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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SiliconDoc - Thursday, October 1, 2009 - link
Yes that is quite disappointing, but the 3 million transistor count and ddr5 somewaht makes up for it, and the fact that we're told by the red roosters that even 153 bandwith is plenty or just a tiny bit shy, and with what it looks like the 384 bit ddr5 4000 or 4800 data GT300 will come in at 192 bandwith minimum, or more likely 240 bandwith, quite a lot higher than 153.6 for ati's 5870.---
So really, what should I believe now, 153 is really plenty except in a few rare instances, or what you say LOL @ Trolls should believe, that 192 or 240 is worse than 153 ?
--
You might LOL @ TRolls, but from my view, you just made an awful fool of yourself.
HINT: The ati 5870 is only 256bit, not 384, and not 512.
Now, look in the mirror and LOL.
sigmatau - Thursday, October 1, 2009 - link
I know the ATI cards have 256 bit connections dumb ass. I'm just using your logic (or lack of it.) ATI has been able to outperform Nvidia cards with their 256 bit connections so your point about bandwidth is meaningless idiot.Now go pull that G295 out your ass, ok?
SiliconDoc - Thursday, October 1, 2009 - link
Golly, that ddr5 has nothing to do with bandwith, right, you stupid idiot ?--
Talk to me about the 4850, you lame, near brain dead, doofus. It's got ddr3 on it.
---
See, that's the other problem for you idiotic true believers, NV is moving from 2248 data rate ram on up to 4800.
But you're so able to keep more than one tiny thought in your stupid gourd at once, you "knew that".
BTW, you're not doing what I'm doing, you're not capable of it.
Now that sourpussed last little whine by you, the 295, beats everything ati has, making your simpleton statement A BIG FAT JOKE.
moltentofu - Thursday, October 1, 2009 - link
My god silicondoc you aren't really succeeding here. At what purpose? To convince people not to buy ati cards? You are such a complete, massive ahole it makes me want to go out and buy ati cards in bulk just to spite you.I'm guessing that if nvidia PR ever watched you rant your all-caps rants they would politely request that you stop associating yourself with their product.
Go ahead everybody google "silicondoc" if you have a strong stomach. Talk about spreading yourself all over the tubes! This guy's fingerprint is unmistakeable. Looks like he got banned on the HondaSwap forums after 14 posts. Guess he sucks on every forum. Maybe anandtech could ban him?
SiliconDoc - Thursday, October 1, 2009 - link
I think every one of you, that instead of actually leaving me alone, or responding with a counter argument to my points, every one of you that merely got logged in, and ripped away at me with an insult ought to be BANNED.That's what really should happen. I make my complaints and arguments on article and cards and companies, and the lies I see about all those, and most, but not all of you, have no response other than a pure trolling, insulting put down.
Every single one of you that came in, and personally attacked me without posting a single comment about the article, YOU are the ones that need to be banned.
Your collective whining is pure personal attack, and instead of commenting on the article, your love or hate for it, you texted up and did one single thing, let loose a rant against me. Just because you could, just because you felt apparently, "it was taking the high road"... which is as ignorant as the lies I've pointed out.
Time for YOU PEOPLE to be banned.
(minus those of course that actually made counterpoints, wether or not they insulted me or complained when they did - because AT LEAST they actually were discussing points, and contributing to the knowledge and opinion groupings.
Like for instance Monkeypaw, who made a reply that wasn't a pure trolling hate filled diatribe like you just posted, having nothing to do with the article at all.
Take a look in the mirror then consider yourself fella.
bobvodka - Thursday, October 1, 2009 - link
In which case I request that YOU are banned for calling ME a liar when I did nothing beyond reply telling you how, on launch day, I ordered a HD5870 and had it the next day.SiliconDoc - Thursday, October 1, 2009 - link
Oh you're full of it again, you pretended your view is the world, and therefore lied your butt off, and in a smart aleck fashion, PERIOD, pretending everyone doesn't know a few trickled out, which if you had clue one, you'd KNOW I was the one who posted that very information on this site.Claiming anyting else, is plain stupid, smart alecky, and LYING.
Just because drunken bob got a card, he claims, on the morning, it shhipped that day, he had it immediately, and has been enojying it ever since, the whole world is satisfied with the paper launch, that "does not exist in bob's drunken vodka world" where who knows what day it is anyeway.
You know, you people are trash,and expecting anyone else to pretend you're not is asking for way too much.
shotage - Thursday, October 1, 2009 - link
SillyDuck - please tone it down. You're getting out of control again!tamalero - Thursday, October 1, 2009 - link
hu.. you'r the one insulting every people who doesnt share your opinion with your "RED ROOSTERS" and other stuff...you're really special Mr. Doc, but in the sad way.
SiliconDoc - Thursday, October 1, 2009 - link
What red roosters, there aren't any here I'm told. Just plain frank and honest people who tell the truth.So if I say red rooster, it cannot possibly mean anyone here, posting, lurking or otherwise, as I'm certain you absolutely know.
( not like coming down to your level takes any effort, there you are special, just for you, so you don't feeel so bad about yourself )