchmark-List.844.0.html i assure you they eat for breakfast any crud powerVR has in the mobile / integrated arena.

Pottsey said:
Things like unified shaders and vertex engines and FSAA with no performance loss are not industry-leading

proof required... i would say its near impossibe for any graphics card to give anti aliasing without a performance hit of some discription.

paradigm said:
Er, since when?

Its been a LONG time since they were anywhere near "industry-leading".

indeed, these days there main field is mass produced low budget generic crap for economy range devices.

Pottsey · 3 Oct 2006 at 09:07

“lol, your obviously not aware that X1800XT`s and 7900GTX`s are now available on laptops, benchmarks here.
http://www.notebookcheck.net/Mobile...List.844.0.html i assure you they eat for breakfast any crud powerVR has in the mobile / integrated arena.”
If you got back and read my post you will see I typed mobile market as in PDA, mobile phone, sat nav and other small device’s not laptops. Perhaps I should have put “excluding laptops” instead of “not laptops” to be clearer.

You will also find there are more mobile phones out there then laptops.

When you go into the full mobile market you will find PowerVR beat ATI and Nivida who have only really managed to decently penetrate the laptop market none of the other mobile markets.

“proof required... i would say its near impossibe for any graphics card to give anti aliasing without a performance hit of some discription.”
The only real cost for multisampling FSAA is bandwidth and its well-known fact PowerVR solved the bandwidth problem. PowerVR have lots of free bandwidth unlike everyone else due to the way their cards work. When you have as much bandwidth free as PowerVR you can turn on FSAA still have spare bandwidth and not suffer any FPS loss.

http://www.imgtec.com/PowerVR/products/Graphics/MBX/index.asp?Page=2

“indeed, these days there main field is mass produced low budget generic crap for economy range devices.“
There main field seems to be Dab radio which again they seen to have 70 to 90% of the market after beating everyone else out.

As for 3Dchips they deal in low end and super high end mobile device’s with advanced features. Pretty much most of the high end devices are all PowerVR based. As before I am not includeing large objects like laptops.

Look at the screenshots at http://pandora.luxus.fi/e3blog/e3_06/games/games/one_next.aspx then tell me PowerVR only deal in low budget generic crap for economy range devices. Things like that for a mobile phone and PDA are not low budget generic crap and its x10 better then anything ATI or Nvidia have in the same market.