New Fermi mid-life kicker replacement "for next year" - Jen-Hsun Huang

[bamtan2]

There have been rumors about this on some sites. One site said "there is a big chance that you'll see this new Fermi, let’s call it Fermi 1.5 even in late 2010."

Well, lets squash this right now with words from Jen-Hsun Huang himself at GTC. ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rK7CVrZez0Y&hd=1#t=4m ) Jen-Hsun Huang was asked about new product release schedules. His answer:

"The basic [product release schedule] cadence has to follow process advancement. Unless there is a major new node in process, it's hard for us to come out with enough transistors to fundamentally change the architecture in some meaningful way. Going forward I think what you're going to find is a new processor node about every two years. In between we will likely have a "mid-life kicker" if you will. Something that enhances the micro-architecture features. You are going to see this coming in the near future for next year, the mid-life kicker for Fermi."

[saaya]

this must be giving tsmc nightmares already hahaha
if this is fermi 1.5 then what is gf10x? fermi 1.4?

[Olivon]

We already have a thread for that bamtan

http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/...d.php?t=259492

[bamtan2]

We already have a thread for that bamtan

http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/...d.php?t=259492

this is news, not speculation. nvidia will have no answer for amd 6000 series this year.

[SKYMTL]

And "next year" could be only 3 months away.

Remember, CES is coming up.

And don't forget that NVIDIA's answer to the 6000 series for the time being could be price cuts or the release of new GF104 / GF106 based products. There are many ways to "answer" a challenge.

[kaktus1907]

New GF11X, full GF104 and full GF106 = GTX 5XX series ?

[SimBy]

Anyone taking this seriously after the stunt nVidia pulled with "here's the puppy" Fermi is naive to put it mildly. The only response nVidia can have this year is another space heater and we've had enough of those.

[Chumbucket843]

Anyone taking this seriously after the stunt nVidia pulled with "here's the puppy" Fermi is naive to put it mildly. The only response nVidia can have this year is another space heater and we've had enough of those.

first, that's a misquote.

secondly, why would you be gullible to believe what he said? the card is a different issue entirely and it was reasonable to be skeptical. there is no benefit to lying about this as opposed to demoing a graphics card half a year before launch.

[antiacid]

secondly, why would you be gullible to believe what he said? the card is a different issue entirely and it was reasonable to be skeptical. there is no benefit to lying about this as opposed to demoing a graphics card half a year before launch.

What he's saying is that Nvidia has already pulled that stunt before where they announced the announcement of the paper launch of a card that ends up being made out of wood and paint for the first 3 months of "public" existence.

The goal of this announcement was to tell people who were thinking to buy amd to wait a little longer and possibly get a better card with Nvidia. I mean, come on, just as the amd 6xxx specs are leaked, we get an announcement about fermi 1.5... nice timing!

[SKYMTL]

The goal of this announcement was to tell people who were thinking to buy amd to wait a little longer and possibly get a better card with Nvidia. I mean, come on, just as the amd 6xxx specs are leaked, we get an announcement about fermi 1.5... nice timing!

And that's what we call marketing.

[Manicdan]

And that's what we call marketing.

feels just like august to december of 2009, any AMD gpu news is followed by an Nvidia announcement with some kind of positive spin

[jaredpace]

A revamped 768sp "Double gf104" at ~ 500mm2 would be my guess

[Pantsu]

576 sp gf110 is what I'm thinking. Some claim the kicker would come already this year, but that sounds rather soon.

[Serra]

I wonder where that guy in the hood with the green screen is, looks like he could be called back into business to tell us 'it's coming' any time now


Seriously though, I think this is good news. Hopefully some kind of process shrink for lower heat, less power consumption, and a few performance tweaks. I'd be quite happy with that, particularly in the mobile area.

[Jowy Atreides]

I wonder where that guy in the hood with the green screen is, looks like he could be called back into business to tell us 'it's coming' any time now

[kuroikenshi]

[hurleybird]

JHH isn't the most trustworthy individual. I hope he's telling the truth, but my default assumption is that any forward looking statements he makes are half truths at best.

[kuroikenshi]

in the world of business and marketing half truths are often used (omitting information) (e.g. plank of wood representing fermi) in order to portray the message they desire.

Mid-life kicker can represent from a visual demo, to some specs on an upcoming product, the message is so ambiguous and diffuse that I would take it with a grain of salt (possibly a giant one)

[Russian]

And "next year" could be only 3 months away.

Remember, CES is coming up.

And don't forget that NVIDIA's answer to the 6000 series for the time being could be price cuts or the release of new GF104 / GF106 based products. There are many ways to "answer" a challenge.

I really appreciate you being the voice of reason. And see you @ CES.

[Teemax]

I really appreciate you being the voice of reason. And see you @ CES.

More like "the voice I want to hear", no?

Other posts are quite reasonable to me. After all, they were citing historical facts of the past Fermi announcements, not speculations

[Svnth]

More like "the voice I want to hear", no?

Other posts are quite reasonable to me. After all, they were citing historical facts of the past Fermi announcements, not speculations

Not really. It wasn't like they were knowingly lying. There were constant challenges in the new architecture... obviously they had their problems. A kicker product is not going to have those same problems...

[K404]

Well if Huang is saying next year... with his endless optimism.....card might be ready for next Christmas?

[Tha Last Meal]

GF110 will come with 40nm I think . and I think that GF110 will come like GF104 . less Temperature and less Power Consumption and huge Performance

[spursindonesia]

50% enlargement out of GF 104 design is within reason, but doubling up or further enhancement will need 28 nm process node. Nonetheless, i don't think this "kicker" will be on sale this year, late Q1 2011 at the earliest IMHO, and end Q2 2011 most likely. It won't bring the undisputed GPU performance king title, but atleast will be quite respectable than watching GF 100 got butt raped by Cayman XT.

[kuroikenshi]

that whole kicker sounds like a marketing gimmick to me, a kicker doesn't necessarily mean hardware upgrade, mid life kicker could even be only for mobile market... like I said before, that message is so diffuse I would not make much of it until some factual info was leaked out... or if gigantic ballbag fell on top of my foreheard...