Fujitsu and Vivante to Co-Develop Embedded System LSI for Mobile Devices

Fujitsu Limited and Vivante Corporation today announced an agreement in principle to jointly develop a system LSI for embedded systems, such as mobile phones and other portable devices.

Vivante is a developer and provider of graphics processing units (GPUs) that process three-dimensional graphics for mobile phones and other mobile applications. Vivante's expertise is in design and development of 2D and 3D GPUs that feature high-speed graphic rendering performance while significantly conserving power.

Under this agreement in principle, by combining Vivante's strengths in designing circuits for GPUs that feature high-speed 3D rendering capabilities and low power consumption, with Fujitsu's expertise in 65nm process technology that reduces the leakage current and power consumption of transistors, the companies will use 65nm process technology to jointly develop system LSIs that feature high-performance 3D rendering capabilities and low power consumption for embedded systems, such as for mobile phones and mobile gaming devices.

The system LSI device for embedded systems will include Vivante's 3D GPU, which is compliant with the OpenGL(R) ES 2.0 specification⁽¹⁾ and other various application program interfaces (APIs), enabling easy transfer of graphics software – for games developed using PCs and other various applications - for use on mobile devices.

The jointly-developed system LSI device is scheduled to be available in the second half of 2008 and will be sold by Fujitsu as one of its ASSPs and will be offered to Fujitsu's COT customers.

By using the new system LSI, manufacturers of mobile phones and mobile gaming devices will be able to feature long-running 3D rendering functions. In addition, because applications developed on PCs will be able to be shifted for use on mobile devices with fewer additional development steps, the new LSI will enable a reduction in software development processes and is anticipated to stimulate the development of applicable software.

"Vivante's low power graphics processor combines high performance graphics and a rich visual experience previously only available on PC platforms with the low system level power required for handheld devices. Combining next-generation graphics on Fujitsu's low-power multimedia platform enables our customers to create products that stand above the crowd in multimedia user experience." said Shigeru Fujii, Corporate Senior Vice President and Group President of Fujitsu's Electronic Devices Business Group. "The market for mobile devices is converging with personal computer and consumer electronics dedicated functionality converging into a single handheld device. Through this collaboration, we will enable Fujitsu customers to address this market convergence today and in the future."

"Fujitsu's commitment and strength in both multimedia and state of the art low-power high-performance advanced process technology is an excellent match with Vivante's focus on delivering mobile visual reality to customers with a very limited power budget," said Wei-Jin Dai, chief executive officer, Vivante Corporation. "The joint development model is Vivante's preferred approach to rapidly provide complete solutions to targeted markets. Combining Fujitsu's silicon process and multimedia SoC product technologies with Vivante's SoC technology will enable Fujitsu customers to differentiate their products in the market."

By providing this system LSI for embedded systems that combines high performance with low power consumption, Fujitsu and Vivante aim to be leading suppliers for the rapidly-growing mobile device industry.