NVIDIA's Fermi: Architected for Tesla, 3 Billion Transistors in 2010
by Anand Lal Shimpi on September 30, 2009 12:00 AM EST- Posted in
- GPUs
Final Words
Today's launch is strange. I tried to convince NVIDIA to release more information about Fermi but was met with staunch resistance from the company. NVIDIA claims that by pre-announcing Fermi's performance levels it would seriously hurt its existing business. It's up to you whether or not you want to believe that.
Last quarter the Tesla business unit made $10M. That's not a whole lot of money for a company that, at its peak, grossed $1B in a single quarter. NVIDIA believes that Fermi is when that will all change. To borrow a horrendously overused phrase, Fermi is the inflection point for NVIDIA's Tesla sales.
By adding support for ECC, enabling C++ and easier Visual Studio integration, NVIDIA believes that Fermi will open its Tesla business up to a group of clients that would previously not so much as speak to NVIDIA. ECC is the killer feature there.
While the bulk of NVIDIA's revenue today comes from 3D graphics, NVIDIA believes that Tegra (mobile) and Tesla are the future growth segments for the company. This hints at a very troubling future for GPU makers - are we soon approaching the Atom-ization of graphics cards?
Will 2010 be the beginning of good enough performance in PC games? Display resolutions have pretty much stagnated, PC games are first developed on consoles which have inferior hardware and thus don't have as high the GPU requirements. The fact that NVIDIA is looking to Tegra and Tesla to grow the company is very telling. Then again, perhaps a brand new approach to graphics is what we'll need for the re-invigoration of PC game development. Larrabee.
If the TAM for GPUs in HPC is so big, why did NVIDIA only make $10M last quarter? If you ask NVIDIA it has to do with focus and sales.
According to NVIDIA, over the past couple of years NVIDIA's Tesla sales efforts have been scattered. The focus was on selling to any customers that could potentially see a speedup, trying to gain some traction for the Tesla business.
Jen-Hsun did some yelling and now NVIDIA is a bit more focused in that department. If Tesla revenues increase linearly from this point, that's simply not going to be enough. I asked NVIDIA if exponential growth for Tesla was in the cards and if so, when would it happen. The answer was yes and with Fermi.
We'll see how that plays out, but if Fermi doesn't significantly increase Tesla revenues then we know that NVIDIA is in serious trouble.
The architecture looks good, Fermi just needs to be priced right. Oh and the chip needs to hurry up and come out.
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silverblue - Thursday, October 1, 2009 - link
Am I hearing you right - you say GT300 isn't a paper launch despite there being no cards for sale for the next few months, yet you said the 5870 was AND THERE WERE CARDS FOR SALE WHEN YOU MADE THE COMMENT! I don't care that you couldn't locate one, the simple fact is people had already bought cards from the first trickle (emphasis on the trickle part) and as such made your statement completely invalid.How much more rubbish are you going to spew from your hole?
(note: I needed to have caps above to make a salient point and not just because I felt like holding the shift key for no particular reason)
SiliconDoc - Thursday, October 1, 2009 - link
roflmao - If you're hearing anything right, you'd keep your text yap shut.Please show me the LAUNCH information on GT300, there, brainless bubba, the liar. I really cannot imagine you are that stupid, but then again, it is possible.
Congratulations for being a COMPLETE IDIOT AND LIAR! Really, you must work very hard to maintain that level of ignorance. In fact, the requirement to be that stupid exceeds the likelihood that you actually are purely ignorant, and therefore, it is more likely you're a troll. My condolences in either case in all seriousness.
silverblue - Thursday, October 1, 2009 - link
The proposed launch is late November but even Fudzilla concede that any problems will delay this. The earliest we'll see a GT300 on the shelves is just under 2 months. There, that's information for you. I want nVidia to launch GT300 this year but we don't always get what we wish for.Where did I lie in any of my previous posts? Oh right... I didn't bow down to worship the Green God(dess). If you had any semblance of an open mind or any stability at all, your nose wouldn't need cleaning. Calling me a troll is pure comedy gold and offering me your pity is outstanding to say the least :)
Keep trying. Or don't. Either way, I doubt many people care for your viewpoints anymore.
SiliconDoc - Thursday, October 1, 2009 - link
Oh jeeze, one red rooster who finally gets it.Congratulations, you're not the dumbest of your crowd.
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No shirking here comes the QUOTE !
" The proposed launch is late November " !!! whoo hoo !
Now a proposed launch is not an official launch- try to keep that straight in the gourd haters when the time comes.
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Pass it along to all the screaming tards, won't you please, you talk their language, or perhapos we'll just say you already have, because, by golly, they can believe you.
ROFLMAO
rennya - Thursday, October 1, 2009 - link
'Nvidia LAUNCHED TODAY... se page two by your insane master Anand.'This what you have said yourself somewhere in this very discussion. So you must have known about this so-called launch yourself.
SiliconDoc - Thursday, October 1, 2009 - link
That's called sarcasm dear. Jiminy crickets.palladium - Thursday, October 1, 2009 - link
How can you tell if that's not a GTX285 with redesigned cover/cooler/PCB?samspqr - Monday, October 5, 2009 - link
it is SO funny that that thing silicondoc's master/god is holding in his hand ended up revealing itself as nothing more than a mock-up...SiliconDoc - Wednesday, September 30, 2009 - link
PS THE SILICON IS ALREADY CUT AND IN PRODUCTION!---
Yes anand at the bottom of page 1 claims "it's paper" - DECIEVING YOU, since the WAFERS HAVE ALREADY BEEN BURNED AND YIELDS ARE REPORTED HIGH ! (in spite of ati's marketing arm lying and claiming "only 9 cores per wafer yields" - A BIG FAT LIE NVIDIA POINTED OUT !
Where have you been with your head in the sand ?
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So at the bottom of page 1 Anand leaves you dips with the impression "it's all paper" (but the TRUTH is DEVELOPER CARDS ARE ALREADY ASSEMBLED and being DEBUGGED and TESTED) just anand won't get one for 2 months.
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THEN BY PAGE 2 ANAND CALLS IT A PAPER LAUNCH !
roflmao
Yes, the red rooster himself has convinced himself "today's nvidia LAUNCH" (that LAUNCH word is what anand made up in his deranged mind) is a paper launch "JUST LIKE ATI'S!".
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It is nothing short of absolutely AMAZING.
The red rooster fan has boonswoggled his own gourd, stated in fasle terms, bashed it to be as bad as what ati just did with 5870, and IT'S NOT EVEN A LAUNCH DAY FOR NVIDIA !
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Congratulations, the massive bias is SCREAMING off the page. LOL
It's hilarious, to say the least, that the master can be that deluded with his own spew!
gx80050 - Friday, October 2, 2009 - link
Die painfully okay? Prefearbly by getting crushed to death in a
garbage compactor, by getting your face cut to ribbons with a
pocketknife, your head cracked open with a baseball bat, your stomach
sliced open and your entrails spilled out, and your eyeballs ripped
out of their sockets. Fucking bitch
I would love to kick you hard in the face, breaking it. Then I'd cut
your stomach open with a chainsaw, exposing your intestines. Then I'd
cut your windpipe in two with a boxcutter.
Hopefully you'll get what's coming to you. Fucking bitch
I really hope that you get curb-stomped. It'd be hilarious to see you
begging for help, and then someone stomps on the back of your head,
leaving you to die in horrible, agonizing pain. Faggot
Shut the fuck up f aggot, before you get your face bashed in and cut
to ribbons, and your throat slit.