Imagination Technologies, makers of the POWERVR GPUs that power iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad, has announced that 6 new partners, including 3 unnamed -- and presumably including Apple -- have licensed their upcoming next generation POWERVR Series 6.

The POWERVR Series6 GPU family, which delivers unrivalled GFLOPS per mm2 and per mW for all APIs, delivers not only a clear technology advantage and exceptional roadmap, driven by one of the largest teams of graphics engineers in the world, but also an extensive ecosystem of third party developers which has created hundreds of thousands of apps optimised for POWERVR enabled devices to date.

The current iPad 2, and likely the iPhone 5 this fall, make use of the POWERVR SGX543MP2 as part of the Apple A5 system-on-a-chip. Apple claimed the A5 had 9x the graphic performance of the previous year's A4, and lets the iPad do all sorts of wonderful things, like AirPlay mirroring for games the level of Real Racing HD. What an Apple A6 chipset could do with an even more powerful the Series 6 -- other than melting a hole in your pocket -- could start rivaling the experience, if not raw polygon count, of console games. It could also more than make up for an iPad with a Retina Display...

Now we just have to wait and see if they can be produced in volume in time for Apple's 2012 release schedule.

[Imagination via MacRumors]

The iPhone 3.2 SDK for iPad has officially outed the PowerVR SGX as the graphics core inside Apple's A4 chipset:

Using OpenGL ES on iPad is identical to using OpenGL ES on other iPhone OS devices. An iPad is a PowerVR SGX device and supports the same basic capabilities as other SGX devices. However, because the processor, memory architecture, and screen dimensions are different for iPad, you should always test your code on an iPad device before shipping to ensure performance meets your requirements.

Since Apple is a major stakeholder in PowerVR creator, Imagination, this was widely assumed, Bright Side of the News had suggested otherwise.

Whether or not it's the same PowerVR SGX in the current iPhone 3GS, or the latest generation announced back in January at CES remains unknown. We're hoping for the latter, of course, and that the 4th generation iPhone gets it as well...

[Via MacRumors -- Happy 10th anniversary from everyone at TiPb!]

While Apple's current generation iPhone 3GS and iPod touch G3 use ARM Cortex A8 CPUs and PowerVR SGX GPUs chips from Samsung, as part of their iPad announcement today, Apple also announced their own chip -- the Apple A4.

Custom chipsets have been on Apple's agenda since they bought PA Semi (Palo Alto Semiconductor) and Steve Jobs flat out said they'd be used in future Apple mobile devices. That future, it seems, starts now.

Battery life -- 10hrs for the iPad -- was stated as a prime reason for going with a custom chip. As is typical for Apple, they didn't give any details (and likely the reason they're making their own chips is so that they can keep those sorts of things secret from the competition), but since they're rumored to be a massive ARM licensee, and owns part of PowerVR maker Imagine, we're going to go out on a limb and guess those are still the CPU and GPU respectively.

How much RAM lurks inside the iPad, Apple also didn't say, and since we only found out the iPhone 3GS has 256MB was after the tear-downs, we'll likely have to wait on those for the iPad as well.

Of course, TiPb's mind immediately turns to the chances of having an Apple A4, or similar chip, in the 4th generation iPhone and iPod touch. Combine that with 512MB or more of RAM, a Cortex A9 multicore CPU, latest PowerVR SGX GPU, and little PA-Semi magic and... who knows how interesting 2010 will become!

Imagination, which counts Apple as one of its owners, has provided the GPU (graphics processing unit) for every iPhone to date, including the current iPhone 3GS PowerVR SGX, so it's not unreasonable to assume the latest, greatest PowerVR SGX545 introduced at CES will be in the 4th generation iPhone, likely to be announced in June/July (and the iPod touch to follow):

SGX545 will also deliver OpenGL ES 2.x and OpenGL 3.2 to deliver class leading 3D graphics performance, and will also support OpenCL 1.0 full profile capability which will enable mobile and embedded applications to take maximum advantage of the capabilities offered by these GPU APIs for both 3D graphics and general purpose applications.

Could we see this spun into a new, ARM Cortex A9 multi-core cpu by Apple's own PA Semi? We've already got great 3D gaming, what's this one designed to do, burn our eyeballs into the back of our Avatar-scorched skulls?

[Imagination via 9to5mac]

Apple Insider reveals that:

Sources have now reported that Apple has detailed that Imagination's PowerVR SGX is indeed the graphics processor used in the iPhone 3G S, and that it is "designed for OpenGL ES 2.0." The new 2.0 specification of OpenGL for Embedded Systems eliminates most of the fixed-function rendering pipeline for a programmable approach to 3D rendering using shader programs.

So while we're not yet getting that PA Semi + multicore ARM/PowerVT + OpenCL + Papermaker + ATI gurus system on a chip we've been fantasizing about this year... we're still getting a clear focus on speed from Apple. And that's a Good Thing.

Oh, and yeah, that's totally the Kingdom Come Flash trouncing his golden age and silver age counterparts in the graphic above. /geek.

Imagination makes the PowerVR graphics core chip (GPU) that powers the current generations of iPhone and iPod touch handsets. Apple likes them enough to have become a huge licensor and even investor in the company. Well, it's looking like that investment may pay off for iPhone users in the next generation iPhone and iPod touch (which TiPb is still predicting will hit in July and September respectively).

