NVIDIA future GPU is VOLTA and gets on-chip DRAM

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NVIDIA CEO Jen-Hsun Huang shared a handful of details about the company's next-generation graphics chips. Early next year we can expect Maxwell, the successor to Kepler. This chip will introduce unified virtual memory, which means the GPU will be able to see the contents of the system memory, and vice versa. One of the benefits of this is that it will make programming the GPU easier, which should come in handy for GPGPU applications.



Maxwell will be succeeded by Volta, which includes more memory innovations. Instead of relying solely on off-chip memory, the Volta GPU will share its silicon substrate with DRAM. This on-chip memory will be stacked vertically, and it will purportedly offer substantially higher bandwidth than what's available via an external interface. Huang says the integrated memory will boast a whopping 1TB/s of bandwidth—more than three times what's offered by the GeForce Titan. Huang didn't provide a timeline for Volta's release, but I wouldn't expect it before 2016. Nvidia has a history of debuting new GPU architectures every two years, with Fermi arriving in 2010, Kepler coming last year, and Maxwell scheduled for next year.

NVIDIA future GPU is VOLTA and gets on-chip DRAM


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