Freescale licenses Vivante's ScalarMorphic graphics

LONDON – Vivante Corp. has said it has extended its licensing agreement with Freescale Semiconductor Inc. to include the next-generation of multicore GC5000-MP and general-purpose graphics processing unit (GPGPU) cores.

The agreement is additional to the licensed graphics cores found in Freescale's i.MX6 series Triple-Play Graphics product line, Vivante (Sunnyvale, Calif.) said. Vivante, a startup formed in 2004, is a growing force in graphics intellectual property licensing alongside graphics market leader Imagination Technologies Group plc and processor licensor ARM Holdings plc.

The upcoming technologies licensed by Freescale are based on Vivante's ScalarMorphic shader architecture and software stack and are set to be included in an expanding line of i.MX applications processors for consumer, automotive and embedded devices.

The GC5000-MP graphics and GPGPU IP allows distributed application contexts that merge 3-D, 2-D, and GPGPU compute functions, Vivante said. The architecture includes task-specific load-balancing of GPU/GPGPU resources, power management and the ability to blend 3- and 2-D graphics rendering with GPGPU applications, the company added.

"The extension of our collaboration with Vivante enables our customers to build an even stronger portfolio of next-generation connected devices leveraging advanced visual, graphics, GPGPU and networking capabilities," said Bernd Lienhard, vice president and general manager of Freescale's multimedia applications division.

"Our ultra-scalable technologies, power miser designs, and segment leading performance per area/watt, combined with Freescale's expertise in designing, optimizing and marketing top of the line applications processors, represent a new generation of multicore, multitask platforms targeting the complete range of end markets," said Wei-Jin Dai, CEO of Vivante, in the same statement.

Vivante entered the Silicon 60, EE Times' list of emerging startup companies at version 12.0 in 2011. The latest edition of the Silicon 60 is version 12.5, which is the topic of a detailed technology and employment digital edition which can be accessed via http://e.ubmelectronics.com/Silicon60/index.html


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