further proof that G80 / NV50 has over half a billion transistors
http://www.beyond3d.com/forum/showthread.php?p=775737#post775737
Q: When's your next gen part?
Mike Hara, VP Investor Relations on 5/24/2006:
A: "Well, you know GPUs are getting so large and so complex the timing
of it is almost one of those things that the timing of it is 'it comes
out when it comes out'. . .as much as you try to plan it for a certain
event it really is on a schedule that says 'when it's done it's done'.
.. .now the reason why that works, at least for the high-end. . .the
first high-end gpu that comes out. . .is because it is going to get
purchased by enthusiasts who really don't care if it is Christmas, the
middle of summer, or spring. If it has a discernible advantage over the
last gpu, they'll buy it. So our schedule right now on the next
generation GeForce [Hmm, that's the first time we've heard them confirm
it is still 'GeForce'?] is going to be second half, and the objective
is to hit it for 'back to school'. But fundamentally we're really just
targeting second half. Which means that the current GeForce 7 family,
with the exception of the high-end, is really the family you're going
to see in the back to school cycle. [So what I got out of that: if next
spin goes well, they hit 'back to school' for a high-end part. If not,
it'll be later. And no full family simultaneous launch.] But this one
is. . .we kind of describe it inside the company as. . . 'this is
probably the biggest architectural change in the company's history from
one generation to the next' [Hmm!] I'll give you a little bit of
insight. . .this device is going to be over half a billion transistors
large. It will, without doubt, be the most complex device being built
in the semi-conductor business today. So the current schedule right now
is to have it in the second half. And we'll do typical, which is a
'hard launch', which means we'll launch it when it's actually available
in retail."
__________________________________________________
AUDIO:
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=ZRUFCLGL