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
Well that's quite a compliment, thank you.Since you pretend to be a Kingslayer, I have to warn you, you have failed.
I am King, as you said, and in this case, your dullard's, idiotic attempt at another red raging rooster "silence job", has utterly failed.
Now, did you see that awesome closeup of TESLA ? You think that's carbon fiber at the bracket end ? Sure looks like it.
I wonder why ati only has like "red" "red" "red" "red" and "red" cards, don't you ?
I mean I never really thought about it before, but it IS LAME. It's like another cheapo low rent cost savings QUACK from the dollar undenominated lesser queendom of corner cutting, ati.
--
Gee, thank you for the added inspiration, as you well have noticed, the awful realities never mentioned keep coming to light.
At least one of us is actually thinking about videocards.
Not like you'll ever change that trend, so the King's Declaration is: EPIC FAIL !
tamalero - Thursday, October 1, 2009 - link
hu.. my 3870 from visiontek had black pbc :|SiliconDoc - Thursday, October 1, 2009 - link
Well that's actually kinda cool, but was the rest of it covered in that sick ati red ? That card is a heat monster with it's tiny core, so we know it was COVERED in fannage and plastic, unless it was a supercheap single slot that just blasted it into the case.BTW, in order to comment you've exposed another notch in your red fannage purchase history.
tamalero - Friday, October 2, 2009 - link
wait.. WHAT? o_Oyou dont make any sense.
silverblue - Thursday, October 1, 2009 - link
There's an nVidia card sat on a desk at work. It's got a red PCB.SiliconDoc - Thursday, October 1, 2009 - link
Yes, once again you made my point for me, and being so ignorant you failed to notice ! I mean do you guys do this on purpos, or are you just that stupid ?If you have a red nvidia card on the desk at work, that shows nvidia is flexible in color schemes, unlike 'red 'red' red red red red red rooster cards !
You do realize you made an immense BLUNDER now, don't you ?
You thought I meant the color RED was awful.
lol
Man you people just don't have sense above a tomato.
silverblue - Friday, October 2, 2009 - link
Just because the reference cards are red, doesn't mean the manufacturers have to make them so.In fact, ASUS released a 4890 with a black PCB.
You've now descended from arguing about the length of the card and the power of its GPU to the colour of the PCB. Considering it's under a damned cooling solution, how does this matter?
engineer1 - Thursday, October 1, 2009 - link
Anand hates Nvidia because they competed against his former lover AMD, and compete against his current lover Intel. Anand you are such a rotten spoiled brat. Since this website fell into your lap you could at least make an effort to act responsibly. Have you EVER held a job working for someone else? I doubt it. And you should ban the other spoiled brats who apparently work for Microsoft and spend about 8 hours a day dominating everything posted on Dailytech such as TheIdiotNickDanger and Evil666. Bunch of Cretians.gx80050 - Friday, October 2, 2009 - link
Die painfully okay? Prefearbly by getting crushed to death in a
garbage compactor, by getting your face cut to ribbons with a
pocketknife, your head cracked open with a baseball bat, your stomach
sliced open and your entrails spilled out, and your eyeballs ripped
out of their sockets. Fucking bitch
I would love to kick you hard in the face, breaking it. Then I'd cut
your stomach open with a chainsaw, exposing your intestines. Then I'd
cut your windpipe in two with a boxcutter.
Hopefully you'll get what's coming to you. Fucking bitch
I really hope that you get curb-stomped. It'd be hilarious to see you
begging for help, and then someone stomps on the back of your head,
leaving you to die in horrible, agonizing pain. Faggot
Shut the fuck up f aggot, before you get your face bashed in and cut
to ribbons, and your throat slit.
papapapapapapapababy - Thursday, October 1, 2009 - link
lol, look at the finger, is this shoped or what! there is no card FAKE!
http://img34.imageshack.us/img34/3594/fermi1.jpg">http://img34.imageshack.us/img34/3594/fermi1.jpg