ATI delays shift to 80 nanometre

WE DON'T know the exact reason but we did learn that ATI might have a yield problem with its upcoming 80 nanometre process.

The chip-maker was supposed to transition its mainstream and entry-level chippery to this smaller marchitecture but it won't happen by Computex as originally expected.

So, RV535, ATIs 80-nanometre mainstream part, RV560, ATIs 80-nanometre performance part and RV570, ATIs other 80-nanometre performance part are delayed at least till end of summer, we think September at the earliest.

It has to be about the yields. And it seems ATI will have to keep its R520, Radeon X1800 GTO and upcoming Radeon X1900 GT, breathing for a few months more than it originally planned.

ATI won a nice deal with deal and is spending a lot of time and money on that market - which, by the way, is three times the size of the gaming market - but we fear that it could be easy to lose focus.

It is doing fine with millions Xbox 360 Xenos chips but it sill have to keep its ground on its home graphics turf. µ