Nvidia发表28nm Kepler架构绘图处理器

Nvidia公司近日推出新一代台式电脑和笔记本电脑用绘图芯片，预期这将使其与Advanced Micro Devices (AMD)公司之间于28nm技术的新一轮战争进一步加剧。相较于其Nvidia上一代的40纳米(nm) Fermi绘图芯片，该公司宣称首款采用台积电28nm制程技术开发的Kepler芯片可望实现更高两倍的性能。 Nvidia采用Kepler架构的显示卡GTX 680已正式上市。它可在GHz级时脉速度下支持1,536组Nvidia专有的CUDA渲染核心以及192个控制逻辑核心，较上一代Fermi分别实现的512组核心与32颗核心性能更大幅提升。

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如同英特尔和其它厂商一样，Nvidia已经了解到以更多核心与较慢时脉速度可说是实现更佳功效率的途径。 Fermi 以1,54GHz的时脉速度执行渲染核心，而芯片其它部份则采用772MHz作业。而在开发Kepler时，Nvidia采用了一条不同的路径，全芯片均采用1.006GHz的时脉速度，但使用了多达3倍的CUDA核心数。 GTX 680显示卡搭载一个PCI Express Gen 3总线，功耗为195W，较先前Fermi芯片的250W功耗更低。这意味着新的PC必须采用两个传统6接脚的电源供应器来支持该显示卡，而非原本Fermi采用一个6接脚与一个8接脚供电的方式。 此外，Kepler芯片是Nvidia全新600M笔记型电脑绘图芯片系列的基础，该芯片产品现已出货给OEM。低阶版本应该很适合用于笔记型电脑市场，Nvidia的发言人说。 Acer公司已经推出采用600M芯片的笔记型电脑。其它还有九家一线的笔记型电脑制造商也将在其搭载英特尔新款 Ivy Bridge处理器的新款笔记型电脑中采用600M芯片；Ivy Bridge处理器预计将在四月下旬发布。 根据Moor Insights & Streategy公司首席分析师Patrick Moorhea，600M系列具有一种可从CPU进行功率动态调整至GPU的独特性能。“OEM为CPU与GPU使用一种散热器，因而能够精确掌握整合CPU与GPU时可做到什幺程度，这也是前所未见的首创设计。”他说。 尽管独立测试基准尚未发布，但市场观察家预计，Nvidia Kepler系列的性能约相当于AMD在二月量产出货的28nm系列组件HD 7970。 “由于两家公司的芯片在高时脉速率时均采用了GDDR5内存，预期双方的产品之间相当具有竞争性，”Mercury Research公司负责人Dean McCarron表示，“两家公司预计在整个夏天大量生产，预期将为这个领域带来激烈竞争。”他说。 Jon Peddie Research公司分析师Jon Peddie说：“Nvidia的产品在理论上的规格数据看起来不错，但AMD的HD 7970也不容小觑。”只有在分别于两张显示卡上为相同的设备进行相同的测试项目时，才能得到实际的结果；不过这项测试大约要再过几周才能完成。 根据Peddie表示，在成长缓慢的台式电脑绘图芯片领域，Nvidia目前以63%的市占率较AMD的36%市占率更胜一筹；但在成长较快的笔记本电脑绘图芯片领域，AMD则拥有52%的市占率，略高于Nvidia的48%。 McCarron表示，AMD在一年前还拥有62%的较高市占率。该公司在2011年的笔记本电脑绘图芯片出货量约有7,500万片，预计在2013年可望成长到1亿。 英特尔与AMD致力于在新近开发的处理器同一封装中加进绘图核心，Nvidia也正逐渐专注于整合型绘图芯片业务。在此开发趋势下，英特尔在包括整合型与独 立型的绘图芯片市场中囊括约5亿美元的市场规模，以59.2%的市占率主导这一市场领域，其次是AMD占24.7%，以及Nvidia约占15.7%。 McCarron表示，虽然AMD较Nvidia更早几周推出其28nm产品，但两家公司的产品推出时程都比PC制造商推出采用英特尔Ivy Bridge的下一代产品更新周期时间更早得多。 对于智能手机与平板电脑应用来说， Kepler芯片的功耗仍然太大了；因此，Nvidia针对行动系统仍以Tegra绘图核心作为市场区隔。 编译：Susan Hong 本文授权编译自EE Times，版权所有，谢绝转载 参考英文原文：Nvidia rolls 28-nm graphics processors，by Rick Merritt

