Imagination Technologies is primarily known for its PowerVR line of GPUs, which Apple has used in its mobile A-series SoCs since the A4, which powered the iPhone 4 and 4th-gen iPod Touch.
Imagination has tried to diversify into other areas, including specialised ray tracing GPUs, MIPS CPUs, and DIY/IoT stuff, but nothing has really stuck. In February this year, the company announced that long-time CEO Hossein Yassaie would be stepping down and that it would begin the process of restructuring the business. Then last week, in mid-March, the company announced that, as part of the restructuring, it would be axing 350 jobs and focusing on PowerVR.
Chip supplier "accelerates" cost cuts, promises to shelter core biz from rejig.
Apple has owned a significant number of Imagination shares since at least 2008, when it announced that it had acquired 3.6 percent of the company. Later, in 2009, Apple bumped its ownership up to at least 9.5 percent.
Back in 2008, Apple acquired PA Semi, a fabless chip design company. That acquisition eventually led to Apple designing its own CPU cores for its A-series SoCs, starting with the Swift CPU core used by the A6 SoC in the iPhone 5.
Picking up Imagination Technologies, which currently has a market capitalisation of about £500 million, would mean that Apple could move GPU design in-house, too. Apple already works quite closely with Imagination to ensure that the PowerVR GPUs work well with other blocks on the SoC, but it may be desirable for Apple to have the whole thing in-house—to be the master of its own destiny, so to speak, and not beholden to the throes of a relatively small British company for its graphics tech.
http://arstechnica.co.uk/gadge...quire-imagination-powervr-gpu/
Ne znam koliko je pouzdan ovaj izvor, ali ovo mi deluje kao logičan sled događaja s' obzirom da Apple ima planove da razvija sopstveni GPU (što nije tako jeftina zabava), a Imagination grca već duže vreme. Akvizicijom Imagination-a Apple bi dobio i MIPS department pa bi bilo zanimljivo videti neki od sledećih iPhone telefona sa nekim MIPS SoC-om unutra. :) Naravno malo je verovatno da se tako nešto dogodi.