Sondrel announced today that it has signed an agreement to acquire the IMGworks division of Imagination Technologies. The IMGworks engineering team will join with Sondrel’s existing engineering consultancy to create a combined IC design capability comprising more than 250 highly skilled employees. IMGworks provides SoC design and software integration services, allowing its fabless semiconductor customer-base a fast and low-risk path to full production.

Sondrel is internationally recognised for its advanced technology physical implementation team. In 2015, it created a Design and Verification business unit with strong focus on image processing applications. A recent business review agreed a roadmap concentrating on application specific expertise in ADAS systems, artificial intelligence (AI) and machine vision & learning devices. The addition of the IMGworks team, with its system on chip design capabilities in graphics, GPU and video processing, is a very good strategic fit within the Sondrel Roadmap.

Sondrel CEO, Graham Curren commented, “Video and graphics related business is going through a steep growth curve, driven not only by gaming and infotainment systems but also by the accelerated computational needs of the AI (artificial intelligence) environment that enables many of the new automotive, enterprise cloud and IoT related products.”

He continued, “Combining our existing design2GDSII expertise with the wider range of engineering expertise within the IMGworks team will allow us to deliver comprehensive System on Chip project execution, as well as other innovative solutions leveraging GPU technologies. Sondrel and IMGworks together will be positioned to take full advantage of predicted future semiconductor market trends.”