Apple renews agreement with GPU maker Imagination Technologies

Apple has renewed its patent use agreement with Imagination Technologies. According to the GPU maker, Apple will have wider access to the British company’s intellectual properties under the new conditions.

Imagination Technologies reports in a short message that a new agreement has been signed to replace the already existing agreement that has been in effect since 2014. Apple pays the company licenses to use intellectual property. The new agreement would give Apple more access, but details are unknown.

Apple used the PowerVR GPUs from Imagination Technologies in its socs for years. The iPhone maker stopped doing so in 2017, Apple used a self-designed GPU for the first time in the iPhone 8 series. Although Apple no longer purchases GPUs from Imagination, it still uses technology from the British company.

At the beginning of December, Imagination presented a new GPU architecture that would be up to 2.5 times more powerful than the predecessor. It is unlikely that Apple will use those GPUs. The new agreement may indicate that Apple will continue to use technology from Imagination in its own GPUs for longer. Earlier, Apple had indicated that it would stop after a few years.