Today, Imagination Technologies has announced that they have signed on six partners to use their next-generation PowerVR Series 6 GPU. Three announced partners are: Texas Instruments, MediaTek, and ST-Ericsson. The remaining three licensees are “yet to be announced.”
Right about now you’re wondering “What does this have to do with Apple really?” Well, other than using PowerVR series of GPUs to power their iPhone and iPad lines, Apple is part stake holder in the company, with 9.5% ownership as of 2009.
The PowerVR SGX543MP2 GPU is currently the fastest GPU Apple uses alongside their A5 chip to power the iPad 2. In fact, this combination claims to deliver 9X greater graphics performance than the original iPad. Imagination Technologies’ next chip is said to have yet another big boost in performance.
Granted, all of this is a linkage by association. Apple is not listed, for certain, as one of the licensees. However, it’s very likely they will be using the new GPUs in their next-generation devices. That said, with this announcement coming in this late in the year, Apple will likely build these new GPUs into their products in 2012.
To me, mobile processing technology reminds me of the mid 90’s desktop technologies. That is, every few months there is a significant boost in performance. We can’t say that so much today, seeing as CPU clock speeds have almost stagnated in the last few years for desktop machines. We can see where the industry’s focus lies, and it’s making for some exciting times.
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