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Radeon R600
Radeon HD 2000/3000 Series
Codename(s) Pele
Created in year 2006–2007
Entry-level cards Radeon HD 2400, HD 3400
Mid-range cards Radeon HD 2600, HD 3600
High-end cards Radeon HD 2900, HD 3800
Direct3D support 10. Direct3D is part of Microsoft 's DirectX API. Direct3D is only available for Microsoft's various Windows Operating systems ( Windows 0, Shader Model 4. 0
(HD 2000) / 10. 1, Shader
Model 4. 1 (HD 3000)
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The graphics processing unit (GPU) codenamed R600 is the foundation of the Radeon HD 2000/3000 series and the FireGL 2007 series video cards developed by ATI Technologies. ATI Radeon is a brand of Graphics processing units (GPU that since 2000 has been manufactured by ATI Technologies and subsequently AMD and is The ATI FireGL range of Graphics cards are a series fabricated by ATI for use with CAD (Computer Aided Design and DCC (Digital Content Creation A video card, also known as a graphics accelerator card, display adapter, or graphics card, is a hardware component whose function is to

It features unified shaders and is compatible with Direct3D 10. Direct3D is part of Microsoft 's DirectX API. Direct3D is only available for Microsoft's various Windows Operating systems ( Windows 0's Shader Model 4. The High Level Shader Language or High Level Shading Language (HLSL is a proprietary Shading language developed by Microsoft for use with the Microsoft 0 along with OpenGL 2. OpenGL ( Open G raphics L ibrary is a standard specification defining a cross-language Cross-platform API for writing applications that produce 0. [1] The first product of the line, the Radeon HD 2900 XT, was launched on May 14, 2007, with variants for other market segments and a half-generation update (RV670), sporting Direct3D 10.1 and Shader Model 4. Direct3D is part of Microsoft 's DirectX API. Direct3D is only available for Microsoft's various Windows Operating systems ( Windows 1 support, released subsequently throughout 2007 and 2008 with low-end and mainstream variants.

Contents

Architecture

R600 architecture
R600 architecture

Unified shaders

The "R600" is the first personal computer graphics processing unit (GPU) from ATI based on a unified shader architecture. A personal computer ( PC) is any Computer whose original sales price size and capabilities make it useful for individuals and which is intended to be operated Unified Shader Model term is used to describe two similar but separate concepts Unified Shading Architecture and Unified Shader Model It is ATI's second generation unified shader design and is based on the "Xenos" GPU implemented in the Xbox 360 game console, which used the world's first such shader architecture. The Xbox 360 is the second Video game console produced by Microsoft, and was developed in cooperation with IBM, ATI, and SiS. Previous GPU architectures implement separate processors for each type of graphics function. A unified architecture leverages many flexible processors which can be scheduled to process a variety of shader types, thereby significantly increasing GPU throughput (dependent on application instruction mix as noted below). The R600 core processes vertex, geometry, and pixel shaders as outlined by the Direct3D 10. Direct3D is part of Microsoft 's DirectX API. Direct3D is only available for Microsoft's various Windows Operating systems ( Windows 0 specification for Shader Model 4. 0 in addition to full OpenGL 2. OpenGL ( Open G raphics L ibrary is a standard specification defining a cross-language Cross-platform API for writing applications that produce 1 compliancy,[2] but only with OpenGL 2. OpenGL ( Open G raphics L ibrary is a standard specification defining a cross-language Cross-platform API for writing applications that produce 0 support.

The new unified shader functionality is based upon a Very long instruction word (VLIW) architecture in which the core executes operations in parallel. Very Long Instruction Word or VLIW refers to a CPU architecture designed to take advantage of Instruction level parallelism (ILP [2] The R600 uses 64 superscalar unified shader clusters, each consisting of 5 stream processing units for a total of 320 stream processing units. A superscalar CPU architecture implements a form of parallelism called Instruction-level parallelism within a single processor [2] The RV610 and RV630 variants have some of the shaders removed from the array, containing a total of 40 (5x8) and 120 (5x24) stream processors, respectively. Each of the first 4 stream processing units is able to retire a finished single precision floating point MAD (or ADD or MUL) instruction per clock, dot product (dp, and special cased by combining ALUs), and integer ADD. [3] The fifth unit is more complex and can additionally handle special transcendental functions such as sine and cosine. A transcendental function is a function that does not satisfy a Polynomial equation whose Coefficients are themselves polynomials in contrast to an [3] Each of the 64 shader clusters can execute 6 instructions per clock cycle (peak), consisting of 5 shading instructions plus 1 branch [3].

