GT300 Taped Out

[lopri]

Per Tech Report..

which is indeed quoting Mr. Demerijian.

LOOK, OUT THE window, a squadron of flying pigs! No, really, they do fly, there are frozen lakes of fire being reported all over, and Nvidia's GT300 has finally taped out.

 

[OCGuy]

I love how a rumor article links to another rumor article as its source.

I wish we had some reliable sources.

 

[AyashiKaibutsu]

Originally posted by: OCguy
I love how a rumor article links to another rumor article as its source.

I wish we had some reliable sources.

Flying pigs and lakes of frozen fire make any source reliable.

 

[Denithor]

Originally posted by: AyashiKaibutsu
Flying pigs and lakes of frozen fire make any source humorous.

Fixed it for ya.

 

[Idontcare]

Originally posted by: OCguy
I love how a rumor article links to another rumor article as its source.

I wish we had some reliable sources.

If you know who to ask then you've got your reliable source already telling you.

If you don't know who to ask then you have to rely on the rumor guys (fudz, semiaccurate, bsn) getting it right sometimes and other times they are just throwing shit on the wall to see if anything sticks. (called a fishing expedition, write a BS article and hope it pisses off someone "in the know" so much that they email you or call you up to read you the riot act over it, and in doing so they let slip some actual details with which you can write next week's article about)

If you don't know who to ask and you don't want to rely on filtering the odds of the rumor guys being right or wrong on any given article then basically you need to be an employee of the company whose products you are interested in, otherwise the earliest you are going to read accurate info about an upcoming product in the public domain is on the day the NDA lifts.

There is one caveat to this and that is when a company is preparing to launch a product in an entirely new market segment for the very first time. In this unique situation (Intel and Larrabee for example) there is no concern over sales cannibalization in the early release of information regarding a future product which currently is not available for sale. But outside of these unique marketing situations no marketing director in their right mind is going to convince their would-be customers who want to buy existing product this business quarter to defer their purchase plans to next quarter or later based on the compelling product advantages of next-gen SKU's.

 

[jandlecack]

Man, it's slowly getting heated. I can't wait for the new series to come out and watch them duke it out.

I had expected nVidia to beat ATi for quite some time after the HD2900 debacle (and they did), but this is the first time where it could go either way if you ask me.

Edit: The current situation and promises from both ends kind of remind me of the 9800 / 5200 series back then. nVidia looked very promising on the spec sheet, then ATi launched their series and blew everything away.

 

[OCGuy]

Originally posted by: Idontcare
*snip*

I understand the cannibalization train of thought, but only up to a point. I think both sides could be a little more transparent about specs/early benchmarks/etc.

Most people reading early interviews and benchmarks are probably the bleeding edge adopters anyway. And these people (like many on these forums) have been sitting on their current tech for over a year. People who are just now buying the top end cards probably will not be purchasing the next gen immediately anyway, because they are a little more tight with their money. (I am obviously assuming a price premium on the next gen.)

If I was nV, and looking to be releasing my next cards possibly up to two months after my competitor, I would be doing everything I can to try and keep the early-adoption DX11 discreet card $$$$ in people's pockets until I launch.


I think part of the secrecy is the mystique surrounding the unknown, but really, how many people truly care that much? We are a niche market. Arent most of the profits from the kids that walk into Frys or Bestbuy and point at the card with the shiny box and higher numbers?

 

[alyarb]

i hate these shitty news writers. hate them.

 

[ronnn]

Think you are on the wrong forum then. They make the time between launches pass.

 

[alyarb]

uh, i come for help and to give it. i certainly enjoy speculation about the strategy and/or fruitlessness that accompany architectural design appointments. but when an article comes out 5 or 6 months before launch and they claim to know the operating frequency? who even acknowledges that nonsense?

 

[ronnn]

basically i agree - nothing here to get excited about.

 

[Idontcare]

Originally posted by: OCguy

Originally posted by: Idontcare
*snip*

I understand the cannibalization train of thought, but only up to a point. I think both sides could be a little more transparent about specs/early benchmarks/etc.

Most people reading early interviews and benchmarks are probably the bleeding edge adopters anyway. And these people (like many on these forums) have been sitting on their current tech for over a year. People who are just now buying the top end cards probably will not be purchasing the next gen immediately anyway, because they are a little more tight with their money. (I am obviously assuming a price premium on the next gen.)

If I was nV, and looking to be releasing my next cards possibly up to two months after my competitor, I would be doing everything I can to try and keep the early-adoption DX11 discreet card $$$$ in people's pockets until I launch.


I think part of the secrecy is the mystique surrounding the unknown, but really, how many people truly care that much? We are a niche market. Arent most of the profits from the kids that walk into Frys or Bestbuy and point at the card with the shiny box and higher numbers?

The other side of the coin, opposite the cannibalization concern, is the "risk empowering your competition's marketing team" concern.

The last thing NV would want to do is tip its hand 3-4 months before launch regarding performance or any IC specs (clockspeed, rops, etc) or their board specs (slot count, ram size or speed, etc) as that just goes right back into ATI's design teams for analysis on whether there are any late-minute adjustments they can do or need to do.

And in the meantime the competition's marketing team gets to add some slick fud into their powerpoint presentation regarding your upcoming next-gen product to highlight just how much it is going to suck (performance-wise or gross margins-wise) relative to your next-gen stuff.

