Quad-core iPhones with GPGPU acceleration and firmware 3.0?

[LTD]

"One of the most interesting rumors I?ve been tracking here at Macworld Expo in San Francisco surrounds the mysterious four-core iPhone. While the current iPhone has (roughly) the processing power of the Sony PSP, an upgraded four core iPhone would slaughter pretty much every portable gaming platform on the market. The other part of the story is firmware 3.0, which is said to be required on the iPhone 'quad,'" Jason D. O'Grady blogs for ZDNet.b>

http://blogs.zdnet.com/Apple/?p=2745

Wolfgang Gruener reports for TG Daily"Imagination Technologies will announce a new version of its graphics chip IP tomorrow. The PowerVR SGX543 is the firm?s first multi-core capable GPU technology which scales to, in theory, an unlimited number of cores and offer support for GPGPU acceleration. While Imagination?s technology is known to be integrated in graphics products from Intel and Texas Instruments in the past, this new version is especially interesting since Apple could have access to it and may be planning a powerful graphics engine with GPGPU acceleration for one of the next iPhones. Conceivably, the next iPhone could become a much more capable gaming platform than the Nintendo DS or PSP."t;

"There has been quite some speculation about Apple?s future processor and chipset plans for upcoming iPhone generations, especially since we k Apple has licensed Imagination?s GPU technology blueprints and even invested in the company,"" Gruener reports.

"The hardware will enable the company to create entirely new applications as well as features you are used to from your PC, but are not available on your cellphone," Gruener reports. "We were told that the shader performance has been increased by about 40% and that the GPU delivers about 2.5x the image processing performance of an ARM Cortex-8 CPU and outperforms the a 600 MHz ARM chip in some traditional CPU benchmarks with a 100 MHz design."

Gruener reports, "The new 543 isn?t about power consumption; it is about performance and features. It is multi-core capable - 543 chips can run in parallel - with power consumption and space constraints being the main limitations for the number of cores - and can translate into very capable hardware for devices such as netbooks, MIDs, set top boxes and mobAccording to Imagination, one core delivers a performance of 35 million polygons per second and a fill rate of 1 Gigapixel per second at 200 MHz."z."

Gruener reports, "The next iPhone may not get this chip, but rely on the current SGX version (which is a significant step up from the MBX chip.) But two generations out, the 543 could be a stunning platform and the iPhone may run applications you can only run on your PC today."

http://www.tgdaily.com/content/view/40899/135/

[NienorGT]

:o

Gimme Gimme iPod Touch 3Gen!

(Tough, isn't the Creative 3D Labs Zii Stem Cell more powerful?)

[LTD]

Although this is rumour, here's what's rather telling:

Apple has licensed Imagination?s GPU technology blueprints and even invested in the company,b>

Obviously, don't hold your breath, but Apple is poised to do something huge with the iPhone.

[afusion]

Make it into a portable game console. Why not, if it can work for Nintendo it will work for Apple.

[Xero]

Yea definitely for gaming. Possible for multi-task support too. The current processor is more than enough for the average app. The only need for such as massive increase would be for gaming. Although I seriously doubt this will land in an iPhone, rather than MacTablet or whatever you wanna call it. The power consumption would drain the iPhone's little battery quite quickly. However a bigger device with more room for a bigger battery, bigger screen. Now we're talking new gaming device.

[PyX]

:o

Gimme Gimme iPod Touch 3Gen!

(Tough, isn't the Creative 3D Labs Zii Stem Cell more powerful?)

It's actually 4th-gen for Apple... but not a lot of people know it ;)

This looks so amazing though. My iMac isn't even quad-core while my smartphone would be... technology's so fast these days, I guess! But I simply love it, never too fast for me!

[Richard Hammond]

Iphone is a rubbish games platform, any games machine NEEDS tactile buttons that are raised from the surface of the device.

[Xero]

PsykX, how do you figure the next generation of iPod touch will be the 4th. When only 2 have been released? Size bumps don't count as a new generation.

Also Richard, its very easy for a 3rd party developer to create a case to wrap around your iPhone or whatever that provides physical buttons. I've seen depictions of some, if Apple really pursued a gaming device you can bet those product would become a reality.

[LTD]

Iphone is a rubbish games platform, any games machine NEEDS tactile buttons that are raised from the surface of the device.

Not according to the last six months. Outmoded, dinosaur thinking.

Check out what's hot in the App Store.

The iPhone gaming paradigm, even at this early stage, is huge.

Like I've been saying for a while now - moving parts, buttons, dials, knobs, levers, LOL, you name it, are gradually being phased out. And the funny thing is, this push not necessarily coming from the big consoles, but from smaller handhelds. Everyone wants in on an App Store-like feature, and developers are flocking to it.

[Ci7]

QC for a phone , OverKill :ermm: :blink:

[LTD]

QC for a phone , OverKill :ermm: :blink:

For now it's just a rumour, but seeing as how Apple's virtually in bed with Imagination Technologies, it's plenty of food for thought.

[Xero]

Arguably Steam has been doing it for the PC for years. You can see how popular its gotten in the last year or 2 with more and more games showing up. Another thing to think about is the current generation of games. PS3 and its sixaxis and the wii with the wiimote. Sure they have buttons, but the idea behind them is you don't need to use them.

