On December 3rd, semiconductor company IMG launched its powerful new product, the IMG A series GPU IP. It is claimed that the IMG A series is the most powerful graphics processing unit (GPU) semiconductor intellectual property (IP) product ever released by IMG, with the first SoC devices featuring this IP expected to ship in 2020.
According to Steve Evans, Executive Vice President of PowerVR products at the company, the PPA comprehensive performance of the A series exceeds that of Qualcomm’s latest generation GPU. When comparing with Arm and Qualcomm products, it requires 184% more chip area to achieve the same performance, which means higher power consumption. In contrast, using the new IMG A series can fully achieve the performance of Qualcomm’s GPU while significantly reducing the area; and at the same area, it can achieve 175% performance compared to Qualcomm’s competitors.
Brief History of IMG
Students may not be familiar with this company, IMG stands for Imagination Technologies. For a long time, Apple maintained a very close relationship with it. Apple was not only a very important customer of Imagination Technologies, but also designed various application processors (AP) for its iPhones, such as A8, A9, A10, which incorporated Imagination Technologies’ PowerVR graphics processing technology. Moreover, Apple held a stake in Imagination. Therefore, the relationship between the two companies was quite close.
However, in the first half of 2017, Apple suddenly announced that it would develop its own graphics processing technology, gradually stopping the use of its graphics processing chips and terminating patent fee payments. Subsequently, the company’s stock price plummeted by 70%, reaching an eight-year low. After several twists and turns, it was eventually acquired by a company with Chinese capital background.
In the past two years, the new technologies and products launched by the company have increasingly tilted towards the Chinese market. This vast and potential market has also added confidence and motivation for the company’s future development.
IMG’s New Vision
Dr. Ronald Black, CEO of IMG, comes from an engineering background. Regarding this characteristic, he stated: “I am an engineer, so I always talk about technology. Although I am an expert in technology, I am still a student in business development and marketing. I joined Imagination a year ago. Over the years, we have been closely following industry development trends and advanced applications. China has made significant investments in the semiconductor field, especially in AI, and its progress is globally recognized, leading the industry. In the past decade, China has developed astonishingly, forming a development trend that is on par with the United States in high-tech fields. Currently, the global economic and trade situation is quite challenging. However, I am an optimist; if you are not optimistic in the semiconductor industry, you probably won’t last a year. Looking at history, the speed of human civilization and technological development is accelerating, and people’s lifespans are getting longer, with an increasing desire for a better life. These are all motivations for our struggle and exploration, and the source of our optimistic spirit.”
Ronald Black is very optimistic about China’s development, and China’s role in the global economic system is becoming increasingly prominent. He stated that if the global economy and trade decoupled from China, there would be a short-term loss of $30 trillion. Therefore, China, as a part of the global economy, is indispensable.
Partners and Ecosystem Development
IMG has many partners in China, including multiple links in the industry chain, such as collaborations with SemiDrive, SAIC, and the China Automotive Industry Association.
In vertical niche markets, such as game developers and OEMs, in-depth cooperation has been established to help them better apply Imagination’s IP in their products.
Today, IMG also announced further strengthening of its cooperation with UNISOC. The latter has obtained the IP licensing for its latest generation neural network accelerator (NNA) PowerVR Series3NX for future SoCs aimed at the mid-to-high-end mobile device market.
The two companies already have a long-term cooperative relationship, and previously, IMG’s PowerVR Series2NX neural network accelerator IP core has been widely used in UNISOC’s mobile processors.
In fact, these two companies are not just in a client relationship but are strategic partners, with the goal of building an ecosystem together. IMG has a dedicated team working closely with UNISOC.
In academia, the company has also launched university collaboration projects, such as training and cooperation projects in AI with Peking University and Tsinghua University, including joint laboratories.
Reference: http://news.eeworld.com.cn/qrs/article_2017040534335.html
Compiled by: Academic Department
Editor: Xu Zecheng
Initial Review: Huang Mingming, Pang Wei
Final Review: Cui Dan
Published by: Jin Xiangpeng
