ATI Tape Out Three Successful!!!

[Tiamat]

I dont care what ATI comes out with as long as it strongly competes on performance, features, and price. It would be a magic turd for all I care

 

[Lonyo]

Originally posted by: Cooler
All i can say is this card will cost at least $700-$800when ever it comes out and $900-$1000 for the 580 monster .The days of the cpu being the part that costs the most is coming to an end. If there is a fourth tap out then cost will also increase.

Athlon FX57 @ $1075 OEM, $1110 retail
Athlon 64 4800+ @ $1065 OEM, $1100 retail.

And the R580 will probably be priced the same as the R520 when released, as in, if the R520 cmes it at $xxx, then the R380 will probably also debut at the same $xxx. It's a refresh.

 

[nitromullet]

there may be hundreds of AMD X2 4800+ that could be sold for $250 because they ran 100 Mhz slower

There are, but they are called Athlon64 X2 4400+, they run 200MHz slower, and still sell for $700+.

 

[NoToRiOuS1]

"I just cannot understand one thing. How come ATI was able to ship millions of R500, Xbox 360 chips to Microsoft's launch scheduled for October, when it seems to having trouble with yields for the R520? Both chips are using the same new 90 nanometre marchitecture. "
quote taken from: linx0r

i am VERY eager to hear about this...this is a very very interesting question in my opinion.
what do you guys think?

 

[imported_X]

Originally posted by: keysplayr2003
Ah, I see what your thinking. But a successful tape out does not automatically mean acceptable yield as the article says.

As it states: "IT TOOK ATI three tape-outs of R520 silicon to make it right but it turned out to be third time lucky. The first R520 silicon worked at high speeds but only few chips worked, we hear."

So, you can have a 100% successful tape out, but that does not mean good yields are guaranteed.

The article says the first R520 silicon only produced a few chips that worked. This is the third R520 silicon, which the Inquirer reports as "successful". Also note:

We strongly believe that ATI doesn?t have any other choice than to go for a hard launch and, if that happens, you won?t see any Fudo R520s before September.

They couldn't go for a hard launch unless they were able to produce enough cards to justify demand when the card is officially announced.

 

[Killrose]

I vote we launch this thing at least Ati should have an in house tech forum, and any reveiw sites that want to stop by for a visit may do so and bench to their hearts content. Just don't call it a launch and don't let any cards out.

That way we will have something else to bitch about for awhile and we can beat it to death too.

 

[imported_Ged]

Originally posted by: faboloso112
"I just cannot understand one thing. How come ATI was able to ship millions of R500, Xbox 360 chips to Microsoft's launch scheduled for October, when it seems to having trouble with yields for the R520? Both chips are using the same new 90 nanometre marchitecture. "
quote taken from: linx0r

i am VERY eager to hear about this...this is a very very interesting question in my opinion.
what do you guys think?

ATI Hasn't Shipped "millions" of R500 to Microsoft.

ATI just provided the design and the IP to Microsoft so that Microsoft could manufacture the R500 however they wanted. Rumors at the Inq. point to IBM as the possible manufacturer of the R500.

Technically, the R520 and the R500 are not using the same 90 nm process. ATI's R520 will be using TSMC's 90 nm process and Microsoft will supposedly be using IBM's 90 nm process for the R500 for the Xbox360.

 

[Drayvn]

Originally posted by: Ged

Originally posted by: faboloso112
"I just cannot understand one thing. How come ATI was able to ship millions of R500, Xbox 360 chips to Microsoft's launch scheduled for October, when it seems to having trouble with yields for the R520? Both chips are using the same new 90 nanometre marchitecture. "
quote taken from: linx0r

i am VERY eager to hear about this...this is a very very interesting question in my opinion.
what do you guys think?

ATI Hasn't Shipped "millions" of R500 to Microsoft.

ATI just provided the design and the IP to Microsoft so that Microsoft could manufacture the R500 however they wanted. Rumors at the Inq. point to IBM as the possible manufacturer of the R500.

Technically, the R520 and the R500 are not using the same 90 nm process. ATI's R520 will be using TSMC's 90 nm process and Microsoft will supposedly be using IBM's 90 nm process for the R500 for the Xbox360.

IBMs has proven to be much much much better also.

 

[HDTVMan]

Originally posted by: faboloso112
"I just cannot understand one thing. How come ATI was able to ship millions of R500, Xbox 360 chips to Microsoft's launch scheduled for October, when it seems to having trouble with yields for the R520? Both chips are using the same new 90 nanometre marchitecture. "
quote taken from: linx0r

i am VERY eager to hear about this...this is a very very interesting question in my opinion.
what do you guys think?

IBM hasnt produced those chips yet. IBM out of Fishkill NY is supposed to be doing a run in the next week or so. ATI has no part in the production of R500 they only designed it. Microsoft owns the design and can choose production through anyone they want.

Its best to let IBM right now develop the process they are the foremost experts in SOI and 90nm production. Even better than Intel currently. Plus IBM is rumored to be ahead of schedule on 65 and 45nm fabrication so it makes sense all around.

Remember IBM is the one who fixed AMD's 90nm problems.

 

[Pete]

Originally posted by: keysplayr2003
My guess (this is strictly my own opinion) is that we will see 32 pipe R520's in very low availability, but will give ATI the performance title. We will however see a 24 pipe (pro) in the same availability the X800pro offered which was pretty good.
/opinion

The fact that they're aiming for 600+MHz seems a pretty huge clue not to expect 32 pipes. To me, anyway. I mean, 32 pipes at 600+MHz vs. 24 pipes at 430-500MHz would just be ridiculously unfair, and I don't think ATI are *that* much better at architecting and engineering than nV, no matter how many respins they commission.

Edit: Also, I've read that beta Xbox 360 dev kits (final hardware, if not final clocks) have shipped to devs in the past two weeks, which would indicate there are working R500/C1 chips. If IBM hasn't done a run yet, I doubt they're doing the fabbing. AFAIK, TSMC is doing the fabbing for the larger core, NEC the EDRAM+ROPs.

 

[imported_X]

According to the Inquirer, IBM is doing the cpu for the 360 but TSMC is doing the gpu.

 

[Dethfrumbelo]

In most cases, pixel pipes/fillrate are not going to be the bottleneck anyway when going from 24 to 32. I'd rather see more vertex pipes on these cards.

 

[Drayvn]

Originally posted by: X
According to the Inquirer, IBM is doing the cpu for the 360 but TSMC is doing the gpu.

Guru3D has a different take...

Supposedly IBMs Fishkill is doing the GPU too.

 

[Kalessian]

Why doesn't IBM make a console?

 

[Pete]

TMSC re-reconfirmed.

As if there was any doubt.