Successor of GPU in iPhone 4S is twenty times as powerful as predecessor

Imagination has announced GPUs in its PowerVR 6 series. The GPUs are the successors of GPUs such as the SGX543, which is used in the iPad 2, iPhone 4S and PlayStation Vita, among others. The graphics performance would be twenty times higher.

The GPUs are much more powerful thanks in part to the new Rogue architecture on which they are based, say Imagination, the maker of the image processors. The GPUs are now licensed and can therefore be used for the first time in smartphones, tablets and equipment for cars in the foreseeable future.

The PowerVR GPUs can handle OpenGL ES ‘Halti’, OpenGL 3.x/4.x, OpenCL 1.x and DirectX10, among others. Support for DirectX11 is also built in. The PowerVR GPUs have been announced in two variants: the dual-core G6200 and the quad-core G6400.

Chipmakers can use the GPUs for SOCs. That has happened a lot in recent years; Apple’s A4 and A5 processors, among others, had a PowerVR GPU, as did various processors from Samsung and Texas Instruments. Samsung used a Mali GPU from ARM itself for its Exynos 4210-soc, while Qualcomm makes its own Adreno GPUs.

The GPUs are licensed to eight manufacturers, four of which are named by Imagination: Renesas, MediaTek, ST-Ericsson and Texas Instruments. TI recently supplied the soc for Google’s Android flagship Galaxy Nexus. ST-Ericsson is not yet a significant player, but is rumored to make processors for, among others, Sony’s smartphone branch and Nokia.

Apple will probably also be among the licensees, gambles Apple Insider. Apple is a shareholder of Imagination. For example, the GPU could be used in new iPhones and iPads; the iPad 3 is expected this spring.