With the likelihood Imagination Technologies' PowerVR Series 6 GPUs will feature inside Apple's next iPhone and iPad - it's powered all iOS devices to-date - interest in the chipset is understandably high.

As such, the suggestion by the firm that the first products in the family - the PowerVR G6200 and G6400 GPU IP cores - could offer up 20 times the performance of smartphones currently on the market is bound to raise eyebrows.

Game on

As is the trend in processor design, Imagination claims such graphical grunt is complimented by low power consumption, making both cores perfect for devices looking to offer "ultra-realistic gaming".

"Based on our experience in shipping hundreds of millions of GPU cores, plus extensive market and customer feedback, we have been able to set a new standard in GPU architecture, particularly in the areas of power, bandwidth and efficiency – the key metrics by which GPUs are now judged," said CEI Hossein Yassaie.

"We are confident that with the Rogue architecture we have a very clear technology advantage and an exceptional roadmap for the PowerVR Series6 family which our partners can depend on."

Power play

Imagination has confirmed the G6200 will boast two compute clusters (we're assuming that means cores), with the G6400 coming in with four.

The company is also claiming the cores offer the best performance in both GFLOPS/mm2 and GFLOPS/mW - respectively performance with respect to chip size and performance with respect to power consumption in layman's terms. 

"This is enabled by an architecture that is around 5 times more efficient than previous generations," the firm concludes.

All Series6 designs support all features of graphics APIs such as OpenGL ES Halti, OpenGL 3.x/4.x, OpenCL 1.x and DirectX10.

Roguish Apple

The announcement, issued from CES 2012 in Las Vegas, is perfectly timed, with speculation suggesting Apple's iPad 3 – likely to feature the as-of-yet-unannounced A6 chip – could ship as early as March.

Apple also holds a 9.5 percent share of Imagination stock.

Publicly announced companies that have already licensed the technology include ST-Ericsson, Texas Instruments, Renesas Electronics and MediaTek.

[source: Imagination Technologies]