Original URL: https://www.theregister.com/2001/08/09/ati_r200_r300_roadmap_spied/

ATI R200, R300 roadmap spied

R200 to replace Radeon and much, much more

By Tony Smith

Posted in Channel, 9th August 2001 12:49 GMT

ATI's roadmap has leaked out of the company and onto the Web, bringing details of the upcoming R200 chip, likely to ship as the Radeon 2, and its successor, the R300.

As expected, the R200 is due to ship in September alongside a lesser version, the RV200. The R200 will be fabbed at 0.15 micron, support DirectX 8.1 and provide four parallel rendering pipelines.

The roadmap, leaked to Web site ElecticTech, confirms the RV200 contains only two rendering pipelines. Curiously, it's described as a DirectX 7 part, which would seem to confirm hints we've received that the part is not based on the R200 but the original Radeon core. The RV200 will ship on an AGP 4x board with 16, 32 or 64MB of DDR SDRAM, and is set to replace Radeon 32MB DDR and 32MB SDR cards.

The R200 will also ship on an AGP 4x card, in 32MB and 64MB DDR SDRAM configurations. It is a replacement for the Radeon 64MB DDR card. Both boards will support multiple displays and display connectors through Hydravision and DualHead technology.

As we say, the R200 and RV200 are set to ship in September, confirming earlier ATI comments that the R200 will have a "late summer" release. However, before that, in August, ATI will tape-out the R300 - and probably be released, we reckon, in mid-2002. Previous rumours' claims that R300 will support eight rendering pipelines and DirectX 9 are confirmed. We'd heard that the part will have a 350MHz clock speed, but the roadmap simply puts it at "300MHz+". Like the R200, the R300 will be fabbed at 0.15 micron.

The roadmap notes that two other parts, the RV300 and RL300, will tape-out in Q4. Both are cut-down R300s, offering just four rendering pipelines. The R300's "4x" geometry engine, is reduced to "2x" in the RV300 and "1x" RL300. The RV300 is set to clock at "300MHz+"; the RL300's clock is not specified. All three parts support DirectX 9, suggesting that, unlike the R200 and RV200, they derive from the same core.

How the R300 will supersede the R200 in the marketplace isn't known, but it's pretty clear from the roadmap that the R200 will completely replace the Radeon, leaving just the Radeon VE card to address the mainstream PC market and various Rage 128-based boards covering the value arena. For the rest of 2001, at least, Radeon 1 will not simply be pushed downmarket to replace the ageing Rage 128 Pro. Which makes particular sense if the RV200 is based on Radeon, not R200. ®

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Related Link

ElecticTech: ATI Roadmap Until First Half of 2002