iPhone Chip Maker Intros Multi-Core CPU

Imagination Technologies, which makes the iPhone’s PowerVR MBX chip, has introduced a new GP-GPU multi-core mobile processor that sounds like a great candidate for the next generation iPhone, or an Apple tablet. The fresh chip (PowerVX SGX543) is designed to scale from two to sixteen cores without increasing performance challenges for developers, according to the company’s CEO. It will support both OpenGL ES and OpenCL standards, the latter being totally embraced by Apple.

Imagination Technologies is a fabless chip designer probably best known for equipping Apple's iPhone with the PowerVR MBX, but also because the Mac maker and Intel have invested in the company substantially, The Register reports. According to the piece, Imagination's VP of marketing, Tony King, delivered a keynote address on Tuesday, at the Multicore Expo in Santa Clara, California, telling engineers that the SGX543MP family would support from two to sixteen cores.

King-Smith demoed only graphics apps as example; however, in a statement, he referred to the SGX543MP cores as "GP-GPU" processors - invoking the "general-purpose computing on GPU," sought by the likes of Nvidia, Apple, Intel, AMD and ARM in adopting the OpenCL standard.

The Register points out to Apple's upcoming Mac OS X version, 10.6 aka Snow Leopard as a clear indication that PowerVX SGX543 is most likely going inside an Apple system, seeing how the latest version of Leopard embraces the GP-GPU focus of OpenCL. Moreover, Apple will most likely continue to use Imagination Technologies PowerVR MBX core in its portables, especially with this recently introduced variant, whether it's for a new iPhone, a netbook, a Mac OS-running tablet, or whatever the Apple community is after.