ATI will be at 45nm by 2008

Author: Brett Thomas
Published: 23rd October 2006
Comments (10) Stumble
ATI chips will be at 45nm by 2008, which should bring many benefits.

ATI chips will be at 45nm by 2008, which should bring many benefits.

ATI will be moving its entire chip design to a new, shiny 45nm process by 2008, according to the company. The new process should allow for cheaper chips that have considerably less power and thermal requirements. Though ATI will likely be the second company to use 45nm processes (Intel is expected to shrink to it in 2007), it will almost assuredly beat rival NVIDIA to the technology.

The move is made possible by ATI's chosen fab company, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp (TSMC). TSMC announced its plan to make 45nm lines available earlier this year, though it was having difficulty implementing them at the time. Apparently, these issues have been ironed out - perhaps with a little help from AMD's engineers, which have been studying 45nm processes for a little while and will be switching right around the same time.

ATI currently manufactures most of its GPUs on a 90nm process, so a shrink to 45nm is going to result in a tremendous boost over current generation. This will not change the company's switch to 80nm processes in 2007, however. Currently, ATI has one 80nm chip, which sits on the X1950 Pro. Most of its line should be converted to 80nm by Q2 2007. In comparison, NVIDIA is still using 90nm processes.

Hopefully, a switch to 45nm will take some of the sting out of the power and heat requirements that the upcoming DX10 cards seem to be pushing. Do you have a thought on the size change? Let us hear it in our forums.
Quote DougEdey 23rd October 2006, 14:25
The sooner they get to a significant change, like 65nm rather then 80nm the better.
Quote r4tch3t 23rd October 2006, 14:34
Well this is great news, I will be a poor student when they come out.
Quote will. 23rd October 2006, 14:44
yay for the little speech bubble on the discuss article link! sexify teh bit-tech!
Quote:
Originally Posted by r4tch3t
Well this is great news, I will be a poor student when they come out.

Say bye bye to updating your computay for 4 or more years then... Mine is getting some much needed attention this christmas after a 3 year dry spell.
Quote DarkReaper 23rd October 2006, 16:26
Lessened power consumption can only be agood thing, especially with the current trend of "more powah!!!" taking shape
Quote crayfish 23rd October 2006, 16:34
This can't come soon enough. The need for enormous heatsinks on almost everything is starting to annoy.
Quote M4RTIN 23rd October 2006, 16:36
im guessing its 80nm for their dx10 cards then, i guess anything has to be less power hungry than nvidia's "go" at it all.
Quote ChromeX 23rd October 2006, 16:52
Quote:
Originally Posted by crayfish
This can't come soon enough. The need for enormous heatsinks on almost everything is starting to annoy.

Unfortunatly though thats not the case, small manufacturing processes do indeed mean that things use less power but it also means that they can cram more onto the heat making to hotter :(

I find it strange that ATI are still using TSMC fabs instead of AMD's, though I suppose thats because AMD only have the one fab in dresden right? So that'd mean cpu shortages. But surely i'd be cheeper to self-produce over having someone else do it for you.
Quote Tyinsar 23rd October 2006, 17:13
Last AMD roadmap I saw had AMD @ 45nm in 2008, Could it be that the graphics chips from ATI/AMD will be out before or at the same time as the CPUs? That would be odd.
Quote DXR_13KE 23rd October 2006, 21:00
i hope it comes sooner, as i can see gpus melting their coolers realy soon.
Quote Cthippo 23rd October 2006, 23:50
Quote:
Originally Posted by ChromeX
I find it strange that ATI are still using TSMC fabs instead of AMD's, though I suppose thats because AMD only have the one fab in dresden right? So that'd mean cpu shortages. But surely i'd be cheeper to self-produce over having someone else do it for you.

AMD is taking a more conservative path in aquiring ATi, and I think it's a good idea. After all, if it ain't broke, don't fix it. ATi is, and should remain, a profitable company. Sure there are probably ways they could be more profitable, but I don't think AMD is going to rush it and take the chance of screwing a good thing. Historically AMD has been a pretty conservative company and it has worked well for them.
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