Imagination rolls out complete Ensigma connectivity IP solutions from baseband to RF

Flexible licensing and support models speed customers’ time to market

London, UK – 12^th October, 2015 – Imagination Technologies (IMG.L) announces that it is offering complete Ensigma connectivity IP system solutions including Wi-Fi/Bluetooth software, media access control (MAC) layer, baseband, analog front end (AFE) and RF, through a range of flexible licensing and support models.

To accelerate customers’ time to market, Imagination provides its Ensigma radio communications processors (RPUs) as complete communications solutions including certifications. In addition to licensing baseband IP, Imagination provides RF IP for customers who need it. Imagination already works with partner RF providers and customers’ own in-house RF to provide a range of RF choices that work with Ensigma basebands. Customers who don’t already have RF capability can license Ensigma RF as hard IP blocks for SoC integration or standalone use. If needed, customers can also take advantage of Imagination’s back-end productization, pre-certification, characterization, and test capabilities.

Says Toshiya Matsui, general manager, Toshiba: “We leveraged multiple Imagination IP cores in our highly integrated IoT processors. This includes the Ensigma Explorer RPU that provides the high-speed Wi-Fi which is a hallmark of these processors. The fact that Imagination also offers RF made it easy for us to take these processors into production.”

Says Nir Shapira, CTO, Celeno Communications: “As a leading provider of high-performance Wi-Fi chips and software, it’s critical that we partner with companies who provide a combination of high-quality technology and flexible business models. We recently worked with Imagination on a high-end 4×4 802.11ac Wave 2 design project and their highly flexible and proficient approach assisted us tremendously in delivering an optimized solution to the market within tight time-to-market constraints.”

Chakra Parvathaneni, vice president of Ensigma business operations at Imagination says: “Connectivity is increasingly moving on-chip – not only the baseband, but also in many cases the RF functionality. With Ensigma, Imagination provides the world’s most complete end-to-end connectivity IP solutions from RF to baseband, enabling customers to easily integrate a broad spectrum of communications capabilities into their SoC designs. Our Ensigma RPUs – including the high-performance Explorer family and low-power Whisper family – are already shipping in millions of units.”

As part of its commitment to providing a range of RF choices that complement Ensigma RPUs, Imagination has collaborated with Synopsys, a leading provider of high-quality IP solutions. Synopsys provides DesignWare® Bluetooth Smart IP, supporting the latest Bluetooth low energy standard and operating down to one volt supply, and Analog Front-End IP to enable wireless device connectivity with low-power consumption.

John Koeter, vice president of marketing for IP and prototyping, Synopsys, says: “Synopsys collaborated with Imagination to ensure our silicon-proven DesignWare Bluetooth Smart IP and Analog Front-End IP solutions are fully interoperable with Imagination’s Ensigma baseband IP. We worked closely with Imagination to optimize radio drivers, enabling low-risk integration of our Bluetooth Smart IP with Ensigma’s baseband into customer designs.”

Ensigma connectivity IP is available for license as complete IP subsystems incorporating RF/AFE/baseband in different technology nodes. The first subsystems include:

• Ensigma Whisper low-power Wi-Fi 802.11n 1×1 subsystem for applications such as wearable computing, health care, home control
• Ensigma Whisper ultra-low power Bluetooth Smart and 802.15.4 subsystem for extremely low-power applications such as wearables and IoT sensors
• Ensigma Explorer high-performance Wi-Fi 802.11ac 2×2 MIMO subsystem for applications such as video streaming, Wi-Fi cameras and access points

Availability
Imagination’s Ensigma Explorer and Whisper RPUs are available for license now. Contact info@imgtec.com for more information.

About Ensigma RPUs
The Ensigma range of RPUs includes the low-power Whisper family and the high-performance Explorer family, designed to address applications from ultra-low power to maximum performance. Because they share a common API, customers can reuse software across the platforms. Ensigma RPUs provide multi-standard support in a single architecture, designed to enable customers to bring standards such as Wi-Fi, Bluetooth Classic, Bluetooth Smart, NFC, GNSS and other existing or emerging low-power connectivity technologies onto their SoCs. By bringing this functionality on-chip, customers can minimize power consumption, silicon footprint and system cost compared with conventional solutions. Ensigma RPUs are shipping today in numerous low-power audio and connectivity devices with a growing range of designs in the pipeline.

About Imagination Technologies
Imagination is a global technology leader whose products touch the lives of billions of people across the globe. The company’s broad range of silicon IP (intellectual property) includes the key processing blocks needed to create the SoCs (Systems on Chips) that power all mobile, consumer and embedded electronics. Its unique software IP, infrastructure technologies and system solutions enable its customers to get to market quickly with complete and highly differentiated SoC platforms. Imagination’s licensees include many of the world’s leading semiconductor manufacturers, network operators and OEMs/ODMs who are creating some of the world’s most iconic products. See: www.imgtec.com.