Even bigger news? It looks like these new multi-core chips will be transparent from the developer's point of view. That means Apple has far less risk in "fracturing the platform" by adding more GPU firepower to the next gen iPhone. Also, they look to be supporting OpenCL, Apple's open source implementation that allows GPUs to be treated like CPUs and boost general purpose computing when they're not throwing polygons and pixels around our favorite games or movies.

Says the Register (via MacRumors):

Without any intervention by the application - and, more importantly, without any intervention by the application's developer - the driver will pass data to an "MP code scheduler," which will in turn pass that data to one pipeline scheduler per core, which will then pass it to one thread scheduler per multi-threaded processing engine, which will then manage the threads through the engines as they process the graphics data.

In other words, the SGX543 can have any number of cores from two to sixteen with no change in the driver software or the application. All that complex data/pipeline/thread management is done in hardware. No muss, no fuss.

But a whole lot of "we want it now!"...

We've made no bones about it, TiPb wants us some iPhone HD this June! Looks like the stars are aligning closer and closer to give it to us as well, what with faster 802.11n mobile WiFi chips, and rumors of quad-core cpu's for iPhone 3.0. Now that OpenCL supporting PowerVR graphics core boost might be on the way as well. Says Apple Insider:

Imagination Technologies has quietly slipped out word this week of a new mobile chip known as the PowerVR SGX543. [...] In practice, the technology is powerful enough to push 35 million polygons per second and 1 billion pixels per second and can thus easily drive HD resolution video output, including when 3D is involved.

HD aside, any gamers looking forward to that kind of quad-core, super graphical powered fun?

The iPhone can play 3D games and pump out high quality video like almost no other handset on the market, but when you're not gaming or watching video, when you're just using apps or doing old-school computing, all that power goes to waste, right?

Well, maybe not for much longer.

PowerVR from Imagination is the graphics and video processor core inside the iPhone (and other mobile devices), and we mentioned earlier in the week that it's now confirmed Apple is a mega-licensee of the technology moving forward.

Now Apple Insider reports that Imagination is looking for OpenCL engineers.

While OpenGL is the open source competitor to Microsoft's proprietary DirectX graphics technology (the stuff that drives all those 3D games), OpenCL (Wikipedia link) has recently been open sourced by Apple for leveraging that power for mainstream computing tasks. And Imagination integrating OpenCL means Apple's desktop OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard might not be their only OS to benefit...

Hello GPU accelerated general iPhone processing! Hopefully this means regular old applications, from data bases to web code processing will soon be snappier, and more powerful.

Um... now please?

Way back on Sept. 7 we linked to an item that conjectured Apple might be the secret licensee of PowerVR technology. Well, the conjecture is now confirmed according to MacRumors:

Apple is "subscribing for" 8,200,000 new shares of Imagination Technologies Group which means Apple will have an ownership interest of 3.6% in the company. The press release also reveals that Apple is a licensee of Imagination's technology.

What does this mean for the iPhone? That Apple is likely Spinning Custom “PA Semi” ARM Chipset for Next Gen iPhone!

We love it when a plan comes together. What plan? How'bout Apple buying super low-power fabless chip design firm Palo Alto Semiconductor (PA Semi) back on April 23, which Steve Jobs later said would make "system-on-chips" for the iPhone and iPod? How about PowerVR graphics cores reaching a mega-licensing deal with an unnamed company? (Which might just rhyme with Snapple...) And how about now, a Mr. Wei-han Lien, formerly of PA Semi, updating his Linked[In] profile to read: "Senior Manager Chip CPU Architect at Apple", and more specifically, "ARM CPU architecture team for iPhone"? (ARM having reportedly also reached a long term licensing deal with an unnamed company)

Put them all together, and what do we get? A scary hardcore look at what will drive the next (and/or next after next) iPhone v3. And according to Macrumors:

By developing its own ARM variant, Apple could create a processor that meets the specific needs of the iPhone and iPod, building support for functions such as the touch screen or scroll wheel into silicon and possibly savings on costs by reducing the number of processors needed in each device. In addition, Apple’ will be able to maintain tighter controls on who knows what about its future products by disposing of an outside chip supplier.

Wanna bet Steve calls them "screamers"? And Carmack claims PS2-class gaming?

Got an iPhone or iPod Touch? Then you've already got a PowerVR graphics core crunching your eye candy. This week, however, Imagination Technologies revealed that an "unnamed company" has acquired a new mega-license for their current and future tech.

While this could be Apple and could just mean incremental adaption of new graphics cores going forward, tie it together with some other recent news and rumors, including the equally "unnamed" deal with current iPhone/iPod Touch processor licensor, ARM, and Apple's more public acquisition of fabless chip design firm Palo Alto Semiconductor (PA Semi), and MacRumors thinks something bigger could be in the works:

Apple is positioning itself to deliver custom chipsets based on existing iPhone technologies for future devices.

We agree. iPhones and iPods aren't the Mac, where a unique chipset (PowerPC) lacking the volume needed for competitive pricing led to Apple's famed Intel switch (and the rebirth of the black/grey market clones). Handsets and iPods, and whatever else becomes part of Apple's new Mobile WiFi Platform could just leverage some custom hardware not only for differentiation, but to deliver that advanced, "unmatchable" technology Apple keeps harping on about.