The rumor mill's been flying since evidence was discovered pointing to a possible 3G feature for Apple's next-generation iPhone earlier this week. The guys at ZiPhone have discovered mentions of the term "SGOLD3" in the latest release of the iPhone 2.0 beta firmware, which has since set off a search to discover what this could imply.

According to the report, the term could refer to Infineon's followup chip to the S-GOLD2 that powers the current generation of iPhone. Also known as the PMB8878, this is a 7.2 megabits per second HSDPA chip with video acceleration and media playback features.

The chip supersedes its predecessor by allowing higher camera resolution support (five megapixels as opposed to two), a 2x speed MMD/SD interface and DVB-H module support. Despite these features, the processor speed will remain the same, but there could still be some amazing new stuff packed into the next generation of iPhone.

Stay tuned for more details as they become available.

If you've heard anything on your end or want to make your voice heard about this, let us know over in the comments or forums.