Not necessarily true.

Imagination Technologies (ImgTec) is the maker of PowerVR. Second and third largest shareholder of it happens to be Intel and Apple (the first one's not really tech-related). So it's mostly unlikely that ATi and Nvidia will be able to snatch PowerVR from ImgTec for the obvious reasons.

Ray-tracing hardware and software dev Caustic Graphics was mostly ex-Apple. And they are bought by ImgTec after Apple ups their stake. So this obviously means that they want to keep their tech really close to themselves.

Btw, it's always possible for ImgTec to license their tech to other companies, just like how Sony is using PowerVR core for its PSVita. But acquisition of either the company or the IP's won't happen anytime soon.

I also happen to remember that how ppl said that 3dfx Interactives' demise and Nvidia acquisition of Ageia Physx was never gonna happen, and how rumors of AMD splitting into GlobalFoundries is an impossibility.
Its the age of capitalism.Im not saying its gonna happen or not, just pointing that there still are possibilities.
Capitalism makes for strange bedfellows.You never know.

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Added on January 19, 2012, 7:08 pmXBox Next/Xbox 720 chips in production



This is an article following last year's joint venture of IBM with GlobalFoundries newly opened Fab 8 factory which went into producing 32nm chips.
So far the most substantial rumor on the net about NewBox.

Im betting Ubisoft & Crytek to be one of the first to showcase their next gen games at E3 2012.

This post has been edited by nightshade_nova: Jan 19 2012, 07:10 PM

Guess that 0.0001% chance is still a possibility anyway.

Actually the situation of PhysX getting acquired by nvidia is more akin to how ImgTec bought Caustic Graphics. And nope u don't see any other company buying out PhysX from nvidia, so that should be the same to ImgTec-Caustic situation or at least its IP.

Globalfoundries spinoff is more about AMD and other companies are dealing with tough economy situation. That wont be an issue for ImgTec since they are fab-less company.

Albeit raytracing itself is nothing new, realtime raytracing technology implemented by Caustic is nothing short of groundbreaking. So I don't see any logic of ImgTec letting it go while they are just starting to integrate that into their products. But there's no stopping for them to license it, in fact they are an IP licensing company after all.

Also they got sustainable piles of cash for years to come. There are already got big players as their licensee, including chip designers ST Ericsson, Qualcomm, TI and lots of others. Qualcomm and TI, including Apple, makes up a very large pie of the mobile platform market, so ImgTec wont have any problem to stay afloat. Even Intel's using PowerVR on their integrated graphics core since years ago, so that alone should suffice.

And remember, ImgTec is not a new company. In fact, it's much older than the demised 3dfx. And ImgTec (formerly VideoLogic) already learned their lessons as they were previously losing with Neon and Kyro. Guess what, they are still standing today.

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Added on January 19, 2012, 10:18 pmThat's interesting. If it's still based on the same POWER architecture than we can hope for a backward-compatible console.

I'd say Epic and Activision will get early access, since they sort of having special relationship with MS. for Epic it's no brainer since they got the engine powering lots of AAA titles on DirectX, not to say about their exclusive franchise.



This post has been edited by LaskarCinta: Jan 19 2012, 10:20 PM

Wow...0.0001%...you really dont want to open up your mind to possibilities...

Nvidia once said that they wont EVER partner up with Global Foundries, and look what happened.

How old a company is is irrelevant, bigger titans has fallen.Remember Lehman Brothers?
And recently Kodak which introduced the first digital camera filed a bankruptcy because they cant keep up.

Desktop graphics market are much volatile compared to mobile graphics, and you cant expect to depend on other division forever.
Its not so farfetched that ImgTec might give up halfway through, cut their losses and focus on mobile graphics only.

There is such thing as 'sinking ship', and if that happens, big shareholders might bail them out, or they might just let go.
And thats when much of the 'salvaging' comes.

I rest my case.

Agree with you. Anything can happen this days. I remember one time when 3dfx was king and nvidia was nothing but look what happened.

Just 3-4 years ago, everyone saying Blackberry is In-thing with BBchat and all, and guess what, they're gonna be gone soon.

Anyway, whatever the next-gen console may be, let's hope its awesome!

By myself stating 0.0001% there you should already know that I'm completely open to possibilities. It's just that the probability is too damn low.

About Nvidia, they are always a fabless company so they should have no problem having their products processed at any factory, either TSMC or GF. Plus the Nvidia case is also a more interesting one. Remember the ION/ION2 platform plus the previous chipsets made by Nvidia, and how Intel is driving Nvidia out of the IGP market day by day by various ways? The ones' inside Intel's chip is ImgTec's PowerVR. This shouldn't come as a surprise since Intel is the biggest semiconductor-related shareholder of ImgTec. The acquisition of ImgTec by Nvidia is just patently ludicrous since there are so much conflict of interest here (by Intel and Apple, not to say the other shareholders and juggernaut licensees that won't let that pass).

