Product category:
Microprocessors, Microcontrollers and DSPs
News Release from: Fujitsu Microelectronics Europe
Edited by the Electronicstalk Editorial
Team on 13 September 2006
Unit targets automotive and multimedia
graphics
Fujitsu Microelectronics Europe has created a Graphics Solutions Business Unit based in Germany.
Fujitsu Microelectronics Europe (FME) has reorganised its European semiconductor business with the creation of a Graphics Solutions Business Unit Around 30 specialists, combining hardware and software design, applications and marketing skills will be based in Neuried, near Munich, Germany
This article was originally published on Electronicstalk on 16 Feb 2001 at 8.00am (UK)
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FME, already a technology leader in the embedded graphics market, will look to extend this lead by creating new devices and providing the extensive technical support expected in this growing market.
New graphics controller devices will target FME's existing automotive and multimedia markets, as well as other markets, which include medical, industrial, POS, marine, console-gaming and surveillance.
FME will also concentrate on providing additional functionality with products incorporating sophisticated peripherals and integrated microprocessors.
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FME's existing family of graphics controllers provides optimised solutions for embedded graphics environments including car navigation, head-up displays, console displays, virtual dashboards and mobile information terminals.
In addition to offering the world's fastest embedded rendering capability, FME's graphics controllers integrate a flexible layer concept, a wide range of 2D and 3D rendering functions, and provide support for screen resolutions up to UXGA (1600 x 1200).
FME recently produced the first graphics controller to be fabricated in 90nm technology for embedded automotive applications.
Produced in Fujitsu's own wafer fab in Mie, Japan, this third-generation device, the MB86297, is able to render 10Mpolygon/s with only 2W power consumption and uses DDR memory technology.
Complemented by Fujitsu's own API, the device is fully Open-GL ES compatible and offers special features such as resolution-independent dual display output, programmable geometry and rendering engines, eight layer support per display channel and dual video input.
"The creation of the graphics competence centre allows us to focus more strongly on new product development and local support, thus extending our lead in the graphics controller market", says Markus Mierse, Senior Manager, FME Graphics Solutions Business Unit.
He continues: "I am confident that my new group will quickly come to market with new graphics controllers, supplementing FME's already extensive roadmap".
"This ensures that there will be an FME graphics controller for all our target applications, which will assist customers to develop their products in the shortest time possible".
"The excellent scalability and binary compatibility of all our devices means that our products are interchangeable, allowing customers to move to higher- or lower-end devices without the hassle of major software changes".
This fully integrated team representing all necessary units for local graphics controller definition, hardware and software development, marketing and technical support, will be measured against its success in embedded graphics.
Milestones for the new business unit to achieve include: to jointly develop the first product with Japan by the end of CY07, and to achieve profitability in the 2008-09 timeframe.
"Our mission is to be number one in embedded automotive graphics, while providing European and world-wide customers with our optimised and right-sized graphics controllers for the embedded market with first-class customer hardware and software support", Mierse added.
Tasks for the new competence centre in Neuried, include hardware design in line with Fujitsu Japan to cover logic design of, and macros for, graphics controllers; chip architecture, prototyping of new concepts etc, and software design to include the development of drivers (Open-GL, Open-VG etc), customisation of APIs, SoC software and tools.
Application engineering support will be provided including in-house technical/customer seminars, evaluationboards etc, with marketing responsible for pricing; the monitoring of designs, revenue and projects, partner networks and customer contact.
The decision to establish a graphics competence centre was taken as recently as April this year.
Interviews were conducted during May and contracts were offered in June.
The initial team of 30 specialists comprises four existing Fujitsu people, 22 new employees and currently four vacant positions with interviews underway.
The decision to locate the offices in Neuried, just South of Munich, which has good autobahn connections and excellent infrastructure, was taken in July, with a 'go-live' date of 2nd October 2006 - just 6 months start-to-start.
From day one the team will be working on a number of projects including a short-term (3-month) project for the development of a device based on an existing design - but with a modified set of interfaces; and a mid-term (6-month) joint project with Fujitsu Japan to develop a new high-end device - both for key automotive applications.
For the future, FME's plan is to grow its graphics business faster than the market by aggressively defending its number-one position in embedded automotive graphics while expanding into other challenging areas include markets such as handheld navigation systems.
Ongoing investment in Fujitsu's own, in-house 90nm process technology fully supports these plans. Request free introductory details about products from Fujitsu Microelectronics Europe ...
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