Computex 2005: Possible new ATI SKUs

Possible new ATI SKUs

Chatting to product engineers for an ATI board partner here at Computex has revealed a couple of interesting new SKUs just about to launch, based around existing ASICs, and hints of a board that may or may not make it in to production.

The first of the new SKUs that'll appear in a month or so is a 512MiB version of the X700 (presumably the PRO). ATI recently launched a 512MiB Radeon X800 XL, and the half-GiB X700 is their next foray into the world of fat framebuffer products. Sitting at the same $199 price point that the 128MiB X800 does, the 512MiB X700 looks set to use 8 GDDR3 32Mx16 DRAMs to provide the large memory size on the board.

The second SKU, which will replace X600 in the mid-range, is X550. I'm guessing that it uses RV380 on 110nm to keep costs down as much as possible, as ATI phase out the X600 range in preparation for a replacement SKU using brand new, unannounced silicon. The engineers wouldn't be drawn on what those ASICs are, but it looks likely to be an 8 pixel pipeline part, possibly RV515.

Finally, I was told that 1GiB engineering samples are just about up and running for two products, and they're just waiting for a PCB revision to come back to see how well it works. My sources wouldn't comment on whether they'll ever make it to market, but the fact they're bringing them up for testing is interesting in itself.