Interesting Orton Interview

Interesting bits for the lazy :)

Sampsa: Can you tell us a little about the problems which you encountered when you moved to 90nm production technology?

Dave: "Xbox 360-game console’s Xenon-graphics chipset was developed on 90 nm with tremendous success, so we felt confident using it for the R5xx family. RV515, which will be aimed at the entry-level PC segment, also worked perfectly from the outset without encountering any manufacturing issues. But to be honest, we’ve had our share of challenges with the R520 and RV530 chips. Even though all the simulations that were done with the chips were looking good, there were still issues with the silicon when it came back from the fab. It was also surprising that RV515 and RV530 were designed by the same team and manufactured in the same fab using same technology, but RV515 worked perfectly and RV530 caused us problems".

According to Dave, R520 chips taped-out in November 2004 and original plan was to
announce it seven to eight months later during the June-July period. Adopting smaller manufacturing technology delayed the schedule by a couple of months, but because of other challenges the engineers faced, the chips were delayed by an additional 2-3 months.

Sampsa: Last year when ATI moved from the 130nm to the 110nm manufacturing process, only the entry-level, mainstream and upper-mainstream products made the migration. How come this time around you’re using the latest process technology, 90nm, for your entire product family, including high end?

Dave: "One major factor relating to adoption of smaller manufacturing technology was naturally our deal with Microsoft on the graphics solution of Xbox360, and the success of the Xenos graphics processor has given us a high confidence level in the 90nm process. And although there have been challenges along the way, recent results with the R520 and R530 are looking excellent, and indicate that they'll be very well placed in the market in terms of both performance and image quality when they arrive in the fall."

Sampsa: Did you have to remove any planned features from R520 in order to reach the version of R520 which you’re about to bring to the market?

Dave: "No we didn’t. The graphics chip runs extremely fast, and although we’re still finalizing clocks, I can tell you that we’re hitting stock engine speeds never seen before in this industry. The chip had to be produced with 90nm technology, because 110 nm would have made it way too large, and it’s still not a small chip."

According to Dave, the memory controller of the graphics chip has gone through a complete redesign, and ATI will be providing more details when they launch their new product family this fall.

Sampsa: A year ago, ATI was almost laughing off Nvidia’s SLi dual display card solution, but now you’ve announced your own dual-GPU CrossFire technology to the market. What do you think about multi-card solutions?

Dave: "ATI has always supported multi-GPU solutions – in fact, we brought the first one to market in 1999 with the Rage Fury Maxx, and we actually hold the patents on a number of multi-GPU technologies including AFR. Over
the years, we’ve continued to bring multi-GPU solutions to market for industrial and military applications through our partners like Evans and Sutherland, and SGI. But before bringing out CrossFire, we wanted to be sure we could deliver performance, exceptional image quality, and a fully-flexible, fully-compatible solution for the right price. And this is an area that will continue to evolve, and ATI is going to continue to be a driving force. Going forward, we expect to see trends in multi-GPU technology that will include dual X16 support and more competitive pricing".

Sampsa: Would it then be fair to say that you launched CrossFire because of pressure from Nvidia?

Dave: "Nvidia certainly deserves credit for bringing SLi to the market and generating more consumer interest in multi-card solutions, but the vision behind CrossFire was to create the only multi-card solution on the market that provides a performance or image quality improvement to 100% of 3D games, not just 2 or 3%. Delivering a solution with 30X the level of game compatibility means a longer engineering investment, and the feedback we’ve received from customers is that they are prepared to wait a bit longer for a solution that meets their needs better".

Sampsa: ATI told us last year that it’ll only announce a display card when it can be brought to markets in 30 days. Comments on this?

Dave: "Luckily we didn’t say this with the announcement of CrossFire technology. We ran into problems with external link-cable and motherboards certainly are not in the markets yet. ATI CrossFire samples should be available to the press in the next couple of weeks though, and motherboards based on this technology will arrive to the market before next generation display cards are launched".
Click to expand...
 
