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Apple To Develop Its Own GPU, UK Chip Designer Imagination Reveals In 'Bombshell' PR (anandtech.com)
From a report on AnandTech: In a bombshell of a press release issued this morning, Imagination has announced that Apple has informed their long-time GPU partner that they will be winding down their use of Imagination's IP. Specifically, Apple expects that they will no longer be using Imagination's IP in 15 to 24 months. Furthermore the GPU design that replaces Imagination's designs will be, according to Imagination, "a separate, independent graphics design." In other words, Apple is developing their own GPU, and when that is ready, they will be dropping Imagination's GPU designs entirely. This alone would be big news, however the story doesn't stop there. As Apple's long-time GPU partner and the provider for the basis of all of Apple's SoCs going back to the very first iPhone, Imagination is also making a case to investors (and the public) that while Apple may be dropping Imagination's GPU designs for a custom design, that Apple can't develop a new GPU in isolation -- that any GPU developed by the company would still infringe on some of Imagination's IP. As a result the company is continuing to sit down with Apple and discuss alternative licensing arrangements, with the intent of defending their IP rights.
Suddenly Apple cares enough to develop their own GPU?
Newsflash 1: Apple have been using their own A-series systems-on-a-chip (including CPU and GPU) in iPhone/iPad/Watch & AppleTV for a few years now. They license IP from various companies (ARM, Imagination and others) and have taken over a few chip designers to achieve this.
Newsflash 2: Apple owns one of the leading gaming platforms on the market: it's called the iPhone.
Apple has drunk deeply of the kool-aid that says that everybody is going to be using phones and tablets for all their computing needs in the next few years.
Macs, meanwhile, are mostly running on Intel integrated graphics or unspectacular AMD mobile graphics chips. Tim Cook recently stood up and re-iterated how important the Mac line is to Apple - and anybody who understands political talk will know that means exactly the opposite of what it says.
In a survey of 100 programmers, 111111 thought that duck-typing was a good idea.
1. Fastest SSD on market - not even close. I've got PCI-E SSDs a year old that are faster than anything in any Apple hardware, period.
2. The most I/O bandwidth on market - not in their gimped as fuck GPUs
3. Thermal design - yea, doesn't go anywhere. I've got a stress-test program that ignores all the safety stuff and does a real stress test, no matter the machine. Every Apple product burns up.
4. Uhh, my Sager notebook has dual GPUs. I can drive EIGHT 4K displays without issue, at the same cost as your shitty craptop.
Mediocre, beyond belief.
1. Fastest SSD. Not my benchmark; but, BTW, where's yours?
2. Most I/O b/w. Four TB 3 ports say 80 Gbps of raw I/O. Sorry.. Dem's da facts.
3. Sorry, the new MBP DOESN'T even GET to the thermal limits. According to multiple reviews, Both the CPU and GPU run flat-out 100% duty cycle 24/7. They really did fix it. Try again, Slashtard.
4. Dual GPUs. And at nearly THIRTEEN POUNDS, (nevermind the power bricks you have to lug around!) that Sager is more properly classified as a "luggable", than a laptop. You can't rest that thing on your lap for more than five minutes without your legs going numb! But that's ok, since you won't be venturing far from an AC outlet for long...