ATI's R580+ is 90 nanometres after all
High ranking sources confirms
ON a low quality screenshot you can easily confuse the number eight and nine and that is exactly what happened. After a more detailed shot I actually learned that we all made a mistake claiming that the next generation ATI's graphic card will end up as a die shrink.
Well it won't. We learned from a multiple sources that the next R580+ is still 90 nanometre. It won't be a die shrink at all but ATI will redesign the chip and make it more powerful than it is now.
This probably implies a bigger die and a higher clock all with the goal to beat the Nvidia's offering. The rest of the information stands. It is still a Shader Model 3.0 card with Avivo support, native PCIe and a Crossfire support as well. You will still need to bridge this card but this will be the last one that will need an external connector.
Samples should be ready by July time while ATI hopes to starts the production and selling those cards sometimes in August. We hope that R580+ can be significantly faster than both G71 and R580 as it will have to fight against upcoming G80 chip.
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The Real Details of RV516
Despite what you may have heard, R516 is not an 80nm product
Earlier reports indicated that ATI's RV516 core would be the first 80nm ATI GPU. Sadly, these reports are incorrect -- at least according to internal ATI memos, roadmaps and employee testimonies.
RV516 is a pin-compatible drop in replacement for RV515. RV515, also known as the Radeon X1300 ASIC, was one of ATI's first 90nm ASICs produced at the TSMC foundries. RV536, RV516 and R581 will still be 90nm products, but they will be produced at TSMC's cross-town rival foundries, UMC.
Since RV515 and RV516 are interchangeable and comparable, manufacturers already tell us the chips will be used between graphic card implementations without indication. For all intents and purposes, the only difference between the "one off" ASIC denotations is which foundry the chip will be produced at.
NVIDIA has produced GPUs at both TSMC and UMC in the past.
High ranking sources confirms
ON a low quality screenshot you can easily confuse the number eight and nine and that is exactly what happened. After a more detailed shot I actually learned that we all made a mistake claiming that the next generation ATI's graphic card will end up as a die shrink.
Well it won't. We learned from a multiple sources that the next R580+ is still 90 nanometre. It won't be a die shrink at all but ATI will redesign the chip and make it more powerful than it is now.
This probably implies a bigger die and a higher clock all with the goal to beat the Nvidia's offering. The rest of the information stands. It is still a Shader Model 3.0 card with Avivo support, native PCIe and a Crossfire support as well. You will still need to bridge this card but this will be the last one that will need an external connector.
Samples should be ready by July time while ATI hopes to starts the production and selling those cards sometimes in August. We hope that R580+ can be significantly faster than both G71 and R580 as it will have to fight against upcoming G80 chip.
______________
The Real Details of RV516
Despite what you may have heard, R516 is not an 80nm product
Earlier reports indicated that ATI's RV516 core would be the first 80nm ATI GPU. Sadly, these reports are incorrect -- at least according to internal ATI memos, roadmaps and employee testimonies.
RV516 is a pin-compatible drop in replacement for RV515. RV515, also known as the Radeon X1300 ASIC, was one of ATI's first 90nm ASICs produced at the TSMC foundries. RV536, RV516 and R581 will still be 90nm products, but they will be produced at TSMC's cross-town rival foundries, UMC.
Since RV515 and RV516 are interchangeable and comparable, manufacturers already tell us the chips will be used between graphic card implementations without indication. For all intents and purposes, the only difference between the "one off" ASIC denotations is which foundry the chip will be produced at.
NVIDIA has produced GPUs at both TSMC and UMC in the past.