One thing to keep in mind here is that for any publicly traded company the real product of the company is their ticker symbol and the actual customers they care about are the shareholders. The company's executive decision makers wants their product (ticker symbol) to increase in resale value and that only happens if they can convince their would-be customers on Etrade and Scottrade to value the ticker symbol at more than its current asking price.

To convince these shareholders to value the ticker at a higher price they then do all the other stuff to manage those parts of their business that involve us paying folks, such as making GPU's and selling them to newegg and so on.

So only to the extent that the executive decision makers can convince themselves that telling us GPU buying folks anything about anything on upcoming product is going to somehow be nearly immediately leveraged into convincing the actual customers (shareholders) to value the actual product of the company (its stock) at a higher pricepoint will result in something being a sanctioned leak or previewed.

The more distance between the "action" (give enthusiast crowd a peek at upcoming next-gen product lineup) and the "desired effect" (convince existing shareholders to not sell stock today, convince would-be shareholders to buy stock today) and the less tentative the perceived cause-and-effect connection there the less likely anyone with decision making authority is going to make a decision to result in the action.

 

[flexy]

ah regardless, it will still take AT LEAST til Q1 2010...so i don't feel THAT stupid by just having gotten a 275

 

[CrystalBay]

Who knows may be the original leaf blower and radiator 600 will have some new company soon...

 

[nemesismk2]

I can see two positives if the info is true, these are DirectX 11 and GDDR5. I am really hoping that Nvidia can offer similar video cards to ATI because that would be much more interesting.

 

[Jacen]

Tapping out just now means it would still be quite a ways off. Seems that quarter 4 will be ripe for the AMD-taking.

 

[Kakkoii]

I doubt this is the first tape out. Charlie must not have gotten the full details from his source, or his source didn't get the full details, or his source is a liar.
There have been rumors of the first GT300 taping out much earlier this year. I think it would be a lot more inline with Nvidia's time frames that this rumored tape-out is actually their second tape out, not their first.

 

[Idontcare]

Whether its their first tapeout or their tenth, its all kinda irrelevant.

What matters to just about everyone in the loop is whether the existing tapeout yields functional and sellable chips when first silicon comes out of the fab in about 30 days.

Some chips work just fine (sellable, no fatal circuit flaws) on their first tapeout, others take a few respins to get the critical flaws removed.

First tapeout is a project milestone to be sure, and I suppose that is why rumor sites like to tout their passing when they do happen, but its kinda irrelevant as tapeout is just one step in a whole chain of events that have to occur.

The info we really want to hear about will be available in about 30 days when those first chips hit the testers and they start finding out the answers to the paramount questions (does it boot? ISA fully functions? clockspeed? power consumption?).

 

[SickBeast]

I wonder how many people NV lays off when a GPU tapes out.

 

[Idontcare]

Originally posted by: SickBeast
I wonder how many people NV lays off when a GPU tapes out.

None if they are smart, or at least none of the value-add folks would be laid off. It would be to ATI's benefit if NV laid off talented designers.

 

[Nemesis 1]

Originally posted by: ronnn
Think you are on the wrong forum then. They make the time between launches pass.

Trueth in its purest form.

 

[Nemesis 1]

Originally posted by: flexy
ah regardless, it will still take AT LEAST til Q1 2010...so i don't feel THAT stupid by just having gotten a 275

Why would you feel stupid either way? If this story is true. If the NV 300 is brand new arch. Than I would bet anything ya want to bet there will be at least 1 or 2 more tap outs . Jan. of 2010 is very early in my estamations. Brand new arch on first tap out highly not likely. 99% chance of at least 1 more tap out.

 

[Nemesis 1]

Originally posted by: Kakkoii
I doubt this is the first tape out. Charlie must not have gotten the full details from his source, or his source didn't get the full details, or his source is a liar.
There have been rumors of the first GT300 taping out much earlier this year. I think it would be a lot more inline with Nvidia's time frames that this rumored tape-out is actually their second tape out, not their first.

Interesting . Got a link please! What was this tapout on 55nm. Surely your not saying it tapped out on 40nm. As NV is having problems with the 280 series on 40nm is trouble a much bigger chip on an already known process thats troubling on older gpus . The odds of that are 1000 to 1. Remember you said it tapped out much earlier . Not likely since Nv is just getting 40nm process out on old tech.

 

[Nemesis 1]

Intel has been working on Larrabee for 5 years According to Abash. He started working on it 5 years ago with intel . That would be 2003 0r 2002 . It has taped out and is due in 2010. Yet NV come up with a new Arch . and tape out and release before Larrabee.

I pick larrabee to walk all over NV . In old games it will be close but the new DX11 stuff not a chance in hell NV will best Intel . Not long to wait to see who walks the walk and who didn't open a can of whoop ass on anybody.

 

[OCGuy]

Originally posted by: Nemesis 1

Originally posted by: Kakkoii
I doubt this is the first tape out. Charlie must not have gotten the full details from his source, or his source didn't get the full details, or his source is a liar.
There have been rumors of the first GT300 taping out much earlier this year. I think it would be a lot more inline with Nvidia's time frames that this rumored tape-out is actually their second tape out, not their first.

Interesting . Got a link please! What was this tapout on 55nm. Surely your not saying it tapped out on 40nm. As NV is having problems with the 280 series on 40nm is trouble a much bigger chip on an already known process thats troubling on older gpus . The odds of that are 1000 to 1. Remember you said it tapped out much earlier . Not likely since Nv is just getting 40nm process out on old tech.

Someone is extremely wrong. Others say Rev A1 silicon was around earlier this year.

http://www.brightsideofnews.co...on-in-santa-clara.aspx