CES 2006 - Imagination Technologies Reveals Technologies Behind Next Wave of Consumer Products


LAS VEGAS--Jan. 2, 2006--Imagination Technologies, a leader in system-on-chip intellectual property (SoC IP), will be demonstrating advanced IP cores and platforms for emerging consumer markets including DTV, mobile 3D graphics/video, digital radio and Mobile TV at CES 2006.

Imagination's IP is being deployed by six of the world's top ten semiconductor manufacturers and in a wide range of consumer devices. The company is uniquely placed to show the IP that will enable advanced products from some of the world's biggest brands.

Imagination Technologies will be demonstrating its latest IP offerings and implementations in pre-arranged meetings at its Prima Suite (V14) at The Venetian hotel, Las Vegas, 5-8 January 2006 during International CES 2006.

Technology demonstrations will include:

-- Mobile TV - end-to-end demonstration of DVB-H on Imagination's Vigo Mobile TV Platform, powering a unique multi-standard baseband solution

-- TV Technologies - end to end demonstration of DVB-T, as well as full video decode and de-interlacing techniques for implementation into mainstream and high-end HD flat panel TVs

-- Mobile Video - demonstration of multi-standard video decode acceleration cores

-- Mobile Graphics - PowerVR's ground-breaking technologies bring console-class graphics to mobile devices, shown in high-volume, shipping products

-- Digital Radio & Audio - examples of end user products integrating digital radio and audio processing IP

Imagination Technologies is a leading developer of innovative silicon and software intellectual property (IP) for system-on-chip (SoC) devices targeting the consumer electronics, communications, automotive and entertainment markets.

Imagination Technologies' innovative IP has placed it in the world's top ten IP companies (source: Gartner). Its customers include not only the world's biggest semiconductor manufacturers but also leading consumer electronics brands, fast moving fabless companies and technology start-ups. Imagination Technologies' customers include Freescale, Frontier Silicon, Intel, Philips, Renesas, Samsung, Sharp, Sunplus and Texas Instruments. They sell chips using Imagination's IP to customers including Dell, Fujitsu, Mitsubishi, Motorola, NEC, Panasonic, Philips, Pioneer, SEGASammy, Samsung, SHARP, SONY, SONY Ericsson, SK Teletech, and NTT DoCoMo (FOMA).

Console Quality Graphics on Mobile Handsets

Imagination is uniquely placed to provide insight into technologies for the mobile graphics market. PowerVR, Imagination Technologies groundbreaking graphics technology, with its highly efficient and low-bandwidth architecture, has now succeeded in bringing console-class gaming to the mobile world. PowerVR delivers massive triangle and fill rates along with full 3D features such as skinning, FSAA, curved surfaces, per-pixel lighting and texture compression. Wide-spread acceptance of PowerVR by the world's top silicon companies is creating a new, pervasive mobile gaming platform. This has been adopted by leading mobile device manufacturers.

'World-standard' Mobile Digital TV

Digital modulation technologies such as single segment DVB-H, T-DMB, single-segment ISDB-T enable suitably equipped phone handsets to receive mobile TV broadcasts. Imagination Technologies' demodulation IP is unique in supporting multiple mobile TV standards from a single device. Imagination's Vigo and Kurosawa are licensable multi-standard demodulation IP platforms for Mobile TV with Vigo supporting DVB-H and T-DMB, and Kurosawa supporting all three world-wide terrestrial mobile TV standards, DVB-H, T-DMB and single segment ISDB-T. With low system power requirements these platforms provide the foundation of a highly-integrated mobile TV solution, reducing cost, design risk and time-to-market.

'World standard' Digital TV with Advanced Image Processing

Imagination provides a full range of IP for Digital TV applications. These technologies are going to be the battle ground for impressing customers with the next wave of HD screens. Imagination's Universal Communications Coprocessor (UCC), a Software Defined Radio (SDR) platform which has been dominant in digital radio implementations, makes it cost effective for television set manufacturers to produce a single television capable of receiving terrestrial, satellite and cable transmissions. The UCC also supports the 3D YC separation and chroma decoding requirements for supporting worldwide Analogue TV, including NTSC, PAL and SECAM.

