Attentive for AI?
"I didn't expect to come to Imagination before. But I was very interested in AI. Imagination has something in common with Nvidia, not only has 25 years of GPU experience, but also has many advantages in terms of power consumption, area, and has its own AI. IP, and the realization of AI requires the combination of GPU and AI, which can help customers to do better in technology, products, and systems. Second, Imagination is a British company and will not be affected by US government policies. It will be for the Chinese IC industry. Development assistance will bring real value to customers. 'Li Liyou directly explained the reason for its coming to Imagination. Although Imagination has experienced many twists and turns in recent years, the 'foundation' is still there, three key IP GPUs, AI and connection. The innovation is still strong.
David Harold, Imagination's vice president of marketing and communications, introduced that its PowerVR GPU and PowerVR neural network accelerators have significantly improved efficiency, floating-point operations and power consumption. PowerVR GPUs also provide a range of common software and chip-level verification. Multiple operating system hardware virtualization and security features; and PowerVR neural network accelerator performance is twice that of the nearest competitor with only 25% of its bandwidth. At the connection level, its IP Ensigma provides a scalable, patented architectural approach that can Supports communication from low power consumption to high performance. In the future, it will provide complete solutions including radio frequency and authentication support, providing customers with multiple IP combinations and risk-free solutions.
Li Liyou emphasized that in the low-end market, Imagination's IP is sufficient, but Imagination has a long-term plan. On the one hand, it will continue to improve high-end performance, and on the target of the Qualcomm 800 Series GPU, to help customers in the high-end market Competition; On the other hand, through GPU + GPGPU + AI's 'combination boxing', they are responsible for identification and acceleration respectively, achieving more optimization at the speed and power level of AI, helping customers to develop comprehensive platform products and accelerating their development in numerous application markets. .
'Know that most AI companies currently only have AI chips, unlike Imagination, which has a combination of IP, and is constantly improving in software and ecology, and will bring real value to customers. ' Li Liyou stressed.
Changes in China's IC
One of the reasons Li Liyou chose Imagination was especially 'real' after the ZTE incident continued to unfold. Although Li Liyou said that joining Imagination did not know that the Sino-U.S. trade war was underway, the outbreak of the ZTE incident also made the Chinese semiconductor industry feel completely painfully aware of the core Technology is controlled by people's '桎梏'.
With the accelerated development of China's semiconductor industry, IP has become an important part. Li Liyou believes that China is one of the world's largest semiconductor markets. China's IC design industry has developed rapidly, and IP can support Chinese companies to create real chips with their own knowledge. Property rights can not only reduce costs and achieve faster time to market, but also really get rid of others' 'possibility'.
'The most important thing is that Imagination has more than 1,500 patents in the GPU industry, can control its own destiny and direction, will not be affected by the U.S. government, ensure the focus and investment in the Chinese market. You know, ARM has half of the engineers in the United States. , The future will inevitably not be affected. ' Li Liyou bluntly said, 'At the same time, Imagination has many years of EDGE experience, and will also develop high-end IP, with customers continuously optimize, solve problems, bring real value.
'Imagination will introduce various opportunities through new authorization transactions and designs, and will also provide important support in China. It is building larger teams in Shanghai, Beijing and Shenzhen, and will increase the number of employees by 50% in the future, including sales, marketing and R & D personnel. And the next step will be to carry out a wide range of ecosystem construction activities, will continue to meet China's most important market needs such as automatic driving, mobile phones, security and so on. 'David Harold elaborated on China's strategic layout.
In recent performances, Imagination has also relied heavily on the Chinese market. In the past year, Imagination achieved 50% higher revenue than expected. The first two authorized buyers of AI IP came from China, while China accounted for 20% of sales revenue. Also exceeded 20%.
'However, China's semiconductor industry needs to be truly autonomous and controllable, not just to start with the basic IP, but to start from every link in the industry chain, and more importantly, to be able to calm down in terms of attitude. China's big environment is too impetuous. What we all want is how to make a fortune in the 24 hours and make it 36 hours. But it is absolutely impossible for the semiconductor industry to do this. Foreign engineers do IP for some of them for more than 20 years. Think about what environment ARM and Imagination produced in the UK? China is not without money, There is no talent. What is lacking is the attitude and environment to calm down and do things seriously. ' This should be Li Liyou’s profound comprehension.
Future challenges
The challenge of Imagination to return to the IP war situation is obvious in the face of the world's internal and external environment.
After all, IP, such as ARM, Synopsys, CEVA, Nvidia, and Qualcomm, has become a master, while the domestic horizons of the AI sector, the Cambrian, etc., have adopted their own architecture and the market has been relatively narrow; in addition, although the AI application market has great potential, But it may take 5-10 years for AI to really land to produce a huge application like a smartphone.
Li Liyou also believes that although the AI market has many potentials, but the current application is also focused on mobile phones, automotive and security, Imagination will also continue to plow in these areas, and continue to improve on the IP products. David Harold pointed out that the future Imagination for GPU and The AI solution will develop new innovative architecture methods, optimize software and firmware, and maximize the SoC performance and differentiated feature set.
“Imagination had not pushed it well in the past. It was late to enter the market. ENGAGE CUSTOM is also late. But now there are very detailed plans. We have also opened up some important customers at home and abroad. We will also focus on creating the ecology and the advantages of IP portfolio. Continuously realize the real value for the customer in the software, system, and platform. In addition, the challenge of Imagination is that R&D engineers focus on technology while slightly neglecting the market and customers. In this regard, the company is turning to the customer and the market as the center. It is not product-oriented 'values'. In terms of capital, Imagination will use the capital and strategic capital provided by Canyon Bridge to tap the potential of its independent IP provider. 'Li Liyou mentioned.
Can Imagination stage a new 'The Return of the King'?