ATI's R600 is a 80 nanometre chip

TSMC is getting ready for 65 nanometre production but the company is still not ready to produce very complex chips such as the upcoming R600. It can produce some chipsets and the like, but it's still a way to go for more complicated designs.

R600 is still scheduled for the end of the year but ATI delayed its high end plans so many times that it can easily slip into 2007 as well. Still, if all goes well as it went with R580, ATI will launch before Yule.

We know that the 80 nanometre chips are a little bit cooler, they can be clocked slightly faster but I would not expect much more than 700 to 750MHz core clock. The biggest point is that the chip is 17 per cent smaller than the previous ones manufactured using the 90 nanometre process.

ATI and its partners have high hopes about this chip and they all believe that it will give the performance crown back to ATI. Nvidia is pushing hard with Geforce 7950 GX2 cards and its G80 should be just around the corner.

Don't forget that ATI has the last of its high end 90 nanometre chips to launch. It has R580+, Radeon X1950 XTX currently scheduled for October. µ