Imagination Technologies (LON: IMG), the company now in ownership of MIPS’ technologies, has announced a new 64-bit MIPS processor that goes by the name of the MIPS I6400.

The MIPS I6400 is Imagination Technologies’ and MIPS first 64-bit processor and actually one of the few 64-bit processors out there capable of running on a mobile device and run Android. This MIPS I6400 chip joins the MIPS Warrior family of processors which includes the Warrior M-class of entry-level MIPS cores for embedded and microcontroller applications and the Warrior P-class of high-performance MIPS processors. Based upon how Imagination Technologies is placing this new I-class of processors, it appears as though this will sit in the middle ground between the M-class and P-class of MIPS processors.

MIPS I6400 CPU block diagram

Imagination touts the MIPS I6400 as a scalable, highly efficient 64-bit processor that that can be implemented across a very wide range of performance and power limitations and is capable of high frequencies in more aggressive implementations.

Imagination also has hardware multi-threading which they believe results in higher utilization and CPU efficiency. The company states that its simultaneous multi-threaded (SMT) technology will allow for execution of multiple instructions from multiple threads for every clock cycle. The chips also support hardware virtualization, much like the rest of the MIPS Warrior family but the implementation in the MIPS I6400 allows for up to 15 secure/non-secure guests. Imagination is also quick to tout the high security capabilities of the MIPS I6400 as well as the advanced power management which allows for dedicated clock and voltage levels to each core, only waking cores when they’re needed. This chip also supports 128-bit SIMD based upon MIPS’ SIMD which is designed to support a wide variety of 32 and 64-bit integer and floating point data. This is designed to deliver high performance and high throughput for tasks that can properly utilize the efficiency of SIMD execution in data-parallel applications.

MIPS I6400 Benchmark Performance

In the company’s blog about this new MIPS I6400 processor, the company makes some claims regarding 64-bit performance when compared against their competitor (ARM) and the Cortex-A53 64-bit processor. These include a 50% higher CoreMark and 30% higher DMIPS performance, which need to be independently verified. It would also be very interesting to see how these new processors stack up against ARM and Intel mobile chips in JavaScript performance (Sunspider, etc.) but Imagination Technologies has said that they will not release any benchmarks at this time.

Let’s remember, as of right now MIPS is currently natively supported within Android and will be capable of supporting 64-bit Android as well. While this is great for MIPS, it hasn’t necessarily translated into marketshare against ARM in mobile as the company has very few mobile MIPS licensees for the most current family of products. THe company does claim that they already have a multiple licensees across multiple markets but can’t name any names quite yet.

Does Imagination have what it takes?

Imagination Technologies has a lot of uphill work to do with MIPS and this is a clear indication that Imagination Technologies is not letting off the gas pedal with MIPS.

It clearly wants to be competitive with ARM and Intel, and there’s a good chance that it could nab some SoC licensees from current ARM licensees if its 64-bit CPUs are genuinely better than what ARM is currently offering. However, until its claims are substantiated, it will be very hard to really see them as a real competitor to ARM. Right now, most of MIPS consumer-facing processors are in Ingenic’s SoCs while ARM has tons of licensees. MIPS does have other licensees for other platforms including Qualcomm, Broadcom, Cavium and many others in embedded and networking applications. If it can convince some of their embedded customers to look at their MIPS I6400 series processors, they could seriously become a threat to ARM and give them more competition than Intel has managed to do. In fact, they may help ARM licensees gain more favorable licensing terms if they have room to negotiate thanks to the MIPS I6400 (if it really performs as well as they say it does).

The post Imagination Announces New 64-bit MIPS I6400 appeared first on VR World.

Intel today announced that they would be partnering with Rockchip to launch a series of Android-focused mobile SoCs based on Intel’s SoFIA architecture which combines Intel’s x86 architecture with their own modem technology into a single SoC. This would include Intel providing Rockchip with quadcore SoCs running Intel’s own x86 architecture and modems. The SoFIA is essentially a culmination of all of Intel’s work in the mobile space  but lacks Intel’s own GPU IP because it utilizes Imagination Technologies’ PowerVR graphics architecture instead. Intel has traditionally used PowerVR graphics in their mobile chips for many years but as their desktop and laptop GPUs got better they started to expand into mobile. Also, the SoFIA chips will not benefit from Intel’s 22nm foundry advantage that they enjoy to promote as their ‘edge’ because it will be manufactured with TSMC instead. We don’t know who will be fabbing the SoFIA chips for Rockchip, but the truth is that Rockchip doesn’t really need Intel’s chips as they’ve successfully won large amounts of SoC design wins without Intel or x86.

