Intel seems to be serious about its graphics quests. Recently they brought in Finland-based Siru Innovations to its graphics team. Siru is an experienced player in the graphics IP and software services industry, with roots dating back to the 80s. However, Intel did not give many details on this new acquisition/partnership. We do not know whether Siru will act as a consulting company for the upcoming Arc Alchemist lineup of GPUs and beyond or whether it will help in house manufacturing.
How was Intel’s Partnership with Siru Declared?
The Intel Graphics’ official Twitter handle tweeted its new partnership with Siru Innovations yesterday. This tweet mentions that Siru will help Intel’s customers in the fields of Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS), gaming, hyper-scale computing, and more. Intel Graphics’ lead Raja Koduri retweeted this tweet talking about the deep history and talent behind Siru. The Finnish company was founded only in 2011, but some of its origins can be traced back to the 1980s to a core talent group called Future Crew.
When established in 1986, Future Crew was a Commodore 64 group. Later, they moved to make PC Demos shortly before they split up and the members went for their careers in the PC gaming and manufacturing industry. Some of the notable companies created by the members of Future Crew include FutureMark, a benchmark developer and analyzer, Bitboys, a hardware company, and the game development studio Remedy.
Siru has its roots in Bitboys. In the early 90s, the company was working on their custom graphics card IP. This project failed, and Bitboys was acquired by Canadian semiconductor fab ATI Technologies. In 2009, the same team at Bitboys worked for Qualcomm too. And, in 2011, they incorporated Siru Innovations.
This acquisition/partnership is another proof of how badly Intel wants to set a foot in the industry with its graphics hardware. The Arc Alchemist GPUs are supposed to come to retail stores soon, but we do not have a release date yet.