Apple may be working on its own GPU

By Shrey Pacheco | Updated on 11-Dec-2015

11 Dec 2015 14:54

HIGHLIGHTS

The move would negate the company’s dependency on Imagination Technologies’ PowerVR GPUs, which are used on the present-generation A series chipsets

Apple may be developing its own GPU. According to Fudzilla’s sources, the company has been “working under extreme secrecy for a few years.” Apple already relies on its own ARM-based chipsets used in iOS devices, but the PowerVR GPUs used in those devices are made by Imagination Technologies. For instance, the Apple A9 chipset on the iPhone 6s and 6s Plus use a PowerVR GT7600 GPU.

This move would make sense for Apple, considering the vast resources it has at disposal. Having its own GPU will negate its dependency on Imagination Technologies, and increase its margins. Apple’s A9 chips are quite large in comparison to its competitors, and designing its own GPU would allow the company to use the space more effectively. It would also allow Apple to optimise the efficiency and power consumption of devices, as per specific requirements.

It is unlikely that the GPU will be included in the next generation of Apple's devices as it generally takes years for a company to design and implement a new technology. However, considering that Apple may have already spent a few years working on the GPU, it may be unveiled sooner rather than later.

Apple isn’t the only company which is reportedly developing its own GPU. Samsung may also be working on its own GPU for mobile devices.The company has already developed its own custom cores for the Exynos 8890 chipset, and is tipped to be used in the upcoming Samsung devices, like the Galaxy S7. The Exynos 8890 uses a Mali-T880 GPU, which is also used in Huawei’s new Kirin 950 SoC. The Kirin 950 powers the Huawei Mate 8, which was unveiled in China last month.

Last month, a blogger on Weibo claimed that the Adreno 530 was 10% faster than the PowerVR GT7600 GPU. The Adreno 530 GPU is used by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 processor. A few days before making this claim, the same blogger had posted a comparison graph between the Apple A9, Snapdragon 820, Helio X20, and Kirin 950 SoCs. According to the graph, the Apple A9 was better than its competitors in single-core performance.

Source: Fudzilla

Shrey Pacheco

Writer, gamer, and hater of public transport. View Full Profile