Imagination presents Furian architecture for PowerVR GPUs

Imagination has unveiled its first new architecture for PowerVR mobile GPUs in seven years. The Rogue architecture that has been in service since 2010 is no longer sufficient for future VR applications and 10nm and 7nm SOCs, according to the supplier.

In the coming years, GPUs from both the Rogue architecture and the new Furian GPUs will coexist. Only the most expensive GPUs will initially be based on Furian, says Imagination. After that, cheaper GPUs will probably also become Furian models.

The Furian GPUs should enable various applications that are currently not possible, such as next-gen augmented and virtual reality. In addition, Imagination focuses on the market for cars and machine learning systems that can take advantage of the PowerVR GPUs.

Furian is not a completely new architecture, but above all a further development of Rogue. Imagination claims a 35 percent improvement in gflops and an 80 percent higher fill rate over Rogue.

The first Furian-based GPU cores from companies licensed by Imagination will be announced mid-year. Then it could be another year and a half before they will appear in socs.

The PowerVR GPUs from Imagination are in socs from various manufacturers. For several years now, the largest customer has been Apple, which is putting custom PowerVR GPUs in its A-series of socs. Those socs are in all iPhones and iPads from the past seven years.