A Look Inside Apple’s Custom GPU for the iPhone

Article: A Look Inside Apple’s Custom GPU for the iPhone
By: dmcq (dmcq.delete@this.fano.co.uk), October 25, 2016 11:07 am
Room: Moderated Discussions
Doug S (foo.delete@this.bar.bar) on October 25, 2016 8:59 am wrote:
> Great article, David! I had been wondering why Apple had been hiring GPU engineers for
> years but weren't doing a custom GPU. Turned out they were, we just didn't know it.
>
> Interesting that they seem to be taking a slower approach towards a full custom GPU than the
> 'big bang' they did with the A6 on the CPU side. Do you think this might have something to do
> with patents? i.e., so long as they are co-designing with Imagination, they can effectively
> lean on Imagination's patent agreements, whereas if they cut them out and went full custom they'd
> need a large GPU patent warchest to obtain the necessary cross licensing agreements.

I'm pretty certain it just depends on where the user interface is. For Graphics it is a higher level interface than it is for the CPU, they don't need compatibility of the graphics hardware between different versions of the iPhone whereas it was a big thing for the CPU - though nowhere near as bad as it would be for the Apple Macs.
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TopicPosted ByDate
A Look Inside Apple’s Custom GPU for the iPhoneDavid Kanter2016/10/25 06:35 AM
  A Look Inside Apple’s Custom GPU for the iPhoneRicardo B2016/10/25 08:25 AM
    A Look Inside Apple’s Custom GPU for the iPhoneExophase2016/10/25 08:08 PM
      A Look Inside Apple’s Custom GPU for the iPhoneExophase2016/10/25 11:39 PM
  A Look Inside Apple’s Custom GPU for the iPhoneDoug S2016/10/25 08:59 AM
    A Look Inside Apple’s Custom GPU for the iPhonedmcq2016/10/25 11:07 AM
      A Look Inside Apple’s Custom GPU for the iPhoneMaynard Handley2016/10/25 05:28 PM
    A Look Inside Apple’s Custom GPU for the iPhoneGroo2016/10/30 09:28 PM
  A Look Inside Apple’s Custom GPU for the iPhoneGabriele Svelto2016/10/25 01:58 PM
  A Look Inside Apple’s Custom GPU for the iPhoneAndreas2016/10/26 02:48 AM
    A Look Inside Apple’s Custom GPU for the iPhoneGabriele Svelto2016/10/26 03:28 AM
    A Look Inside Apple’s Custom GPU for the iPhoneDoug S2016/10/26 08:06 AM
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  A Look Inside Apple’s Custom GPU for the iPhoneEd2016/10/27 04:52 AM
    A Look Inside Apple’s Custom GPU for the iPhoneanon2016/10/27 06:58 AM
      A Look Inside Apple’s Custom GPU for the iPhoneIan Ollmann2021/07/28 02:27 PM
    A Look Inside Apple’s Custom GPU for the iPhoneDoug S2016/10/27 11:44 PM
  A Look Inside Apple’s Custom GPU for the iPhonePeter McGuinness2016/11/04 11:48 AM
    A Look Inside Apple’s Custom GPU for the iPhoneSalvatore De Dominicis2016/11/05 03:20 AM
    A Look Inside Apple’s Custom GPU for the iPhoneNickK2017/01/23 03:36 PM
      A Look Inside Apple’s Custom GPU for the iPhoneBrett2017/01/28 03:33 PM
        A Look Inside Apple’s Custom GPU for the iPhoneIreland2017/01/28 04:02 PM
        A Look Inside Apple’s Custom GPU for the iPhoneBrett2017/04/03 03:09 AM
        A Look Inside Apple’s Custom GPU for the iPhoneAnon2017/04/04 04:15 PM
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    Imagination's Furian architectureGabriele Svelto2017/03/08 02:29 PM
  A Look Inside Apple’s Custom GPU for the iPhoneAnonymous coward2017/04/03 03:03 AM
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