NV31/NV34 to have same basic feature set as NV30

[KimB]

From this interview:

Q: For the past couple of years, NVIDIA has had a very diverse product line for each generation, offering a card worthy of each users unique needs. The number of available cards at one given time has indeed fluctuated here and there. Will the FX series be a more simple offering of products or eventually broader than we've ever seen?

A: I can’t discuss unannounced products, but I can say that the CineFX engine at the heart of the GeForce FX architecture was designed to be highly scaleable in nature and gives NVIDIA the ability to quickly execute on a top-to-bottom product family that all share the same basis feature set and address a variety of segments with different performance level and price points.

This says, to me, that the NV31 and NV34 products will support the same basic programmability as the NV30 (though perhaps with different instruction length support).

 

[Arun]

Yep. It was pretty much supposed, but it's a nice confirmation.
Having 512 PS length ( or less ) on the NV34 PS seems like a given...

And that quote is pretty much a direct confirmation of my whole NV3x: VSA-100 and Strategical Advantages ( posted at www.notforidiots.com ) speculation. But it would seem from that nVidia decided to use that flexibility to have more solid desktop/workstation/mobile solutions, and not to diversify in other markets as I had supposed. Ah well, I guess they'll do so soon enough anyway.

CineFX pretty much means NV3x, it seems. Intellisample, on the other hand, doesn't, as we know the NV34 won't support Color Compression.
I think one of the most expensive ( in transistors ) feature of CineFX, beside the huge instruction lengths, is Dynamic Branching. It requires a whole architecture which is significantly more complex ( the VS architecture in the GFFX is probably more efficient, but a lot more expensive ) , and thus costs more. Good thing we'll have it on low-end so soon


Uttar