AMD, Nvidia roll Tflops graphics chips

摘要

Archrivals Nvidia Corp. and Advanced Micro Devices Inc. plan to introduce their competing next-generation graphics processors today. Both will claim that their massive multicore chips can deliver a Tflops for graphics and video as well as high-end technical and scientific applications. But that's about where the similarities end. The two architectures take radically different approaches to multicore, memory, silicon integration, process technology and software. The new chips come at a time when Intel Corp. is preparing its own next-generation architecture, dubbed Larrabee, based on many streamlined X86 cores. At an Intel Research event last week, Intel chief technology officer Justin Rattner said Larrabee represents the start of a long-term shift to a new graphics architecture based on ray tracing instead of the usual graphics rasterization approach.