Haha, how is CrossFire going to improve my gaming experience with Total Annihilation? How about Diablo and Diablo 2? My child also wants to know how it is going to improve his "Bob the Builder" game as well?

Edit: Dammit, just noticed the "3D games" portion. Still, Diablo 2 is a 3D game... sorta.
 
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This was probably assumed or known, but he said we won't see R520 until after Crossfire launches.
 
CMAN said:
This was probably assumed or known, but he said we won't see R520 until after Crossfire launches.
Click to expand...

Well that's fact now isn't it assuming "announcement" below is synonymous with "launched".

Dave: "Luckily we didn’t say this with the announcement of CrossFire technology. We ran into problems with external link-cable and motherboards certainly are not in the markets yet. ATI CrossFire samples should be available to the press in the next couple of weeks though, and motherboards based on this technology will arrive to the market before next generation display cards are launched".
Click to expand...
 
I'm assuming they are going to pull an announcement=launch like Nvidia did with the 7x00 series.
 
CMAN said:
I'm assuming they are going to pull an announcement=launch like Nvidia did with the 7x00 series.
Click to expand...
Me too, but I'm fearing that might be a foolish way to think.... :???:

This is looking/smelling/feeling more and more like an nV30 situation to me all the time, I just can't help it. :(
 
digitalwanderer said:
Me too, but I'm fearing that might be a foolish way to think.... :???:

This is looking/smelling/feeling more and more like an nV30 situation to me all the time, I just can't help it. :(
Click to expand...

If that would be the case then ati would have hyped the r520 to death already , oh no i mean anand ;)
 
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digitalwanderer said:
Me too, but I'm fearing that might be a foolish way to think.... :???:

This is looking/smelling/feeling more and more like an nV30 situation to me all the time, I just can't help it. :(
Click to expand...

That's so last week Digi, keep up.

Jawed
 
digitalwanderer said:
Hey, it was a looong week for me and I haven't quite caught up yet!

I blame those geeks who turned me on to Battlestar Galactica... :oops:
Click to expand...

It's always the geeks' fault...I see how it is...
 
digitalwanderer said:
Me too, but I'm fearing that might be a foolish way to think.... :???:

This is looking/smelling/feeling more and more like an nV30 situation to me all the time, I just can't help it. :(
Click to expand...
You and me both. I just hope that, if the R520 does turn out to be ATI's NV30, that ATI can drop it and move on to the R580 as quickly as NVIDIA dropped the NV30 and moved on to the NV35.
 
It's not going to be NV30. That interview made me feel better about that. They got it licked this time.

Which is not to say it will necessarily wipe the floor with GTX (and an Ultra if it shows up), but XT isn't going to be a 5800Ultra story, particularly in performance for forward-looking features (which is where 5800Ultra got killed the most).
 
Ratchet said:
You and me both. I just hope that, if the R520 does turn out to be ATI's NV30, that ATI can drop it and move on to the R580 as quickly as NVIDIA dropped the NV30 and moved on to the NV35.
Click to expand...
I'm expecting them to make more of a NV30 -> NV40 kind of jump between the R520 and R580, but my sources aren't tight yet so who knows? :LOL:
 
I just hope (much too mild a word for what I mean here) that the driver team has put these extra months to good use. There is a much greater risk of buggy drivers here for ATI than any time since R8500.

Several months of bad drivers on top of the delay could really settle this cards popular reputation in the NV30 vicinity, whatever its merits or where it ends up performance/stability-wise once they get bad drivers ironed out.
 
ANova said:
So something is delayed 3 months and suddenly it's another NV30?

Too much drama guys.
Click to expand...

Or maybe pulling an "NV30" is now a noun to describe a product that arrives very late to market and underperforms to the expectations of the enthusiast community.

How much will people bash ATI though IF the R520 does turn into an "NV30"?
 
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