The new generation of graphics circuits that was initiated with NVIDIA’s launch of the G80 architecture, it and ATI’s coming R600 graphics circuits have at least one thing in common. The graphics processors are the largest we’ve seen so far, physically they are beasts with up to 700 million transistors and heavy power requirements. Now The Inquirer claims that the next generation of graphics circuits and specifically ATI’s R700 circuit will adapt a new kind of technology. It’s stated that it will be more of a modular architecture as it will be using several small graphics processors instead of one big core. If it would be able to find a good software solution, which is usually the tough piece of the puzzle, the manufacturing would be much simpler and at the same time cheaper.
It would be possible to choose a different amount of graphics cores for the cards depending on what performance segment it’s intended for. The architecture will simply be a lot more scalable.
“This would have massive advantages on design time, you need to make a chip of quarter the size or less, and just place many of them on the PCB. If you want a low-end board, use one, mid-range use four, pimped out edition, 16. You get the idea, Lego.”
It’s still a long time until then, but we’re eager to see if G80 and R600 really will be the last gigantic graphics circuits and if there will instead be smaller, but multiple cores.
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