NVIDIA Updates GPU Roadmap with "Volta"
NVIDIA updated its GPU micro-architecture roadmap at the 2013 GPU Technology Conference (GTC). Currently spearheaded by the "Kepler" micro-architecture, which drives its GeForce, Quadro, and Tesla product lines, and which will drive Tegra mobile SoCs in 2014; NVIDIA's next-generation "Maxwell" could make its debut some time in 2014. Going by NVIDIA's graph that puts performance-per-Watt against time, "Maxwell" should nearly double performance. Maxwell GPUs feature unified virtual memory, which lets CPUs treat graphics card memory as system memory, for faster general-purpose performance.
Although not backed by a tentative launch year, and assuming "Maxwell" has its run for another two years, 2016 could see the launch of NVIDIA's "Volta" GPU micro-architecture. In addition to advancements by its predecessors, "Volta" could introduce stacked DRAM technology. It would enable GPU memory bandwidths as high as 1 TB/s. Current high-end graphics cards such as GeForce Titan and Radeon HD 7970 GHz Edition, are capable of breaching the 300 GB/s mark, so NVIDIA's claims don't sound far-fetched.
Although not backed by a tentative launch year, and assuming "Maxwell" has its run for another two years, 2016 could see the launch of NVIDIA's "Volta" GPU micro-architecture. In addition to advancements by its predecessors, "Volta" could introduce stacked DRAM technology. It would enable GPU memory bandwidths as high as 1 TB/s. Current high-end graphics cards such as GeForce Titan and Radeon HD 7970 GHz Edition, are capable of breaching the 300 GB/s mark, so NVIDIA's claims don't sound far-fetched.