Apple may be getting close to boosting its internal chip design efforts, as it is allegedly in talks to acquire the company behind the GPU technology its System-on-Chip employs. A report claims Apple is in "advanced talks" with Imagination Technologies, a British chip design firm known for producing the architecture for the PowerVR line, a GPU used in
Apple's mobile SoCs since the A4 initially introduced with the iPad in 2010.
The
report from
Ars Technica appears to suggest Apple is attempting to increase how much control it has over how its processors are produced, at least for those used in mobile devices. Apple acquired chip design company PA Semi in 2008 for $278 million, which helped Apple create its own CPU cores, and getting hold of Imagination's PowerVR technology will allow it to fine tune the architecture to best suit its future mobile applications.
Imagination is currently going through some
tough times, recently announcing a second wave of layoffs that would reduce the employee head count by approximately 350 staff within the year, as a cost-saving measure. While it is lowering investment in it's "non-core" business, it aims to concentrate on its PowerVR, MIPS processing, and Ensigma, including an investment of around £2 million ($2.9 million) in the PowerVR arm alone.
Apple has invested in Imagination for a number of year, owning 3.6 percent of the firm since 2008, and increasing its stake to around 9.5 percent in 2009. As for how much Apple can expect to pay, Imagination has a market capitalization of approximately £500 million ($711 million), which could make this a hefty purchase in comparison to PA Semi.
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