Fudo over at The Inquirer reports that their sources are indicating that ATI's next generation flagship R600 GPU will be made with an 80u process. Apparently, TSMC's 65u process is moving along well though it is not quite mature enough to handle a chipset as complex as a high-end GPU. With the 80u process in mind, it is realistic to expect core frequencies to remain well under 1GHz with Fudo's estimates landing in the 700MHz range give or take 50MHz. Some concern could be had by the reference to further possible delays, though ATI does have the R580+ GPU supposedly coming in October to appease the masses in the interim.
"ATI and its partners have high hopes about this chip and they all believe that it will give the performance crown back to ATI. Nvidia is pushing hard with Geforce 7950 GX2 cards and its G80 should be just around the corner.
Don't forget that ATI has the last of its high end 90 nanometre chips to launch. It has R580+, Radeon X1950 XTX currently scheduled for October."
Marco Chiappetta
Marco's interest in computing and technology dates all the way back to his early childhood. Even before being exposed to the Commodore P.E.T. and later the Commodore 64 in the early ‘80s, he was interested in electricity and electronics, and he still has the modded AFX cars and shop-worn soldering irons to prove it. Once he got his hands on his own Commodore 64, however, computing became Marco's passion. Throughout his academic and professional lives, Marco has worked with virtually every major platform from the TRS-80 and Amiga, to today's high end, multi-core servers. Over the years, he has worked in many fields related to technology and computing, including system design, assembly and sales, professional quality assurance testing, and technical writing. In addition to being the Managing Editor here at HotHardware for close to 15 years, Marco is also a freelance writer whose work has been published in a number of PC and technology related print publications and he is a regular fixture on HotHardware’s own Two and a Half Geeks webcast. - Contact: marco(at)hothardware(dot)com
