I am sure Dave B will disagree with me on this one...

[Evildeus]

Well, at least GS has the same info.

First, we remain concerned with the delay of ATI's next generation high-end graphics processor, code-named R520, which appears to be now due out in August, flatly missing the 'spring refresh' window. Given the tape-out took place as far back as October, and Taiwan Semiconductor's yields on 90nm have been generally good on other products including the Xbox 360 graphics chip, we believe the delay is due to a design issue.

http://www.forbes.com/markets/2005/06/07/0607automarketscan10.html?partner=yahootix&referrer=

 

[Charmaka]

Someone brought up a good point in another forum. As we (up til now) deal with quads, why are we assuming a 32-pipe board will go down to 24 or 16 pipes? Why not 28 or 24? Surely ATI isn't trying to avoid confusing the customer.

I'm not sure that seven quads makes sense

 

[MuFu]

Someone brought up a good point in another forum. As we (up til now) deal with quads, why are we assuming a 32-pipe board will go down to 24 or 16 pipes? Why not 28 or 24? Surely ATI isn't trying to avoid confusing the customer.

I'm not sure that seven quads makes sense

It makes as much sense as 3 quads (X8x0 Pro, 6800NU...).

 

[Martin Eddy]

Are ATI even using quads anymore? I seem to remember Dave mentioning the design of R520 wasn't following traditional GPU architecture.

 

[Simon F]

Are ATI even using quads anymore? I seem to remember Dave mentioning the design of R520 wasn't following traditional GPU architecture.

That might make it very difficult to be DX compatible.

BTW: What part of Brizzie are you in?

 

[tEd]

Are ATI even using quads anymore? I seem to remember Dave mentioning the design of R520 wasn't following traditional GPU architecture.

r500 isn't , r520 is still based on r300 architecture

 

[Geo]

Well, we're two weeks out from G70 launch? If history is any guide (caveat: history hasn't been doing so hot on this cycle so far!), once NV commits in public to what G70 is, the floodgates should start creaking open on more reliable R520 info. . .

 

[Geo]

Someone brought up a good point in another forum. As we (up til now) deal with quads, why are we assuming a 32-pipe board will go down to 24 or 16 pipes? Why not 28 or 24? Surely ATI isn't trying to avoid confusing the customer.

I'm not sure that seven quads makes sense

It makes as much sense as 3 quads (X8x0 Pro, 6800NU...).

So far as that goes, if you're a "binary bigot" (as so many are), then six quads is funky too. So yeah. Unless "quads" have become "octs". But from a yield pov, I'd think they'd be happy to stay at quads. One bad quad out of eight (just for the sake of argument --I'm still not buying on this stuff, until someone shows me a >256-bit bus) is a much happier situation than one bad quad out of four (X8/G6) last time. So again, where are the 28-pipers in this scenario?

Edit: Obviously Orton talking to the financial analysts on the 23rd (?) of this month will be a checkpoint too. With credible people like Goldman putting "we think it is a design issue" out there, he's probably going to feel it is necessary to be a little more forthcoming than he might normally like pre-release.

Edit2: Could this be "the other camp" spinning a disinformation campaign aimed at making the eventual 16-piper R520 look like an ATI failure to get the mythical 32-piper to go? Not Josh; whoever is feeding him.

 

[Headstone]

Is it possible that ATi may be trying to create a 16 pipe board with 512bit memory bandwidth? Hence all the rumors of performance and problems?

 

[nelg]

Nelg: Well the R500 core chip is 150-160M, it really is a multichip design imo (with the NEC EDRAM+ROPs chip). That's quite different from a single 350M chip, which has about 4-5x the complexity. I agree the blame cannot be put on "standard" cells though.

That was the point I was making. I would assume (maybe incorrectly) that these "standard" cells would be very similar on both the R500 and R520, so I wonder why they would be taking the blame. Also, IIRC, the power consumption figures for the R500 (35W) is quite low. If the speculation that ATI's unified architecture is indeed more efficient at utilizing its ALUs, this in conjunction with a low power consumption would make for a very power efficent design. Quite the opposite of what is being suggested.

 

[digitalwanderer]

Well, we're two weeks out from G70 launch? If history is any guide (caveat: history hasn't been doing so hot on this cycle so far!), once NV commits in public to what G70 is, the floodgates should start creaking open on more reliable R520 info. . .

Yes/no, they still pump out the disinformation then too ta keep people/nVidia guessing....nVidia is holding back a "mega-ultra" edition remember.

 

[Geo]

Well, we're two weeks out from G70 launch? If history is any guide (caveat: history hasn't been doing so hot on this cycle so far!), once NV commits in public to what G70 is, the floodgates should start creaking open on more reliable R520 info. . .

Yes/no, they still pump out the disinformation then too ta keep people/nVidia guessing....nVidia is holding back a "mega-ultra" edition remember.

The Truth is Out There. And, hey, just narrowing the base they are lying from would be a vast improvement at this point!

 

[crushinator]

(...) Yes/no, they still pump out the disinformation then too ta keep people/nVidia guessing....nVidia is holding back a "mega-ultra" edition remember.

I bet on 7800 GTI (insane edition)

 

[russo121]

As the info didn't came from our friends ,theinquierer, I assume this is total bullsh*t

 

[digitalwanderer]

As the info didn't came from our friends ,theinquierer, I assume this is total bullsh*t

Which info? The nVidia uber-ultra model info? That's legit, I just don't know what they're calling it so I used a color reference.

 

[russo121]

As the info didn't came from our friends ,theinquierer, I assume this is total bullsh*t

Which info? The nVidia uber-ultra model info? That's legit, I just don't know what they're calling it so I used a color reference.

Nooo... the problems with r520!

 

[Hellbinder]

Typical Doom for ATi, pro Nvidia stuff from that writer. I am not suprised. He almost always finds a way to Slant things Pro Nvidia. If he cant then he usually waits to write an article for when he can. Thus all his "state of" articles.

I am sure his "sources" are exactly what most of you think they are and nothing else.

ATi has never made an announcement on when they would ship their Next Product. These guys make up information then hold ATi accountable to their made up information then claim ATi is screwed according to their information. Wash Rinse repeat.

I told you guys before R520 was never a spring product or a Q1 PRoduct. Its a late Q3 early Q4 Product. September-October time frame. (maybe introduction in late august)

Have you guys all forgotten that they were moving to 18 month product cycles?

 

[trinibwoy]

ATi has never made an announcement on when they would ship their Next Product. These guys make up information then hold ATi accountable to their made up information then claim ATi is screwed according to their information. Wash Rinse repeat.

They never made a public announcement but they had to have informed investors of their intentions and in turn informed them of any changes to such plans. I assumed this was the basis of Goldman Sachs' "delay" reference, not some non-existant official announcement.

 

[kemosabe]

Precisely. Orton publicly informed analysts during a conference that material revenues from the R520 generation would begin flowing during ATI's fourth quarter, which ends on August 30th. The only chance of that happening is if the boards are on retail shelves by July, since the OEM refresh is in September.

 

[siconik]

I told you guys before R520 was never a spring product or a Q1 PRoduct. Its a late Q3 early Q4 Product. September-October time frame. (maybe introduction in late august)

I'll add this to the list, alongside the following:

Hellbinder[/url]]R520 is SM3

According to little Birdies.

And it should hit the street Around april next year. there are "rumors" that it may be launching a lot sooner.. but.. I dont have much confidence in them.