Leading technology companies form open source foundation 'prpl' supporting 'datacenter to device' portability

Non-profit prpl foundation to support MIPS architecture; open to others

• Broadcom, Cavium, Ikanos, Imagination, Ineda Systems, Ingenic Semiconductor, Lantiq, Nevales Networks, PMC, Qualcomm Incorporated and others join to create prpl
• prpl to deliver substantial open source resource for advanced MIPS CPU semiconductor devices
• Initial key targets include enabling next-generation ‘datacenter to device’ (IoT); truly portable software; virtualized architectures

LONDON, UK, 22^nd May, 2014 — Imagination Technologies announces it is collaborating with leading technology companies including Broadcom, Cavium, Ikanos, Ineda Systems, Ingenic Semiconductor, Lantiq, Nevales Networks, PMC, Qualcomm Incorporated and others to create prpl (pronounced “Purple”). prpl is an open-source, community-driven, collaborative, non-profit foundation targeting and supporting the MIPS architecture—and open to others—with a focus on enabling next-generation ‘datacenter to device’ portable software and virtualized architectures.

prpl represents leaders in the technology industry investing to deliver innovation in efficiency, portability and compatibility for the good of a broad community of developers, businesses and consumers.

Says Imagination CEO Hossein Yassaie: “We are delighted to be working with key industry leaders in the creation of prpl. For Imagination, this is an important new initiative in the further development of the MIPS ecosystem. With more than three billion units shipped, MIPS is one of the world’s leading CPU architectures. The commitment and support we have seen since our acquisition of MIPS in 2013 has been impressive and prpl will focus and develop a valuable strand of that support to deliver outstanding benefits for users, and compelling ROI for members. As part of our commitment to community, and consistent with our agnostic approach to IP, the prpl foundation will be supportive of heterogeneous architectures.”

prpl will enable developers to draw on considerable resources to deliver applications and devices that share open source innovations created by some of the best minds from member companies to both B2C and B2B markets. The efficient, optimized, interoperable and scalable effort will enable the further development and proliferation of devices that benefit from the remarkable efficiency of the MIPS architecture and its unique features in areas such as hardware multi-threading, 32/64-bit compatibility and hardware virtualization.

Initial domains targeted by prpl include data center, networking, digital home and embedded/IoT. Imagination intends to leverage prpl to bring together under one roof open source projects based on the MIPS processor community and make accessible the latest free, unencumbered tool chains, associated libraries, common platform, debuggers, probes and software, and build environments for all users of MIPS.

Each member will provide value to the prpl foundation based on their particular expertise and focus on their core domains and accordingly will participate in specific prpl Engineering Groups (PEGs). For example, Qualcomm Incorporated intends to focus heavily on networking initiatives such as fostering a community around carrier-grade OpenWrt.

To the Linux community, prpl will contribute popular OS distributions for MIPS including Android, Arch Linux, CentOS, Chromium OS, Debian, Fedora, Gentoo, MEOS (MIPS Embedded OS), Montavista, OpenWrt, Redhat, Tizen, Ubuntu, WebOS and Yocto, with more to follow. Additionally there will be a wide open source code bank for: LLVM, kernel, UEFI, gcc, buildroot, MIPS optimizations/SDK, and more.

The prpl bylaws, management, board of directors and key projects will be officially announced in the coming weeks. To find out more about joining or benefiting from prpl visit: www.prplfoundation.org.

About Imagination Technologies

Imagination is a global technology leader whose products touch the lives of billions of people across the globe. The company’s broad range of silicon IP (intellectual property) includes the key processing blocks needed to create the SoCs (Systems on Chips) that power all mobile, consumer and embedded electronics. Its unique software IP, infrastructure technologies and system solutions enable its customers get to market quickly with complete and highly differentiated SoC platforms. Imagination’s licensees include many of the world’s leading semiconductor manufacturers, network operators and OEMs/ODMs who are creating some of the world’s most iconic products. See: www.imgtec.com.