NVIDIA's Fermi: Architected for Tesla, 3 Billion Transistors in 2010
by Anand Lal Shimpi on September 30, 2009 12:00 AM EST- Posted in
- GPUs
The graph below is one of transistor count, not die size. Inevitably, on the same manufacturing process, a significantly higher transistor count translates into a larger die size. But for the purposes of this article, all I need to show you is a representation of transistor count.
See that big circle on the right? That's Fermi. NVIDIA's next-generation architecture.
NVIDIA astonished us with GT200 tipping the scales at 1.4 billion transistors. Fermi is more than twice that at 3 billion. And literally, that's what Fermi is - more than twice a GT200.
At the high level the specs are simple. Fermi has a 384-bit GDDR5 memory interface and 512 cores. That's more than twice the processing power of GT200 but, just like RV870 (Cypress), it's not twice the memory bandwidth.
The architecture goes much further than that, but NVIDIA believes that AMD has shown its cards (literally) and is very confident that Fermi will be faster. The questions are at what price and when.
The price is a valid concern. Fermi is a 40nm GPU just like RV870 but it has a 40% higher transistor count. Both are built at TSMC, so you can expect that Fermi will cost NVIDIA more to make than ATI's Radeon HD 5870.
Then timing is just as valid, because while Fermi currently exists on paper, it's not a product yet. Fermi is late. Clock speeds, configurations and price points have yet to be finalized. NVIDIA just recently got working chips back and it's going to be at least two months before I see the first samples. Widespread availability won't be until at least Q1 2010.
I asked two people at NVIDIA why Fermi is late; NVIDIA's VP of Product Marketing, Ujesh Desai and NVIDIA's VP of GPU Engineering, Jonah Alben. Ujesh responded: because designing GPUs this big is "fucking hard".
Jonah elaborated, as I will attempt to do here today.
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SiliconDoc - Thursday, October 1, 2009 - link
Plenty hard, but they GOT HER DONE, and here is the pic of herhttp://www.fudzilla.com/content/view/15762/1/">http://www.fudzilla.com/content/view/15762/1/
Yes, now about that fantasy paper anand was spewing on - yes he won't get one for two months, but AS I SAID, WE ALREADY KNOW IT BEATS the ati epic failure.
rennya - Thursday, October 1, 2009 - link
Where can I get that GPU? At least at my place I can get a 5870 GPU if I want to, but not so for this GPU.SiliconDoc - Thursday, October 1, 2009 - link
Well go get one.Now were down to the launch and paper lies in this article, were lies, as I've said. Bigger lies by the red texters. If I were Anand I'd be giggling at you fools.
rennya - Thursday, October 1, 2009 - link
Newegg link please. Or any other online retailer websites for the matter.Did I already said to stop it with the paper launch already? That only exists in your dreams you know. Or maybe America. But such thing is not true here. Just because America doesn't have enough unit it doesn't mean it is true everywhere else.
SiliconDoc - Thursday, October 1, 2009 - link
Oh, so sorry mi' lady, here is your newegg link, you'll see 2 greyted out 5850's and THAT'S IT.http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Sub...">http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductLi...10679497...
Can't buy em. Paper, e-paper in this case, digital nothing.
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Now if we only could send you some money, and you could trot over to your imaginary shops.... gee if only someone gave you some money, you could HAVE A PICTURE, because veryone knows handy little cameras are BANNED there, huh.
Gee, all those walks to work.. and not ten seconds to take a pic, and now it's really, too late LOL
ahhahahahahaaa
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More of that wonderful "red rooster evidence".
ClownPuncher - Thursday, October 1, 2009 - link
I bought one, 5850 that is. They are popular, so they sell out. The same thing happened to me when the 8800GT's launched, bought 2 and they were sold out 15 minutes later.If people can buy them, it isn't a paper launch. Give it up. There were cards for sale from many etailers on launch day for the 5870 as well.
You're saying the 8800GT and 8800GTS g92 were paper launches also? They were selling out in minutes.
SiliconDoc - Friday, October 2, 2009 - link
Funny how you wait for the perfect post to claim your lie is true.You're a pure troll, nothing more, in every single post you've made here.
Of course I know you're lying.
rennya - Friday, October 2, 2009 - link
You are the one who are lying by claiming that 5870 is a paper launch, when availability at my place is pretty good. Then you claim that I do not actually come from a SE Asia country, but admins in this site can easily verify my IP and see where I come from. Accusing people of lying will not make you look good.SiliconDoc - Thursday, October 1, 2009 - link
Neither does europe, nor africa, nor SA, nor the ME, apparently the only spot is your walk to work. Congratulations, you're at ground zero. Just think how lucky you are.rennya - Friday, October 2, 2009 - link
I am not the who claims GT300 is available, you do with your fudzilla link. And that picture may only have mock-ups because nVidia doesn't have any working demo.At least Intel with its Larabee did showcase their unimpressive raytracing demo with Larabee in IDF.