In fact, Rockchip is very well known as one of ARM’s biggest partners, so Intel is clearly trying to send a message. As you can see all of Rockchip’s current designs are merely their own SOCs utilizingARM’s own various CPU designs ranging from an M3 all the way up to an ARM Cortex-A17, which is one of ARM’s newest SoCs. Intel and Rockchip are jointly announcing the 1H 2015 availability of this new quad-core SoFIA 3G chip, which increases the SoFIA family roadmap to 3 different products. The dual-core SoFIA 3G chip will come in the fourth quarter of this year, while the quad-core SoFIA 3G chip and dual-core SoFIA LTE chip will come in the first half of 2015. Intel and Rockchip haven’t released quad-core SoFIA 3G pricing qite yet, however they believe it to be price competitive and under their agreement Rockchip and Intel will sell this new part to OEMs and ODM into each company’s existing customer base.

Ultimately, I see this as Intel finding a new distribution channel for their mobile SoCs so that they can gain more design wins, even at the low-end. There’s no denying that SoFIA is designed for the ‘mainstream’ or ‘low cost’ and as a result, pushing such a chip through Rockchip’s channels seems like a logical move for Intel. I don’t necessarily foresee Rockchip doing much with this chip necessarily other than promoting it as an option to their already existing Chinese OEM and ODM customers. Rockchip isn’t necessarily a popular SoC outside of China, however so many whitelabel tablets and smartphones get made in China and sold outside to other markets that there’s a good chance you could spot a SoFIA-based Rockchip product in a tablet almost anywhere in the world. I simply believe this to be Intel widening their addressable customer base and nothing more, really. Some people seem to be confused by this connection of Rockchip and Intel, but if anything it should make ARM have to work harder for Rockchip’s business which I’m sure they’d like considering Mediatek, AllWinner and Qualcomm’s success.

The post Intel Partners with Rockchip to Accelerate x86 Mobile Adoption appeared first on VR World.

Oracle used the Imagination Summit 2014 in Santa Clara, California to announce their affiliation with Imagination Technologies of the UK. The collaboration is aimed at enhancing Java for embedded applications, including those used for the Internet of Things (IoT) and to optimize Java for the MIPS CPU architecture.

Oracle shared their vision of the Internet of Things at the Imagination Summit 2014

The MIPS32 and MIPS64 systems will gain support through Oracle’s Java Development Kit (JDK) for developing, debugging, and monitoring Java applications. Developers can use Java in various applications including routers, wireless access points, residential gateways, networking equipment, and mobile devices. Krishna Yarlagadda, President of Imagination in North America, indicated that his company is extremely committed to growing the MIPS ecosystem.

Henrik Stahl, Oracle’s VP of Product Management for Java & Internet of Things, appeared on stage at the Imagination Summit 2014

Imagination’s BusBridge 2 Module features an easily configurable, high-performance, low latency MIPS core interface. It is designed for semiconductor manufacturing companies, ASIC developers, and system OEMs who want to quickly integrate a MIPS core into an AHB-based system. AHB is a bus protocol introduced in Advanced Microcontroller Bus Architecture version 2 from ARM.

Imagination’s BusBridge 3 family of synthesizable functional blocks help SoC designers integrate MIPS32 CPU’s into the most popular high performance chip bus hierarchies. The OCP2AXI bridge works to connect the MIPS32 OCP{Open Core Protocol) interface to an AXI system bus while the OCP Splitter, a small, synthesizable function block has an OCP input that expands to two OCP outputs. Downloads and User Guides are available on line. Imagination also provides a MIPS Developer Forum.

Additionally a joint effort between Oracle and Imagination will be aimed at improving Java on systems involving Imagination’s PowerVR graphics, a product for multimedia processing, including 2D and 3D graphics. The PowerVR architecture is based on Tile Based Deferred Rendering (TBDR), in contrast to Immediate Mode Rendering (IMR) used by most graphics engines in the PC and games console worlds.

The post Imagination and Oracle Join Forces, Java Addresses the Internet of Things appeared first on VR World.