I still have a soft spot for buttons but things are changing. Also don't forget about P.A. Semi, Apples new in-house chip designers.

[Malskazz]

Iphone is a rubbish games platform, any games machine NEEDS tactile buttons that are raised from the surface of the device.

+1.. i actually just prefer buttons in general.

[PyX]

PsykX, how do you figure the next generation of iPod touch will be the 4th. When only 2 have been released? Size bumps don't count as a new generation.

Cara has said it a couple of times here on Neowin, but her posts must be covered with dust now.

Remember when they discontinued the 4 GB? Well it counted as a 2nd generation. iPhone 3G is the fourth.

Of course for us, it seems like there weren't any changes so iPhone 3G would be the 2nd gen, but anyway.

[Richard Hammond]

Not according to the last six months. Outmoded, dinosaur thinking.

Check out what's hot in the App Store.

The iPhone gaming paradigm, even at this early stage, is huge.

If you look at the games most of them rely on some sort of tilt aspect or simple touch controls, you try and get a complicated game from a proper console and try and control it using on screen dpad and buttons and see how easy it is to control...

Like I've been saying for a while now - moving parts, buttons, dials, knobs, levers, LOL, you name it, are gradually being phased out. And the funny thing is, this push not necessarily coming from the big consoles, but from smaller handhelds. Everyone wants in on an App Store-like feature, and developers are flocking to it.

What are you blathering on about, buttons will never go away they are a necessary component even the DS with its touchscreen still uses buttons as they are a better and more accurate way of more complex controls. Even the Wii still has buttons.

What does an App store have to do with me talking about the need for buttons, the more i read of your posts the more you are becoming a one man apple hype machine.

[Jason S. Global Moderator]

and no one is concerned w/ battery life? quad core, graphics... iphone will last for 15 mins unless theyre using some awesome new battery.

[Xero]

What are you blathering on about, buttons will never go away they are a necessary component even the DS with its touchscreen still uses buttons as they are a better and more accurate way of more complex controls. Even the Wii still has buttons.

Keep talking, before you know it the physical keyboard and mouse will be gone too. Microsoft Surface, the iPhone, all the other companies scrambling to come up with touch control devices. LTD might be looking a bit far into the future but he's right. Physical buttons as we know it are a dying breed.

[Ci7]

Keep talking, before you know it the physical keyboard and mouse will be gone too. Microsoft Surface, the iPhone, all the other companies scrambling to come up with touch control devices. LTD might be looking a bit far into the future but he's right. Physical buttons as we know it are a dying breed.

maybe for mobile device "cell phone , pda , laptop etc "

but not for desktop computer anytime soon

[Rob2687]

And I just got an iPod touch. :(

[Richard Hammond]

Keep talking, before you know it the physical keyboard and mouse will be gone too. Microsoft Surface, the iPhone, all the other companies scrambling to come up with touch control devices. LTD might be looking a bit far into the future but he's right. Physical buttons as we know it are a dying breed.

Dont worry i will keep talking.

Touchscreens have been around longer than Apple they were just the first company to do it right, its just like anything gadgety there will always be a "thing" or new fad of the moment, first it was laptops, then the 'origami' UMPCs, now netbooks, then it will be the MIDs(mobile internet devices).

Unless someone comes up with a radical new UI/Input Format tactile buttons will never go away and no amount of gushing over how great Apple is and how far they can see into the future wont change that fact.

[Xero]

^ Thats like saying floppys would never go away, something as primitive as a being forced to press a button down for something to react is never going to last. I'm talking about the future here, not the present. Sure Apple will push for it now in some devices but saying it will never go away is idiotic. There's already mind controlled toys or devices out, you really think computers are going to require using physical hardware to control them forever? Open your eyes :)

Skynet (nice name :)) I agree definitely not anytime soon, but it will span to the desktop computer too. Probably not for a decade or 2 though.

[Ci7]

Skynet (nice name :) ) I agree definitely not anytime soon, but it will span to the desktop computer too. Probably not for a decade or 2 though.

THX ^_^

[Richard Hammond]

^ Thats like saying floppys would never go away, something as primitive as a being forced to press a button down for something to react is never going to last. I'm talking about the future here, not the present. Sure Apple will push for it now in some devices but saying it will never go away is idiotic. There's already mind controlled toys or devices out, you really think computers are going to require using physical hardware to control them forever? Open your eyes :)

Reading comprehension ftw, i said unless someone comes up with a radical new UI design buttons will never go away, as for gaming buttons beat touching a flat surface every time.

[Xero]

Those radically new ui designs are happening already. Besides this has already gotten way off topic, bottom line, buttons won't always be around and won't always be the best method of input. But for the time being, for games, you can't beat buttons. I couldn't imagine playing any shooter and tapping the screen to fire :)

[The_Decryptor Veteran]

Physical buttons won't go away for a while, touch screens have been here for years, but nobody uses them because they don't offer anything over a keyboard.

Think about this, you're sitting at your desk writing documents, would you rather rest your arms on your desk, or hold them up in mid air for half an hour at a time?

For a portable device like the iPhone it's more acceptable, because we don't use devices like that like we do a computer.

Edit: And these "radical new UI's" have been always "coming soon" for years and years, the problem is they offer nothing over the current UI, or if they do their negatives outweigh their benefits