AppleInsider has just reported that Imagination Technologies – the company behind the PowerVR mobile graphics processors that are used in Apple’s A5 processor (found in the iPad 2), has started licensing the next generation of its PowerVR graphics processors to its partners. The next generation graphics processor, named PowerVR Series6 has been revealed to be licensed to six key partners of Imagination Technologies.
Three of the partners have been revealed to be ST-Ericsson, Texas Instruments and MediaTek. But there are three more companies that remain a mystery. Apple is said to be one of them due to its 9.5% share ownership of the company, and previous dealings with the company but there are no clues to what the other two companies are.
While it’s still unconfirmed that we’ll be seeing the next-generation iPhone this year, chances are it won’t be packing the PowerVR Series6 GPU, but will be fitted with the iPad 2’s A5 processor instead – due to the fact that Imagination Technologies only started licensing the new graphics processor recently, which would make it too late to include in a device that’s slated to come out this year. The new iPad that should be revealed early next year will most probably be packing the new GPU instead.
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