Nvidia G80 is taped out

The first successful silicon turned up from the fab a couple weeks ago now, it seems. This puts the company bang on the schedule for its Septembrish launch.

Nvidia believes it can have A six-to-eight-week lead over ATI with its new chip. ATI plans its new R600 chip for end of this year, probably Novemberish time.

Internal sources at Nvidia confirm that the company is apparently happy with what it has seen and that things look good. Nvidia already has a performance leader, the Geforce 7950 GTX, an interesting product that involves two mobile chips on two PCBs connected in SLI, but it needs a new performance chip.

The chip, G80 is supposed to take the performance lead but it will eventually be up against a nasty heavy-weight, ATI's upcoming R600.

It is still too early for details like the final clocks of these chips to emerge. µ