So does that mean AMD Vega with HBM2 is fighting big Pascal with HBM2 next year??
No no, GP100 is launching in April this year.... everyone said.
yes, 600mm^2 chips on a new process in the first year was a no, always a no. Yields will be terrible and... lets just say volume production sounds like BS if they are only actually launching boxes in Q1 next year. They will do some extremely expensive, extremely low yield production(which can count as volume) and get samples out there, a few boxes to get certain companies started but volume boxes are clearly only being sold next year.
Keep in mind that iirc GK110 launched as professional products in the November, and as Titan in February.
There is actually nothing physically stopping you making a 600mm^2 gpu on a new process on day one, it's just the financial viability of it. Over time yields improve on a process so day one you'd be looking at like 1% yields and $8000 wafer prices. 6 months later yields might be 15%, a year later yields might be 60%. So the choice for launch is simply where the chip becomes properly viable.
From the dates today I'm reading that Nvidia don't expect yields to produce really financially viable chips till 2017, for professional cards. I wouldn't be surprised to see consumer versions again 4+ months later than that.
- the core itself is 610mm2.
