It had long been rumored that Apple was thinking about moving its graphics processor design in-house and this was finally confirmed officially a couple of weeks ago when the company decided to stop working with UK-based Imagination Technologies which previously worked with Apple on its GPU designs. Now that it has made this decision, Apple has posted GPU-related job listings as it seeks to bring in more talent to work on its GPU designs.
The Telegraph spotted that Apple’s jobs board for the United Kingdom currently has 12 “Hardware Engineering” job postings. The positions are based at Apple’s UK Design Center with 11 of the 12 listings being connected to GPU design.
One such job posting is for an Engineering Program Manager who will be tasked with working in a “newly formed graphics design team” in order to work on the “definition of the architecture, spec, design, and verification of graphics IP from concept through to silicon.”
Apple certainly needs more talent within its ranks now that it’s going to work on its own graphics technology for future mobile devices. It will no longer work with Imagination Technologies on this even though the two have a partnership going back several years.
The company hasn’t explained why it’s cutting ties with Imagination Technologies but it’s possibly due to Apple’s inclination to get more control over the hardware that it puts out. Moving GPU design in-house will enable the company to further improve the technology as per its vision.