POWERVR SGX First with Conformance for all Khronos Mobile APIs on Production Silicon

Mobile Devices Poised For A 3D Content Revolution Says Imagination

London, UK -- August 14, 2008 -- Imagination Technologies, the leader in mobile graphics technologies, reports that POWERVR SGX is the world’s first 3D graphics acceleration solution to achieve conformance on commercially available production silicon for all of the Khronos™ mobile 2D and 3D graphics APIs – OpenGL® ES 2.0, OpenGL ES 1.1 and OpenVG™ 1.0 -- reinforcing POWERVR’s credentials as the leading mobile and embedded graphics acceleration solution.

APIs, or application programming interfaces, enable software applications to use the power of advanced hardware in a high level, well defined and structured way. Conformance was achieved using Texas Instruments’ POWERVR SGX enabled OMAP3430 application processor.

Production-ready SoCs utilising its industry-leading POWERVR SGX graphics acceleration technology are now designed into more than 20 announced MID, UMPC and other board –level products with many more due within the next six to nine months. The first phones capable of delivering OpenGL ES 2.0 support, enabled by POWERVR, will enter the market in Q4 2008.

Imagination’s POWERVR MBX 3D acceleration core is also conformant with Khronos’ OpenVG 1.0.1 and OpenGL ES 1.1 APIs.

POWERVR SGX is currently available in SoCs from Intel, NEC and Texas Instruments, and several further key industry leaders are also committed to POWERVR SGX based platforms.

Says Tony King-Smith, VP marketing, Imagination Technologies: "High performance, fully conformant support for open standards such as the Khronos APIs is a key strength of all of our IP core technologies. The graphics-driven content revolution is being enabled across many markets by the combination of Imagination’s POWERVR hardware and the industry standard Khronos APIs for graphics, which are now available across an ever growing range of operating systems and hardware platforms."

Says Neil Trevett, president of the Khronos Group: "We congratulate Imagination on this important trio of conformance achievements – particularly as it is the first organization to achieve certification for OpenGL ES 2.0 based on production silicon. OpenGL ES 2.0 enables fully-programmable 3D graphics on embedded systems. With the support of major suppliers such as Imagination, OpenGL ES 2.0 will usher in a new generation of devices that will enable revolutionary applications, ultimately driving consumer demand."

Supplementary Information

Imagination’s POWERVR graphics technology, which has been highly optimized for mobile devices, is already deployed in volume SoCs from leading semiconductor manufacturers including Texas Instruments, Renesas, NXP, Freescale, Samsung, SiRF and Intel, with chips from several other manufacturers yet to come.

POWERVR MBX graphics, which supports OpenGL ES 1.1 and OpenVG, dominates the market today for graphics acceleration shipping in mobile phones, PMPs, PNDs and MIDs.

POWERVR SGX brings a fully unified shader environment to mobiles, while retaining full compatibility with existing POWERVR MBX applications. Shaders are a technique used extensively in games consoles and other high end graphics platforms for creating advanced effects which enable more realistic and compelling images to be created. Unlike traditional 3D rendering, shaders are programmable, enabling the content developers’ creativity to become the defining factor on the appearance of a game, user interface or other application.

The POWERVR SGX architecture is uniquely scalable, with IP (Intellectual Property) cores in the family targeting entry level handsets, through smartphone and MID, up to netbooks and laptops. The small sizes of the IP cores and the uniquely efficient patented tile-based deferred shading architecture allow chip makers to keep the clock-speed of the core low and memory bandwidth the lowest in the industry, extending battery life.

POWERVR SGX’s patented tiled-based deferred rendering and multi-threaded Universal Scalable Shading Engine (USSETM) keep graphics processing on chip and are critical in ensuring that the POWERVR SGX GPU architecture can deliver optimal performance from any given silicon area or memory subsystem while minimising power consumption by eliminating unnecessary processing.

For further information, please see www.imgtec.com/powervr/powervr-graphics.asp.

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 and 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.