Monday, April 10th 2017
AMD Acquires Wireless Virtual Reality IP from Nitero
AMD today announced it has acquired intellectual property (IP) and key engineering talent from Nitero, a pioneer in millimeter wave solutions capable of enabling future generations of wireless Virtual Reality (VR) and Augmented Reality (AR) headsets. The acquisition provides AMD with a broader portfolio of IP capable of enabling VR headset and solution providers with key technology required to create more immersive computing experiences.
"Unwieldly headset cables remain a significant barrier to drive widespread adoption of VR," said Mark Papermaster, AMD chief technology officer and senior vice president. "Our newly acquired wireless VR technology is focused on solving this challenge, and is another example of AMD making long-term technology investments to develop high-performance computing and graphics technologies that can create more immersive computing experiences."
Nitero has designed a phased-array beamforming millimeter wave chip to address the challenges facing wireless VR and AR. Using high-performance 60 GHz wireless, this technology has the potential to enable multi-gigabit transmit performance with low latency in room-scale VR environments. The beamforming characteristics solve the requirement for line-of-sight associated with traditional high-frequency mm-wave systems, potentially eliminating wired VR headsets and enabling users to become more easily immersed in virtual and augmented worlds.
"Our world class engineering team has been focused on solving the difficult problem of building wireless VR technologies that can be integrated into next-generation headsets," said Nitero co-founder and CEO Pat Kelly who has joined AMD as corporate vice president, Wireless IP. "We are excited to play a role in furthering AMD's long-term technology vision."
"Unwieldly headset cables remain a significant barrier to drive widespread adoption of VR," said Mark Papermaster, AMD chief technology officer and senior vice president. "Our newly acquired wireless VR technology is focused on solving this challenge, and is another example of AMD making long-term technology investments to develop high-performance computing and graphics technologies that can create more immersive computing experiences."
Nitero has designed a phased-array beamforming millimeter wave chip to address the challenges facing wireless VR and AR. Using high-performance 60 GHz wireless, this technology has the potential to enable multi-gigabit transmit performance with low latency in room-scale VR environments. The beamforming characteristics solve the requirement for line-of-sight associated with traditional high-frequency mm-wave systems, potentially eliminating wired VR headsets and enabling users to become more easily immersed in virtual and augmented worlds.
"Our world class engineering team has been focused on solving the difficult problem of building wireless VR technologies that can be integrated into next-generation headsets," said Nitero co-founder and CEO Pat Kelly who has joined AMD as corporate vice president, Wireless IP. "We are excited to play a role in furthering AMD's long-term technology vision."
15 Comments on AMD Acquires Wireless Virtual Reality IP from Nitero
See the papers already, Man died due to exploding battery, wife ignored it and thought it was part of the experience.
Not to sure if this is a wise option for AMD, i hope it is how ever VR is to expensive and can only see this making it even more expensive putting it even further out of reach of people who actually want it.
Work on things that you promised first. I am really getting pissed off by AMD's poor execution recently.
Frankly surprised fury got left out of the initial support. 290x390 meh.
VR is a risk since no one really knows if it will take off. Just like 3D TV's and 3D PC monitors, no one really cares although it was a nice idea way back when. If VR and AR are never truly accepted then just bought a a led zeppelin with this investment,....
Are you trying to fail AMD,.....?
Are you after some kind of tax write off,....?
I never cared for 3D TV at the home level but enjoy it at the theater. I absolutely love playing on the Vive.
Augmented will probably take VR mainstream... in the same way as glassless 3d will make me interested in that at home.
But then again, my business went bankrupt years ago, so... my advice is probably shitty.
That AMD is making acquisitions and increasing its IP portfolio is a great change of pace from the "sell, sell, lease-back" wave of some years ago. Some tentative steps into the future.
That said, AMD's management has made some good decisions in the last few years; I can't help but think they are getting paid to make these decisions and have access to information I don't while doing so.