Intel licenses PowerVR graphics core

[pm]

I was just glancing at the news section at Yahoo on Intel and I noticed this link.

Shares in Britain's Imagination Technologies Group Plc rose by a fifth on Wednesday after the computer graphics firm announced a technology licence agreement with the world's number one chipmaker Intel Corp. Imagination, which develops and licenses graphics, digital video, digital signal processing and audio technologies for the consumer entertainment and PC markets, said it would supply "PowerVR MBX" graphics and video technology for use in Intel's integrated circuits.

Here's another link to the press release at Imagination's web site.

 

[AndyHui]

Err....so Intel effectively bought the Kyro for use with their coming chipsets? Interesting. Might put some more credibility into the Extreme bit of Extreme Graphics.

 

[pm]

Well, not "bought" exactly, more like licensed the graphics core. Like ARM licenses out the ARM core for use by Intel, Motorola and all of the other guys making ARM chips nowadays. (or Rambus and RDRAM, as another example). "Bought" implies ownership, whereas an IP license is a lot more limiting.

But the end result is probably the same. It would appear from this news that Intel intends to release a chipset that effectively has a Kyro or a future derivative as the core graphics engine.

Incidently, I knew nothing about this personally from news within Intel. I just stumbled across the link while looking at our dismal stock price and thought that it was worthy of posting.

 

[AndyHui]

Yeah. Sorry...my English is not up to scratch tonight...

With the relatively limited bandwidth that integrated chipset video offers, I think the Kyro core would be quite a good option.

 

[BDawg]

I was beginning to wonder what was up in the PowerVR world. IMHO, the version made for the Dreamcast is pretty awesome!

 

[Athlon4all]

Man!!!! This could put Intel on top of the integrated graphics world (wait they already are) with the exception of nForce 420-D and nForce2 weith DualDDR. I dont see how any of the current core's in the majority of int. chipsets(GF2MX for nForce 220-D, SiS 315 for SiS 650/740, Intel's own graphics, and ProSavage in KM133/KM266/P4M266) could stand up to the Kyro 2. Maybe springdale, which is supposed to feature a vastly updated Graphics core (among other things) will use the Kyro2.

 

[NFS4]

Sounds good to me...but it will be a while before we see this affect Intel chipsets...

Also, my guess is that Springdale will feature an updated version of the Extreme Graphics core...it's too late in the game to add Kyro technology to the Springdale IMHO.

 

[Athlon4all]

True. I was being optimistic (nothign wrong with that).

 

[Rand]

I just stumbled across the link while looking at our dismal stock price and thought that it was worthy of posting.

I like that lowly stock price
When Intel's trading at under $20, it's a hell of a bargain given their an awfully safe bet to rise to well above $30 in the future.


STM's PowerVR IP seems a nice match for Intel... can cope well with relatively little bandwidth, low power requirements, and low cost. Works out nicely for an integrated graphics core, and Tile-Based rendering is always another nice checkbox feature.

Seems to me it may be well suited to XScale as well as typical PC integrated graphics.

 

[pm]

When Intel's trading at under $20, it's a hell of a bargain given their an awfully safe bet to rise to well above $30 in the future.

I sure hope so.

 

[Wingznut]

ONLY "well above $30"? My retirement in luxury (including the Porsche 911) depends on more than "well above $30"!!!

 

[Wolfsraider]

Originally posted by: Wingznut PEZ
ONLY "well above $30"? My retirement in luxury (including the Porsche 911) depends on more than "well above $30"!!!

hmm...a porsche 911 sounds like i need to buy more stocks

 

[jeffrey]

Intel also had liscense rights to ATI's Radeon graphics core:Q
Now they have added Imagination's PowerVR graphics core :Q

No wonder Nvidia won't produce a chipset for the P4!

It's not all about the $5 liscense royalty for each P4 chipset that Intel wanted to charge Nvidia. I'd bet good money Intel wanted some of Nvidia's patents and intellectual property to be liscensed out.
Intel can be scary at times.



********
I guess the Intel employees didn't like my comments
You could have disputed them if you wanted to instead of rating me lower!
Afterall, it's only my $.02

 

[ElFenix]

Originally posted by: jeffrey
Intel also had liscense rights to ATI's Radeon graphics core:Q
Now they have added Imagination's PowerVR graphics core :Q

No wonder Nvidia won't produce a chipset for the P4!

It's not all about the $5 liscense royalty for each P4 chipset that Intel wanted to charge Nvidia. I'd bet good money Intel wanted some of Nvidia's patents and intellectual property to be liscensed out.
Intel can be scary at times.



********
I guess the Intel employees didn't like my comments
You could have disputed them if you wanted to instead of rating me lower!
Afterall, it's only my $.02

nvidia can be scary at times. if word ever got out to actual people that your gfx card has a lot more to do with 3d gaming than your processor in most instances...

 

[jeffrey]

"nvidia can be scary at times. if word ever got out to actual people that your gfx card has a lot more to do with 3d gaming than your processor in most instances... "

That's true, but integrated chipsets are where the true volume lies. Integrated graphics account for the largest percentage of graphics chipsets sold. Intel is the biggest player in that regard. IMO Intel has been sandbagging their integrated graphics chipsets for years. If they ever decide to become a force in graphics it wouldn't be too much of a stretch.


The scariest thing that I see with Nvidia is something that seems to be buried under the carpet and I never hear about. Before 3dfx died and Nvidia bought them 3dfx sued Nvidia. 3dfx claimed that they held the patent for multitexturing. 3dfx actually won a preliminary judgement against Nvidia before they dissolved. Now Nvidia owns the multitexturing patent that 3dfx was able to succesfully try in court. I would just love to ask Nvidia during a conference call if they had any plans to enforce that patent on any of their competitors!!

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