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{pagination} Nvidia rolls 28-nm graphics processors Rick Merritt SAN JOSE, Calif. – Nvidia Corp. rolled out a new generation of desktop and notebook graphics chips, fueling the next round of neck-and-neck competition with archrival Advanced Micro Devices. Nvidia claims its Kepler chips, its first to use a 28-nm TSMC process technology, have twice the performance per watt of its previous 40-nm Fermi graphics. A Kepler-based graphics card, the GTX 680, officially goes on sale today at retail outlets for $499. It sports 1,536 Nvidia proprietary CUDA rendering cores and 192 control logic cores on a GHz clock. That’s up from 512 and 32 cores in the Fermi parts. Like Intel and others before it, Nvidia has learned more cores and a slower clock is the road to better power efficiency. Fermi ran its rendering cores at 1.544 GHz and the rest of the chip at a cooler 772 MHz. With Kepler, Nvidia takes a different tack, running the whole chip at 1.006 GHz but using three times as many cores. The GTX 680 card rides a PCI Express Gen 3 bus and consumes 195 W, down from about 250W for Fermi cards. That means PCs require two conventional six-pin power supplies to support the card, rather than the one six- and one eight-pin supply Fermi cards needed. Separately the Kepler chip is the basis for Nvidia’s new 600M family of graphics chips for notebook computers, already shipping to OEMs. The low-end versions should be suitable for $599 retail notebooks, an Nvidia spokesman said. Acer is already shipping one notebook with a 600M chip. Nine other top notebook makers will follow suit when they ship laptops using Intel’s new Ivy Bridge processors, expected to be formally released in late April. According to Patrick Moorhead, principal analyst of Moor Insights & Streategy, the 600M has a unique capability to "dynamically shift power" from the CPU to the GPU. "OEMs use one heat spreader for the CPU and GPU so they know exactly how far they can go between combined CPU and GPU--this has never been done before," he said. Independent testers have yet to publish benchmarks, but market watchers expect the Kepler parts will be fairly evenly matched with the 7970, AMD’s 28 nm family that started shipping in volume in February. “Based on the fact both companies’ parts are using GDDR5 memories at high clock rates, I expect they are very competitive,” said Dean McCarron, principal of Mercury Research (Bee Cave, Ariz.) “Both companies will be ramping products through the summer, so we will have some nice battles here,” he said. “On paper Nvidia’s specs look great, but then so do AMD’s for the 7970,” said Jon Peddie of Jon Peddie Research (Tiburon, Calif.). “We won’t really know until we run tests in the same machine with the same programs on both boards,” tests that are not expected to be done for a few weeks, he said. Nvidia commands a market share edge over AMD in the slower growing desktop discrete graphics segment at about 63 versus 36 percent, according to Peddie. But AMD still commands a narrowing lead in the faster growth notebook discrete segment at about 52 versus 48 percent. A year ago, AMD had a larger lead at 62 to 38 percent, McCarron said. A total of 75 million discrete notebook graphics chips shipped in 2011, projected to grow to nearly 100 million in 2013, McCarron said. Nvidia is getting out of the business of chip sets with integrated graphics as Intel and AMD move to put graphics cores on the same package as their latest processors. Due to this trend, Intel is the overall leader in graphics with a share of the $500 million combined integrated and discrete market at 59.2 percent. AMD stands at 24.7 and Nvidia at 15.7 percent, McCarron said. AMD and Nvidia have been roughly matched in graphics performance for about three years. The current chips are not expected to shift the balance significantly. Although AMD had a few weeks lead in shipping its 28-nm generation, both companies are comfortably ahead of the refresh cycle PC makers are in with the upcoming Intel Ivy Bridge processors, McCarron said. The new chips are too power hungry for smartphones and tablets. Thus Nvidia’s graphics cores for its Tegra products for mobile systems have a separate lineage.