Imagination readies MIPS cores codenamed Warrior

Imagination Technologies Group has announced that it plans to launch a generation of 32/64bit MIPS processor cores under the codename Warrior.

The Series 5 MIP processors have been described as an update to the Aptiv generation. However, the Warrior generation has equivalents across three performance profiles and includes 32 and 64bit variants with a focus on performance efficiency across the high-end, mid-range and entry-level/microcontroller CPUs, stated Imagination.

Imagination will introduce next-generation Warrior cores later this year and has begun to sharing details with customers. The company also said that Warrior would provide binary compatibility with legacy 32bit and 64bit MIPS code.

Some of the Warrior CPUs will include the MIPS SIMD Architecture (MSA), which is designed to provide single-instruction multiple data support for handling multimedia codecs from high level programming languages and APIs such as C and OpenCL.

The company also said that other features include technology for trusted execution environments within mobile and embedded systems and hardware virtualisation for both MIPS32 and MIPS64 processor designs.

Imagination has also announced it has extended its Aptiv generation of cores, adding a small-footprint single-core version to the interAptiv family and a floating point version to the microAptiv family.

"The industry is longing for a choice in the CPU market, and we are making MIPS a clear and superior alternative," said Hossein Yassaie, CEO of Imagination, in a statement. "We have an outstanding range of cores available today and that will be complemented by our forthcoming Warrior cores, which will provide levels of performance, efficiency and functionality that go beyond other offerings in the market."

Scott Gardner, senior analyst with The Linley Group, said: "If Imagination does as great a job with the new MIPS generation as it has done with PowerVR GPUs, then the industry will have another strong player in the CPU IP space."

- Peter Clarke
??EE Times