The Graphics Chip

Before we go on to look at the architecture of NV40 and the features it has in more detail let's take a look at the chip itself and the board. First up, here are the main chip details:

Chip Specifications
Chipset NV40
Silicon Process 130nm FSG (IBM)
Transistors 222 Million
Packaging Flipchip
Pipeline Configuration
(Pixel Pipe lines x Texture Sampling Units)		 16x1
32x0 (Optimised Z / Stencil Path)
Memory Interface 256-bit DDR/GDDR-2/GDDR-3 interface
Display 2x 400MHz DACs
Dual DVI and TV ports for connection to external TMDS transmitters and TV Encoders
Bus Standard AGP 8X

At 222 Million transistors and the same process size as the previous generation high end parts, the NV40 is a big chip, fitting only about 190 full cores per 300mm wafer. In fact the chip is so large, you may wonder what their yields will be like and hence what the availability will be like – nonetheless, it seems like a fairly impressive feat to have a chip this large running on 130nm. NVIDIA have opted to stick with IBM’s 130nm FSG process though, one which they will be fairly familiar with thanks to the work they have done with IBM on GeForce FX 5700’s NV36 chip.

Some significant architectural features of the NV40 chip are as follows:

  • CineFX 3.0 Architecture
    • Full DirectX9 Support
    • DirectX9 Shader Model 3.0 Support
      • Vertex Shader 3.0
      • Pixel Shader 3.0
      • Internal 128-bit Floating Point (FP32) Precisions
    • Unlimited Shader Lengths
    • Up to 16 textures per pass
    • Support for FP16 Texture Formats with Filtering, FP32 without
  • NVIDIA High Precision Dynamic Range Technology
    • Full FP16 Floating Point Support throughout the entire pipeline
    • FP16 Floating Point Frame Buffer Support
  • Intellisample 3.0
    • Up to 4X Native Multi-sampling FSAA with rotated grid sampling
    • Lossless color, texture, z-data compression
    • Fast Z Clear
    • Up to 16x Anisotropic Filtering
  • UltraShadow Technology
  • Advanced Display options
    • Dedicated on-chip video processor
    • nView Multi Display technology
    • Digital Vibrance Control 3.0

We'll explore many of these features in more detail later in the article.