Is there any movement towards applying MBX to a "pure" gaming system?

Currently a big part of putting 3D in there is specifically for entertainment. Some of the applications people are thinking about are quite high profile and it's not driven on the notion of sticking 3D in for UI purposes and then add games on top of that, but rather the main purpose for including it would be for games, and then whatever else can be driven from that.

MBX has been with us for about 3 years now and we've still not seen anything in the way of actual products, however I assume that developments have continued with the next revisions of MBX?

A couple of things have happened, one of which was that MBX is a new part and was really very, very aggressive to hit the wider mobile market in terms of size and power. But there has also been definition work on the next series of MBX.

Initially MBX was targeted as low for 130nm processing, but now we're getting into 90nm territory.

Because we provide Soft IP as synthesisable RTL, it is inherently retarget-able to different silicon processes. We are focussing on more aggressive power management because issues of current leakage get more important as you go down the process sizes.

Currently 130nm is almost mainstream in terms of the designs but 90nm is active and 65nm is the one beyond that and we have to keep track and make sure our customers can target those technologies effectively.

Obviously MBX was designed to have certain power and heat specifications, but as we move down the process sizes can you not fit more functionality within those specifications?

Yes you can, but phones are getting more features and require bigger displays, while they still need the same battery life - the bigger displays will increase the display size power requirements. There is also the question of which percentage of the market people want to attack. So, whilst going forward, higher feature sets within similar area and power budgets will be expected - you'll also expect to be addressing the broader market with lower cost and power solutions.