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@ 2009/02/10IN A MOVE sure to disappoint fanbois in basements all across the world, the Nvidia GT212 has still not taped out, but three others have. The 212 is dead, the other three will trickle out in April, May and June.
The reason is pretty obvious, the TSMC 40nm process is leaky as hell, and the bigger the chip, the more transistors that leak. Top this off with a totally botched design that couldn't be shrunk from 65nm to 55nm sanely, so 40 was very iffy. That said, the three that have taped out are the GT218, GT216, GT215, the value, mainstream and performance parts respectively. They also taped out in that order. Yawn. The 216 and 218 come out around May 1 give or take a couple of weeks, the 215 a month later.
The reason is pretty obvious, the TSMC 40nm process is leaky as hell, and the bigger the chip, the more transistors that leak. Top this off with a totally botched design that couldn't be shrunk from 65nm to 55nm sanely, so 40 was very iffy. That said, the three that have taped out are the GT218, GT216, GT215, the value, mainstream and performance parts respectively. They also taped out in that order. Yawn. The 216 and 218 come out around May 1 give or take a couple of weeks, the 215 a month later.
