In fact, I'll go a step further and suggest that AMD won't be the only GPU maker at the 65nm process node or smaller. I think it's likely that when Intel finally comes out with its upcoming standalone GPU, this GPU may be fabbed on a process node that's one step behind whatever the company's leading-edge process is at the time. And if both Intel and AMD are making GPUs on a process that's one notch behind the leading edge, then this may leave a design-only shop like NVIDIA in a bit of a bind, especially if all three players are eying the high-performance computing (HPC) market. Ultimately, the long-term question for NVIDIA may not be so much, can they compete with some theoretical and as-yet unannounced CPU + GPU fusion products from AMD and Intel? Instead, the question might be, can a design-only GPU maker compete in the commodity market with an integrated device manufacturer (IDM) at more advanced process nodes, after the point where the game has changed to make process a crucial differentiating factor?
