Imagination Technologies provides GPU and AI processor IP for the mobile, desktop, consumer electronics, and automotive markets.
Imagination’s PowerVR GPU architecture is designed for power-efficient graphics processing on edge devices through the use of tile-based rendering, which allows sections of a screen to be processed individually, and deferred rendering, which defers all texturing and shading operations until the visibility of each pixel in the tile is known. The company has also developed a ray tracing architecture to improve illumination rendering on power or area constrained devices. Its graphics processors support all forms of multimedia processing, including 3D and 2D graphics as well as high-performance GPU compute for AI workloads in the same unified engine. Along with IP, the company provides software development tools, frameworks, and SDKs.
In 2013, Imagination acquired MIPS Technologies for $100 million. The MIPS unit was sold in October 2017 to venture firm Tallwood Venture Capital for $65 million in cash.
In 2014, Imagination co-founded the prpl Foundation, which is focused on enabling the security and interoperability of embedded devices.
In November 2017, Imagination was acquired by private equity firm Canyon Bridge for about £550 million (~$744 million) and delisted from the LSE.
