Sharp has licensed IP from all three of UK-based Imagination Technologies' Metagence, Ensigma, and PowerVR divisions for use in devices for the consumer products market.

Imagination will receive licence and customisation income and will also get royalty revenues when Sharp ships products using the IP cores.

The company's IP includes graphics/video cores, real-time DSP-enabled multi-threaded processors, and communication and broadcast technologies for the consumer entertainment and PC markets.

The META multi-threaded processor architecture, from the Metagence division, provides multiple real-time programming contexts that can operate independently and concurrently. This allows systems that would otherwise require multiple dedicated processors to be implemented on one device.

The Ensigma UCC is a flexible and programmable communication processing unit designed for use in higher performance devices.

PowerVR's scalable technology covers consumer graphics and visual applications ranging from embedded systems to location-based entertainment.