Imagination Technologies provides a comprehensive range of TV imaging technologies. Imagination's Video IP includes digital video decoders for HD and SD resolution MPEG-2 as well as next generation multi-standard HD and SD decoders supporting H.264, MPEG-4, VC-1 (WMV9) and MPEG-2. PowerVR MSVDX, a multi-standard high definition video decoder core enables HD-DVD / Blu-ray decode and HD-Broadcast reception with maximised video-quality.

Imagination Technologies' Display IP includes scalable display pipelines supporting PIP, overlay, advanced de-interlacing and image enhancement enabled by IP cores including the PowerVR I2P family of de-interlacing cores, the PowerVR PDP pixel display pipeline family, the PowerVR IEP Image Enhancement Processor and the PowerVR TVE TV encoder.

The META multi-threaded core enables an efficient system solution covering all the embedded processing requirements in a digital TV application. This includes the audio processing via the high performance DSP capability of META. The core also enables the TV's general-purpose functions, such as, user interface, protocol stack and operating system.

The comprehensive TV platform from Imagination Technologies enables rapid time-to-market for multi-standard SoCs targeting HD and flatpanel TVs.

Low Power Handheld Products Enabled With Video Acceleration

Imagination Technologies' IP enables mobile video that matches DVD for quality while requiring low-power consumption for long battery life on mobile video players. At the heart of Imagination Technologies' mobile video solutions are the MVDA multi-standard video decode accelerator family and MVED multi-standard video encode/decode accelerator family.

With multi-standard encode and decode and support of bit rates up to 10 Mbit per second and programmable resolutions up to 720 x 576, Imagination Technologies' mobile video IP enables unsurpassed picture quality. Add to that advanced power management features for very low power consumption, and reductions in CPU load typically between 85-95%, and this IP is the ideal choice for mobile multimedia and TV devices.

Imagination Technologies IP Shipping Now

The first mobile phones to offer the same quality of gaming as a games console are powered by Imagination's PowerVR MBX cores. Handsets are now on sale in Japan, China and Korea and coming to the EU and USA imminently. With this technology even advanced graphics content like QUAKE III Arena can be played on a handset.

The first commercial mobile TVs using the T-DMB standard in Korea are powered by Imagination's UCC and META cores. Now Imagination offers a multi-standard Mobile TV platform that allows phones to roam for TV as easily as they roam for voice. This platform support both the T-DMB and single segment ISDB-T standards used in Asia, Europe and Japan and the DVB-H standard targeted at the USA and Europe.

The first low cost, low power consumption DAB digital radio chips are powered by Imagination's UCC and META cores. These are now used in over 100 OEM products and with 75% market share. Imagination's IP can support a range of other digital radio standards including DRM, Digital Radio Mondiale.

The latest flat-panel TVs are enabled by Imagination's PowerVR, UCC and META cores. UCC enables multi-standard TVs that can be sold worldwide. PowerVR flexible video decoders and advanced image enhancement IP enables next wave of TV sets that deliver advanced capabilities and high-quality imaging for mainstream markets.

In-car systems where drivers can see where they should drive in vivid 3D on their navigation screens are shipping now from Pioneer and Mitsubishi, powered by Imagination's PowerVR MBX cores.

About Imagination Technologies

Imagination Technologies Group plc - a leader in SoC IP - develops, licenses and supplies market-leading graphics, video and display cores, real-time multi-threaded DSP/RISC processors and communication and broadcast technologies for the mobile, consumer, automotive and PC markets. It supplies licensable IP (Intellectual Property) supported by advanced development tools to leading semiconductor and consumer electronics companies worldwide. Imagination Technologies Group plc has its corporate headquarters in the United Kingdom and is publicly traded on the London Stock Exchange (FTSE:IMG). See: www.imgtec.com.

Contacts
Imagination Technologies
David Harold, +44 (0)1923 260 511
Fax: +44 (0)1923 270 188
david.harold@imgtec.com

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