DesignWest / ESC Silicon Valley Expo, San Jose, USA 26th March 2012: Imagination Technologies, a leading multimedia and communications technologies company, says that technology vendors targeting ‘The Internet of Things’ need to provide far more than small conventional microcontrollers if products are to deliver the promise of everything being truly internet connected.
Tightly integrated Wi-Fi functionality, ready-made baseline and value-added internet services and cloud portal technology specifically designed to service the needs of the embedded community, all brought together as a tightly-integrated turnkey package, will become the ’must-have’ technology platform for product developers, says Imagination. This will enable the billions of new connected products expected across every electronic market category, in particular for those products falling outside the ‘sexier’ high volume consumer or mobile segments.
Imagination’s MetaFlow Connected Processor IP platforms bring together a high performance 32-bit hardware multi-threaded CPU architecture (with optional 32-bit DSP capability), full 802.11a/b/g/n Wi-Fi capability (extendable to Bluetooth and over 20 other TV and radio communications standards) and Imagination’s Flow cloud and portal technologies all in an ultra-low power, highly cost-engineered IP package.
Says Tony King-Smith, VP marketing, Imagination: “The rise of Cloud technologies and applications is creating exciting new markets and discontinuities in existing ones as all devices evolve to take advantage of connectivity. New applications in healthcare, home automation, security, smart energy and elsewhere will all increasingly follow the trend of computing and smart phones, and begin taking advantage of significantly enhanced functionality enabled by Cloud connectivity. And as consumers continue to embrace their world in the Cloud, so everything from cars to toasters will need to become connected to both the internet and each other.
“Given the breadth of Imagination’s engineering capabilities across CPUs, RPUs (Radio Processing Units) and Cloud technologies, we are proud to be one of the few companies with the engineering resources and know-how to provide a complete solution to systems and application developers, that offers far shorter and more cost-effective time-to-market for partners who want connectivity but don’t want to spend man-years of effort developing ‘me-too’ platforms.”
Imagination’s MetaFlow reference platforms are being demonstrated publicly at DesignWest this week, including example applications using Flow cloud portal technology running on a MetaFlow platform from Imagination’s engineering services ecosystem partner Movial. Based on SoCs (systems on chip) built from Imagination’s Meta processor IP and Ensigma RPU communications IP families, these flexible platforms, incorporating Flow cloud and portal technologies, enable end product designers to develop the next generation of connected devices and solutions, utilising our growing portfolio of Cloud-based offerings from both Imagination and its ecosystem partners.
Imagination is unique in having developed in-house the underlying technologies needed to make connected smart systems happen. From its Ensigma communications RPU (radio processor) IP to enable ubiquitous connectivity, to its Meta CPUs, Flow technologies and portal, Imagination is creating a consistent and comprehensive technology infrastructure enabling connecting devices to the Cloud.
Imagination’s MetaFlow reference platforms are available now to selected partners.
About Imagination Technologies
Imagination Technologies Group plc (LSE:IMG) – a global leader in multimedia and communication technologies – creates and licenses market-leading multimedia IP cores for graphics, video, and display processing, multi-threaded embedded processing/DSP cores and multi-standard communications and connectivity processors. These silicon intellectual property (IP) solutions for systems-on-chip (SoC) are complemented by platform level IP, a strong array of software tools and drivers and extensive developer and middleware ecosystems. Target markets include mobile phone, handheld multimedia, home consumer entertainment, mobile and low-power computing, and in-car electronics. Its licensees include many of the leading semiconductor and consumer electronics companies. Imagination has corporate headquarters in the United Kingdom, with sales and R&D offices worldwide. See: www.imgtec.com.
