07/07, 11:35am
Sony PSP2 Specs Rumor
A leak today hints that a true second-generation PSP is in development that could have graphics better than the iPhone 3GS and last-generation consoles. The Spanish branch of Eurogamer claims to have internal Sony information that the next handheld will use a PowerVR SGX543MP4 graphics core closely related to the SGX535 found in the iPhone but which should be even faster. Where the chip used by Apple renders a maximum 28 million polygons per second, the PSP's hardware is a quad-core part and would draw 133 million polygons and allow for much more complicated 3D scenes.
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06/26, 7:30am
Apple Boosts Imag Stake
Apple today dramatically increased its stake in PowerVR graphics designer Imagination Technologies through a purchase of a total of 13.72 million extra shares. The move, which includes both 2.2 million extra shares as well as 11.52 million shares on the existing market, well over doubles the original 3.6 percent stake bought late last year to 9.5 percent. It's believed the extra investment is a reaction to Intel, which last week increased its own stake a second time to 14 percent.
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06/17, 8:35am
Zune HD Uses Tegra
NVIDIA staff are now known today to have confirmed that the Zune HD uses a Tegra processor at its heart. Mentioning the feature to PC Perspective at Computex, the graphics company has made its first deal for the use of Tegra in a major product and is necessary for the Microsoft player's namesake HD video playback. The all-in-one processor offers hardware acceleration of video and can consume just 150mW of power at full speed, giving it battery life like a regular media player in spite of the demands of 720p video playback.
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06/10, 8:05am
Intel Atom N450 Leak
Intel's first processor based on the Pine Trail platform could ship as soon as the start of the fall, a report from industry contacts would claim. The Atom N450 is reportedly due in October and would be a single-core processor at an unnamed speed meant to replace the 1.6GHz Atom N270. It should use the technology behind Pineview and would be made built on a new, 45 nanometer design that merges the memory controller and graphics directly into the processor; accompanying it would be the new-generation Tiger Point chipset, which is needed for and takes advantage of the N450 design.
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04/27, 2:05pm
Apple Hires ATI CTO
Apple has quietly signaled a new emphasis on graphics by hiring an influential graphics chipset designer from AMD. The former CTO for the company's ATI graphics product group, Bob Drebin, has indicated on his LinkedIn profile that he is now a Senior Director for an unnamed group within Apple. What products he covers are unknown, though in addition to leading GPU engineering at ATI since 2000, he also spent significant time developing products at Silicon Graphics and, during a 2-year span at ArtX, helped create the "Flipper" GPU that formed the heart of the Nintendo GameCube.
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04/20, 9:40am
iPhone HD Rumor
Apple is reported today as phasing out its video cables in what may be a sign of a broader move to HD video-capable iPhone and iPod touch devices. An unnamed source for PhoneNews claims that resellers are being told both the Apple Composite AV and Component AV cables are being scrapped in favor of a single cable pack that, like the Xbox 360's component cable, has both the component and composite (RCA) cables on a single line and would let users hook up to both HDTVs and standard-definition sets by purchasing one pack.
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03/18, 3:25pm
PowerVR SGX543MP
Imagination Technologies fulfilled early promises by detailing its first multi-core, smartphone-class graphics chip in the PowerVR SGX 5XTSeries. The SGX543MP is now known to come in at least a dual-core version and scales up to 16 cores depending on the version; the change lets the graphics scale from low-power devices like small phones up to gaming consoles and other very 3D-intensive devices.
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01/09, 9:15am
PowerVR SGX543 and iPhone
Imagination Technologies has quietly introduced a new PowerVR SGX chipset at CES that may point to the future of the iPhone and other graphics-intensive smartphones. The PowerVR SGX543 is the first to use a new platform which its creator estimates is much faster than older SGX and MBX chips. Its new, more vector-friendly graphics engine is about 40 percent faster than the previous SGX series in very effects-heavy graphics, the company claims, and is much faster in floating point math, geometry setup, and culling unneeded parts of the scene than the previous generation.
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12/23, 7:45am
Intel Stake in Imagination
Intel has countered Apple's investment in Imagination Technologies with an increased stake of its own. The semiconductor maker says it has bought just over 6.9 million shares in Britain-based Imagination to gain a 3.04 percent stake in the company and warns in a required statement that it may respond to any bid to acquire the company with a counter offer of its own, though it adds that there is no immediate intention to launch a takeover itself.
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12/18, 11:10am
Apple buys into IMG
Apple has made a heavy investment into another chip manufacturer, according to an announcement. The company has bought 8.2 million shares in the Imagination Technologies Group, giving it a ownership stake of 3.6 percent. IMG is perhaps best known for producing the PowerVR series of chips, used to accelerate graphics in mobile devices; as a result, Apple may now be in a position to use the chips in future iPods and iPhones, or else some unknown device.
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12/08, 9:05am
Intel Atom 32nm PowerVR
Intel's Atom processor lineup may receive a significant graphics boost in the near future and a more efficient process in less than two years, according to a roadmap leaked by the Register. Intel's next-generation Poulsbo architecture for handhelds, headlined by the Lincroft version of the Atom processor, will reportedly drop Intel's in-house graphics hardware in favor of a PowerVR core integrated with the Atom processor itself. The claimed move would reduce power consumption without sacrificing too much performance and would specifically compete against ARM-based smartphones.
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11/27, 1:00am
PSP2 may have PowerVR chip
Sony is allegedly looking to achieve a slice of Apple's gaming pie – praise of the iPod touch and iPhone's graphics hardware have come from industry giants John Carmack and Sega – as it has apparently signed a license agreement for the PowerVR SGX chipset. EE Times writes that an anonymous deal was signed Monday, with little details readily available, which sources say is to outfit the PSP2 with the SGX55x chipset.
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09/04, 6:25pm
Imagination signs deal
System-on-a-Chip manufacturer Imagination Technologies on Thursday unveiled it has signed a multi-year licensing deal with an anonymous "international electronics systems company" which could confirm earlier rumors regarding Apple. In April, Imagination was found to be exploring a secret licensing deal with Apple, a move that would let Apple have exclusive distribution rights to its PowerVR SGX chipset, and access to the Imagination's video IP cores.
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04/30, 8:30pm
PowerVR SGX-based iPhone
Apple could have exclusive rights to a new 3D chip for its next incarnation from Imagination Technologies – the company behind the current device's Samsung-constructed graphics platform. AppleInsider reveals that the processor manufacturer entered into a secret licensing deal with Apple last July to supply the latter with its new graphics chipset, the PowerVR SGX. Samsung is currently licensing the SGX design for manufacture.
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