Nvidia has released the first technical details of its next-generation PC graphics hardware, codenamed Fermi.
The new core is officially dubbed the GF100, and the first boards will include 512 execution cores, 48 render output processors and a 384-bit GDDR5 bus.
Specific product names and price points haven’t been confirmed, but speaking at the launch in San Jose, Nvidia CEO Jen-Hsun Huang announced that the architecture would extend right across the company’s GeForce, Quadro and Tesla ranges.
Fermi cards are designed with a focus on code execution as well as gaming performance, bringing a new memory architecture that allows developers to write GPU-based routines in C++.
This sophistication means the GPU features an unprecedented three billion transistors — a reason, perhaps, why the company is taking so long to get cards to market.
Fermi was announced last September, but cards aren’t expected to go on sale until March.
Read Mike Jennings’ blog on the long wait for Fermi
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