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http://theinquirer.net/?article=23648
R520 has 32 pipelines, 24 working
Not Computex 2005 90 nanometre hot chip
By Fuad Abazovic not in Old Taipei: Thursday 02 June 2005, 04:16
IT MIGHT be the only chip capable of doing H.264 video in hardware for a
while, as we believe that not even Nvidia G70 will be able to do this. H.264
is next generation codec used for HD-DVD content. Despite that we heard more
than once that R520 aka Fudo is the biggest chip ever built.
R520 was showed in Taiwan and it's up and running, showcasing two games,
PREY and Alan Wake at ATI booth and doing some H.264 video decoding at a
different corner.
We learned that R520 might be quite hot as it is the biggest chip ever with
its 300+ millions transistors. Since its 90 nanometre its kind of logical
that you can place quite a lot of pipelines under its hood and it turns out
that ATI has managed to pack in 32 pipes. Having 32 happy Scottish chaps in
kilts playing the pipes at the same time is perhaps the best metaphor.
We wrote about this before but I don't think ATI will decide about final
pipe number until it seas Nvidia's G70, Geforce 7800GTX in action. ATI will
have to choose between 24 pipeline part of the nasty decision of having all
32 pipes working at once. If R520 manages to defeat G70 ATI will stick to 24
pipes story and all will be happy in Toronto and ATI's part of Santa Clara.
If G70 scores better then ATI will have to enable all 32 pipes. The real
problem is that at 32 pipelines yields are not that good as we are talking
about very complex chip.
Whatever Nvidia do ATI have reasonable chances this time around. We even
heard from Hexus that Nvidia might have some G70 Ultra card in its pocket
saving it for rainy days. It's going to be tight we are more than sure. µ
R520 has 32 pipelines, 24 working
Not Computex 2005 90 nanometre hot chip
By Fuad Abazovic not in Old Taipei: Thursday 02 June 2005, 04:16
IT MIGHT be the only chip capable of doing H.264 video in hardware for a
while, as we believe that not even Nvidia G70 will be able to do this. H.264
is next generation codec used for HD-DVD content. Despite that we heard more
than once that R520 aka Fudo is the biggest chip ever built.
R520 was showed in Taiwan and it's up and running, showcasing two games,
PREY and Alan Wake at ATI booth and doing some H.264 video decoding at a
different corner.
We learned that R520 might be quite hot as it is the biggest chip ever with
its 300+ millions transistors. Since its 90 nanometre its kind of logical
that you can place quite a lot of pipelines under its hood and it turns out
that ATI has managed to pack in 32 pipes. Having 32 happy Scottish chaps in
kilts playing the pipes at the same time is perhaps the best metaphor.
We wrote about this before but I don't think ATI will decide about final
pipe number until it seas Nvidia's G70, Geforce 7800GTX in action. ATI will
have to choose between 24 pipeline part of the nasty decision of having all
32 pipes working at once. If R520 manages to defeat G70 ATI will stick to 24
pipes story and all will be happy in Toronto and ATI's part of Santa Clara.
If G70 scores better then ATI will have to enable all 32 pipes. The real
problem is that at 32 pipelines yields are not that good as we are talking
about very complex chip.
Whatever Nvidia do ATI have reasonable chances this time around. We even
heard from Hexus that Nvidia might have some G70 Ultra card in its pocket
saving it for rainy days. It's going to be tight we are more than sure. µ