Imagination Technologies, the company behind the iPhone and iPad's PowerVR graphic processor unit (GPU), says six "lead partners" have already selected their next generation PowerVR Series 6 GPU (codenamed Rogue) for licensing. Apple, which users the company's graphics processing units, to power their mobile devices and is probably one of the unnamed licensees.

The POWERVR Series6 GPU family delivers "unrivaled GFLOPS per mm2 and per mW for all APIs, delivers not only a clear technology advantage and exceptional roadmap, driven by one of the largest teams of graphics engineers in the world, but also an extensive ecosystem of third party developers which has created hundreds of thousands of apps optimised for POWERVR enabled devices to date," says Imagination CEO Hossein Yassaie The announced partners include ST-Ericsson, Texas Instruments, MediaTek as well as three "yet to be announced" licensees.

Apple is an investor in Imaginationi Tecnhologies. The iPad 2 currently uses the PowerVR SGX543MP2 GPU, notes "MacRumors" (http://www.macrumors.com).

The SGX family supports a range of application programming interfaces including DirectX9 & 10, OpenGL ES 2.x, OpenGL 3.x, OpenVG 1.x and OpenCL 1.x. In June 2009 Apple has increased its stake in Imagination Technologies Group to 9.5%. Apple acquired its position by subscribing to 2.2 million shares in Imagination at £1.4275 per share and open market purchases.
-- Dennis Sellers