Notably, the VLIW architecture brings with it some classic challenges inherent to VLIW designs, namely that of maintaining optimal instruction flow. [2] Additionally, the chip cannot co-issue instructions when one is dependent on the results of the other. Performance of the GPU is highly dependent on the mixture of instructions being used by the application and how well the real-time compiler in the driver can organize said instructions. [3]

See also: Very long instruction word

Hardware tessellation

The GPU is equipped with an extra feature which is not part of the current DirectX 10. Very Long Instruction Word or VLIW refers to a CPU architecture designed to take advantage of Instruction level parallelism (ILP 0 specification. It contains programmable tessellation units, similar to those within the Xenos GPU (codenamed "C1") also developed by ATI. A tessellation or tiling of the plane is a collection of Plane figures that fills the plane with no overlaps and no gaps This unit allows a developer to take a simple polygon mesh and subdivide it based on a curved surface evaluation function, with different tessellation forms as Bézier surfaces with N-patches, B-splines and NURBS, and even some subdivision surface techniques, which usually comes with a displacement map texture. Bézier surfaces are a species of mathematical spline used in Computer graphics, Computer-aided design, and Finite element modelling TruForm is a graphics texture technology created by ATI and employed in DirectX 8 and OpenGL graphics cards on both Mac and PC In the mathematical subfield of Numerical analysis, a B-spline is a spline function that has minimal support with respect to a given degree Non-uniform rational B-spline ( NURBS) is a mathematical model commonly used in Computer graphics for generating and representing curves and surfaces Displacement mapping is an alternative computer graphics technique in contrast to Bump mapping, Normal mapping, and Parallax mapping, using a ( procedural [4] Essentially, this allows a simple, low-polygon model to be increased dramatically in polygon density in real-time with minimized performance loss. Scott Wasson of Tech Report noted during an AMD demo of the technology that the resulting model was so dense with millions of polygons that it appeared to be solid. [2]

This unit is reminiscent of ATI's earlier "TruForm" technology, used initially in the Radeon 8500, which performed a similar function in hardware. TruForm is a graphics texture technology created by ATI and employed in DirectX 8 and OpenGL graphics cards on both Mac and PC The Radeon R200 is the second generation of Radeon graphics chips from ATI Technologies. [5] While this tessellation hardware is not part of the current OpenGL or Direct3D requirements, and competitors such as the GeForce 8 series lack similar hardware, Microsoft has included Tessellation as part of their D3D10. The GeForce 8 Series is the eighth generation of NVIDIA 's GeForce graphics cards 1 future plans. [6] The "TruForm" technology from the past received little attention from software developers and was only utilized in a few game titles (such as Madden NFL 2004, Serious Sam, Unreal Tournament 2003 and 2004, and unofficially Morrowind), because it was not a feature shared with NVIDIA GPUs which had a competing Tessellation solution using Quintic-RT patches which met with even less support from developers. Madden NFL 2004 is the 14th installment of the Madden NFL series of American football Video games. Serious Sam is the title of a series of First-person shooters created by the Croatian company Croteam. Unreal Tournament 2003 or UT2003 is a First-person shooter Video game designed mainly for Multiplayer gaming Unreal Tournament 2004, also known as UT2K4 and UT2004, is a futuristic First-person shooter computer game The Elder Scrolls III Morrowind, commonly referred to simply as Morrowind, is a Single player Computer role-playing game In Mathematics, a quintic equation is a Polynomial Equation of degree five [7] Since the Xenos contains similar hardware, and Microsoft sees hardware surface tessellation as a major GPU feature with proposed implementation of hardware tessellation support in future DirectX releases (presumably DirectX 11),[6][4] dedicated hardware tessellation units may receive increased developer awareness in future titles. It remains to be seen whether ATI's implementation will be compatible with the eventual DirectX standard.

Ultra threaded dispatch processor

Although the R600 is a significant departure from previous designs, it still shares many features with its predecessors. ATI's "R520" core (codenamed Fudo) is the foundation for a line of DirectX 9 [2] The "Ultra-Threaded Dispatch Processor" is a major architectural component of the R600 core, just as it was with the Radeon X1000 GPUs. This processor manages a large number of in-flight threads of three distinct types (vertex, geometry, and pixel shaders) and switches amongst them as needed. [2] With a large number of threads being managed simultaneously it is possible to reorganize thread order to optimally utilize the shaders. In other words, the dispatch processor evaluates what goes in the other parts of the R600 and attempts to keep processing efficiency as high as possible. There are lower levels of "management" as well; each SIMD array of 80 stream processors has its own sequencer and arbiter. The arbiter decides which thread to process next, while the sequencer attempts to reorder instructions for best possible performance within each thread. [2]