Nvidia's ousted from the chipset market is also the reason why they enter the mobile platform market in the first place. In fact it's only possible as Apple's no longer using PortalPlayer chip in favour to their own brew, and Nvidia bought that company with much of the original Tegra APX chip retain the PortalPlayer APX architecture. Here, Nvidia faced with a very different reality from the desktop market where their chip is not the best in class compared to its competitors, hence rearranging their strategies to pursue lower-priced market with Tegra 3 as revealed on the recent CES.

Well, nowadays everybody's spewing out words like "bailing out", "jumping ship", etc etc. But people often forgot that those crisis got reasons in the first place. Lehman Bros? it's just because how the economic bubble affects them, not to say about various other reasons. Kodak? It's about lack of innovation. ImgTec? They are still alive and kicking all these decades, facing various waves of economic turbulence and yet survives. And they are still pumping out innovations that even Qualcomm abandoned their own graphics solution and going for ImgTec's. Plus it will be a very obvious case of conflict-of-interest since the biggest shareholders of ImgTec are the ones putting much pressure onto Nvidia in the first place.

I'd say there will be no problem for ImgTec to license their tech to companies like Nvidia, they are IP licensing company afterall (more like ARM Holdings). Even Sony's got license of PowerVR cores for their products. It's just that baselessly speaking that Nvidia's gonna buy ImgTec is too drastic even in the current economic climate. It's so baseless that ImgTec is having no problem monetarily, since graphics license on Intel's and Apple's chip is more than enough to have ImgTec stays afloat for a very very long time. And let's not forget how conflict-of-interest will play a much bigger role here.

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Added on January 25, 2012, 8:10 pmPlus you should know that ImgTec is much older than both 3dfx and Nvidia. They've learnt their lesson much time ago.

Just look how 3dfx falls apart. ImgTec doesn't replicate the same issue troubling 3dfx at its downfall, more specifically competing with their own OEMs and the declining Glide API. Both DirectX and OpenGL is heavily supported on ImgTec designs, and by ImgTec's also partly owned by Intel that alone should tell you alot. About competing with previous OEMs, that shouldn't be an issue since ImgTec doesn't even have a fab, not to mention that they don't sell their own branded cores. They are just licensing those.

ImgTec had learned their lesson the hard way through Neon and Kyro desktop graphics, and they surely won't go through that same route again.

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Added on January 25, 2012, 11:58 pmI'm not saying about the direct correlation between age and survivability. What I'm implying is that ImgTec already faced with lots of bubbles and waves through decades, mucher than the ones that had its competitors closed shops. Yet ImgTec still turns out okay today.

By using your own logic, everyone can also deduce that Nvidia will certainly fall, and being outright bought by ImgTec. I won't tell everybody that since that's not a very educated guess. Without any basis and logic too. Keep spreading the word "bailing", "jumping ship", etc, but that won't prove anything.

Before a titan fall, cracks showed up first. For 3dfx, you can see that situation. For certain financial institution, you can see that coming too. For Kodak, it's super obvious. For ImgTec? Well, you have to state your case first since you're the person most certain that Nvidia will acquire them. So I expect that you can lay the facts as you're the most knowledgable person around.

Unless it's just some fanboyish ramblings like "If Nvidia bought ImgTec it should be awesome!!! +1" then i wouldn't be much surprised. It's not that Nvidia's the end-all-be-all solution. Plus it's not like Nvidia is totally invincible from any arousing conflicts (by your own logic). Plus like you've already said, "desktop graphics market are much volatile" anyway.

Have a nice day

This post has been edited by LaskarCinta: Jan 26 2012, 12:34 AM

I thought production of the Wii U has been postponed

not sure about xbox720 and ps4, but Wii U is CONFIRMED (or promised by Nintendo) to be launching, and ready for shipping globally by the end of this year (:

source: theshadowgamer.com

The problem now is that Wii U will use Nintendo Network :/

Given how Nintendo treated Malaysia users (no Wii Store), this will only make it harder for us to buy games online, given that you must have a Ninty Network account to buy games. Sure a similar situation to those using XBox Live (also not available in Malaysia) will arise, but what about those who cannot use or do not want to use a fake address?

well... there's no xbl for M'sia, but it still doesn't stop us xbl players from buying games on xbl and playing mp online with other players from all around the world
same with psn also, no issue there even before the official MY PSN

so i don't see any issue with the implementation of Ninty Network

But then buying from XBL for some games need VPN router? for me that's already a nightmare.

Sumore, as said before, I accidentally told my mother that I was using my Singapore uncle's address for XBL, and she forced me to close the account.

This post has been edited by RAMChYLD: Jan 31 2012, 12:52 PM