Главная

Новости Hardware

Introduction:
GPU production nodes surpasses CPU cycle for the first time
It seems that the conversion of GPU’s manufacturing process has been lagging behind CPU cycle, but this history is going to be rewritten soon, as AMD debuts the world’s first graphics processor, RV740, which takes advantage of 40nm processing, which means GPUs will overtake CPUs for the first time in history of IT in terms of production nodes.

The first 40nm GPU - RV740
Back in June 2007 when the process was about to see the transition from 65nm to 45nm, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) announced that they would kick off mass production on 32nm in 2009. Naturally, TSMC should have manufactured 40nm products as the transition between 45nm and 32nm sometime in 2008, but driven by the pressure from the competitors such as AMD, IBM and Intel, TSMC later claimed that they would skip the 45nm and offer 40nm technology as the first one.
As one of the most adventurous partner working with TSMC, AMD has been brave enough to take the lead in implementing 40nm technology, though the real product comes a bit later than expected.
According to TSMC’s internal roadmap, the company will offer three different production nodes. CLN40G is the general purpose process and will be used by the GPU manufacturers. CLN40LP is the low-power process and will be used for the production of notebook derivatives of GPUs manufactured in the general purpose process. The third 40nm node is CLN40LPG, which is targeted at manufacturing chips for handheld devices. So expect Nvidia’s Tegra chips to shrink all the way down to 40nm.
TSMC has spent $590 million on their equipment since the end of February to expand the 40nm node at its 12-inch facility, and they would kick off mass production on 40nm nodes in the second half of this year at Fab 12.
Though the manufacturing process is just one of the decisive element of GPU technology, but it does mean a lot for AMD to break Intel’s dominant position in semiconductor in production technology for years, in which RV740 has played a principal role.

| | | | Теги: Radeon HD 4770

="uForm uComForm">

Войдите:

• Отправить