Imagination Technologies made its PowerVR Series8XE GPU IP available to customers building custom RISC-V system-on-chips through SiFive’s DesignShare ecosystem. The 2019 announcement also included PowerVR Series3NX neural-network accelerator IP. This was an IP-licensing route for SoC development—not a retail GPU launch.
What did Imagination add to SiFive DesignShare?
On 13 May 2019, Imagination announced that it had joined SiFive’s DesignShare ecosystem. The named components were the PowerVR Series8XE GPU and the PowerVR Series3NX neural-network accelerator (NNA), offered as IP blocks for integration into customer-designed SoCs. The announcement described DesignShare as a way to reduce upfront IP-acquisition costs for prototyping and give designers modular third-party components for RISC-V systems. Imagination’s announcement and SiFive’s announcement provide the original context.
Was it a graphics card or a chip?
Neither announcement described a finished graphics card or an off-the-shelf processor. PowerVR Series8XE was GPU intellectual property that a customer could license and integrate into a custom SoC. The Series3NX NNA was a separate accelerator IP block for neural-network workloads. Customers would still need to design, integrate, and build a product around the licensed IP.
What APIs did the announcement name?
Imagination highlighted Vulkan, describing PowerVR as the first fully featured GPU supporting the Vulkan API available through DesignShare. The release also named OpenCL, Android NNAPI, and SYCL. These were the APIs cited in the 2019 announcement; they should not be read as a guarantee of support for every later version, operating system, or customer configuration.
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What did DesignShare mean for RISC-V designers?
SiFive provided the RISC-V processor and platform context, while Imagination supplied graphics and neural-network acceleration IP. That gave SoC teams a route to combine a RISC-V CPU with GPU and NNA blocks without developing every accelerator internally. It did not remove the engineering work required to integrate and validate the blocks in a particular SoC.
For a design team evaluating such IP, the practical questions include:
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- Capability and software: whether the GPU and NNA functions and named APIs suit the intended workload and software stack.
- Integration and verification: what work is required to connect the IP to the chosen SoC architecture and verify the complete design.
- Commercial terms: what licensing and support terms are available for the intended project.
- Enablement: what software, development assistance, and verification resources are available for the specific configuration.
Was the IP free, and how could a company access it?
The announcements described customer access to licensable IP through DesignShare, but did not publish prices, contract terms, or a public affiliate or referral program. The cost-reduction positioning therefore does not mean the IP was free. A prospective customer would need to confirm current availability, licensing terms, and support directly through the relevant vendors.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.Was this combination used in a later SoC?
In a 25 June 2024 announcement, Imagination said Eswin’s EIC77 series combined SiFive RISC-V CPU IP, Imagination GPU IP, and Eswin’s proprietary NPU. Imagination described the series for edge-computing, AI-PC, and AI-acceleration applications. This is a later example of those vendors’ IP appearing together in a commercial SoC context; it does not establish that the EIC77 used the same Series8XE or Series3NX blocks announced for DesignShare in 2019. Imagination’s EIC77 announcement.
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