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.
