Imagination Technologies First to Announce Conformant OpenVG 1.0.1 Implementation

POWERVR MBX Based High-performance OpenVG Acceleration Solution Passes Khronos-defined Conformance Test Suite

London -- January 28, 2008 -- Imagination Technologies – a leader in multimedia technologies for consumer electronics and mobile – reports that its POWERVR graphics acceleration technology is the world's first to pass the Khronos™ conformance tests for OpenVG™ 1.0.1.

Imagination has completed conformance testing of their OpenVG implementation using the official Khronos conformance test suite, and has achieved a 100% successful pass rate for all tests. Imagination’s claim for OpenVG 1.0.1 conformance was formally approved by Khronos on January 10th 2008.

Texas Instruments’ OMAP2420 processor, which incorporates the POWERVR MBX graphics accelerator IP core, was the platform used by Imagination for testing using the Khronos Group-defined conformance test suite and process. Khronos is the industry consortium responsible for the creation, maintenance and promotion of the OpenVG standard, alongside other multimedia APIs such as OpenGL®, OpenGL ES and OpenMAX™.

OpenVG is a new vector graphics API (application programming interface) for consumer electronics devices, enabling them to deliver sophisticated 2D graphical applications using two-dimensional Bezier-based vector and raster graphics. While software implementations of the API are possible, it is expected that many manufacturers considering OpenVG will choose to adopt chips that enable hardware acceleration of the API, especially for mobile and embedded devices.

OpenVG is a royalty-free, cross-platform API that is targeted primarily at handheld devices that require high-quality vector graphics for compelling user interfaces and text on small screen devices. Implementing OpenVG using hardware acceleration enables OEMs to deliver smooth, high frame rate interactive performance at very low power levels.

Says Tony King-Smith, VP marketing, Imagination Technologies: “We have seen several handheld device manufacturers considering the use of scalable high-quality vector graphics enabled by OpenVG to create advanced user interfaces and other applications. POWERVR MBX reduces power consumption massively compared to software OpenVG solutions while delivering exceptional throughput and rendering performance – and also maintaining full OpenGL ES 1.1 3D support. As a leading member of the Khronos organisation, we are delighted to be the first company to achieve OpenVG compliance for its hardware graphics technology, which will be available for licensing by all of our POWERVR MBX customers.

Says Neil Trevett, president of the Khronos Group: “With OpenVG, Khronos has created a low-level, Bezier-based API to streamline how high-quality, scalable 2D graphics software can take advantage of graphics hardware. OpenVG and OpenGL ES will be often used together to deliver a rich diversity of graphically rich applications and user interfaces with high-interactivity and low power levels. Imagination Technologies is to be congratulated on delivering the industry’s first conformant OpenVG implementation and this announcement reflects growing adoption of this enabling API specification.

Says Ameet Suri, TI's strategic marketing manager, Graphics and Gaming: “TI’s OMAP™ platform has led the way in the acceleration of advanced 3D graphics, now shipping in high-performance handsets worldwide. Working with Imagination Technologies, TI is delivering advanced 3D, 2D and vector graphics capabilities, which are rapidly becoming a must-have in a wide range of phones. Support for the OpenVG standard alongside OpenGL ES 2.0 and 1.1 gives our customers maximum flexibility when accelerating vector graphics libraries like SVG and Flash to deliver a compelling, rich user interface and enhanced 2D graphics user experience.

POWERVR MBX is the de facto standard for mobile and consumer electronics hardware 3D, 2D and vector graphics acceleration, deployed in over 75 handsets and numerous navigation, set-top-box, amusement and portable media player products.

About Imagination Technologies

Imagination Technologies Group plc (FTSE:IMG) – a leader in semiconductor System-on-Chip Intellectual Property (SoC IP) – creates and licenses market-leading embedded graphics, video and display accelerators, multi-threaded processors and multi-standard receiver technologies. These IP solutions are complemented by dynamic and extensive developer and middleware ecosystems. Target markets include digital radio and audio; mobile phone multimedia; personal media players (PMP); in-car navigation & driver information; personal navigation devices (PND); Ultra Mobile PC (UMPC) and Mobile Internet Device (MID); digital TV & set-top box; and mobile TV. Its licensees include leading semiconductor and consumer electronics companies, as well as innovative leading edge start-up and fabless semiconductor companies. Imagination has corporate headquarters in the United Kingdom, with sales and R&D offices worldwide. See: www.imgtec.com.

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