Apple is said to be in “advanced talks” to buy out Imagination Technologies, known for its PowerVR line of GPUs, meaning there may be some big improvements to the power available on future iPhones.
According to Ars Technica, a source with knowledge of the discussions has claimed Apple is nearing the crux of its talks to buy the British chip design company.
Apple has used Imagination Technologies PowerVR line of GPUs ever since the A4 chipset, which was used to power the iPhone 4.
Time to experiment
Apple owned 9.5 percent of Imagination Technologies back in 2009 and while it’s not certain how much the Cupertino firm currently owns, Imagination Technologies is in the middle of a restructuring process losing more experimental areas of the business such as IoT technology to focus on the PowerVR line.
The process means Imagination will cut 350 jobs, and it’s thought this may be a way of making the business leaner and more attractive to Apple.
Apple has made its own CPUs in-house since 2008 when it bought PA Semi and adapted the tech into the A6 SoC, which featured in the iPhone 5.
Bringing a team of GPU specialists in-house at Apple may see it make the iPhone even more powerful, which will likely manifest itself in better gaming capabilities.
On the other hand, it may be that Apple just decides to bring in Imagination Technologies just to have it on the team. We’ll have to wait and see if the deal goes through first.
Source: techradar.com