Texturing, memory, and anti-aliasing

Texturing and final output aboard the R600 core is similar but also distinct from R580. R600 is equipped with 4 texture units that are decoupled (independent) from the shader core, like in the R520 and R580 GPUs. [2] The render output units (ROPs) of R600 function differently in many ways than R580 core and predecessors, however. A new addition is support for up to 8× multi-sample anti-aliasing (MSAA) using programmable sample grids. In Digital signal processing, anti-aliasing is the technique of minimizing the distortion artifacts known as Aliasing when representing a high-resolution signal Also new is the capability to filter FP16 textures, popular with HDR lighting, at full-speed. High dynamic range rendering ( HDRR or HDR Rendering) also known as high dynamic range lighting, is the rendering of 3D Computer This totals 16 pixels per clock for FP16 textures, while higher precision FP32 textures filter at half-speed (8 pixels per clock). [2] R600 can also perform trilinear and anisotropic filtering on all texture formats. Trilinear filtering is an extension of the bilinear Texture filtering method which also performs Linear interpolation between Mipmaps Bilinear In 3D computer graphics, anisotropic filtering (abbreviated AF) is a method of enhancing the image quality of textures on surfaces that are at oblique The Radeon X1000 series performed this filtering within the pixel shader processors, which was dramatically more time consuming. ATI's "R520" core (codenamed Fudo) is the foundation for a line of DirectX 9 [2]

Anti-aliasing capabilities are more robust on R600 than on the R520 series. In addition to the ability to perform 8× MSAA, up from 6× MSAA on the R300 through R580, R600 has a new "custom filter anti-aliasing" (CFAA) mode. CFAA refers to an implementation of non-box filters that look at pixels around the particular pixel being processed in order to calculate the final color and anti-alias the image. [3] This feature is performed by shader processing, instead of entirely in the ROPs, as anti-aliasing has traditionally been implemented. This brings greatly enhanced programmability because the filters can be customized, but may also bring potential performance issues because of the use of shader resources. As of launch of R600, CFAA utilizes wide and narrow tent filters. With these, samples from outside the pixel being processed are weighted linearly based upon their distance from the centroid of that pixel, with the linear function adjusted based on the wide or narrow filter chosen. The word linear comes from the Latin word linearis, which means created by lines. In Geometry, the centroid or barycenter of an object X in n- Dimensional space is the intersection of all Hyperplanes [3]

Internal functional units of R600 core are connected by an internal 1024-bit bi-directional ring bus (512-bit read and 512-bit write) which wraps around the processor. The ring bus connects at various points to the external memory chips via 8 64-bit memory channels for a total bus width of 512-bits on the 2900 XT. [2] The large bus width allows the 2900 XT to use lower clocked memory while still giving a large amount of memory bandwidth.

Video processing and miscellaneous features

ATI has built-in a HDMI interface with 5. The High-Definition Multimedia Interface ( HDMI) is a compact audio/video connector interface for transmitting uncompressed digital streams 1 audio playback support. The "Rage Theater" chip used on the Radeon X1000 series was replaced with the digital "Rage Theater 200" chip, providing VIVO capabilities. Video In Video Out, usually seen as the Acronym VIVO (commonly pronounced vee-voh is a graphics card port which enables some Video cards Among other details, the majority of Radeon HD 2000/3000 series graphics cards features dual-link DVI output with HDCP, and provides a specially designed DVI-to-HDMI dongle for HDMI output that carries both audio and video. The Digital Visual Interface ( DVI) is a Video interface standard designed to maximize the visual quality of digital Display devices such as Flat panel High-bandwidth Digital Content Protection ( HDCP) is a form of digital Copy protection developed by Intel Corporation to prevent copying of digital audio

The later members, RV630 and RV610 as well as the half-generation update RV670, RV635 and RV620, feature ATI's Unified Video Decoder for hardware decoding for MPEG4 and VC-1 video streams, which itself being the major part of AVIVO HD technology. The Unified Video Decoder, previously called " Universal Video Decoder " or UVD in short is the video decoding unit from ATI Technologies to support MPEG-4 is a collection of methods defining compression of audio and visual (AV digital data VC-1 is the informal name of the SMPTE 421M Video codec standard initially developed by Microsoft. AVIVO is a video platform ATI first introduced with its R520 -based line of GPUs In terms of functionality, NVIDIA's Purevideo 2 offer similar hardware video-acceleration, with UVD going one step further thanks to greater VC-1 offloading. NVIDIA's PureVideo is an MPEG-2 decoder designed to offload MPEG-2 decoding work from the CPU and software to NVIDIA's GPU series GeForce 6,

All Radeon HD 2000/3000 series graphics cards support native CrossFire. CrossFire efficiency has improved with the R600 core and shows performance approaching the theoretical maximum of twice the performance of a single card. [2][8]

While some of the architecture of R600 is similar to Xenos, R600 does not feature the embedded DRAM (eDRAM) frame buffer used with Xenos. eDRAM stands for " embedded DRAM " a Capacitor -based Dynamic random access memory usually integrated on the same die A framebuffer is a video output device that drives a video display from a memory buffer containing a complete frame of data Xenos' eDRAM is designed tightly around the limited resolutions at which the Xbox 360 operates. Personal computers operate at maximum efficiency at a much wider range of resolutions, which would require a significantly larger amount of eDRAM to be effective.

Documentation release

The R600 family Instruction Set Architecture guide was released on June 11, 2008. [9]

Lineup

Desktop products

The R600 family is called the Radeon HD 2000 series, with the enthusiast segment being the "Radeon HD 2900 series" which currently comprise the Radeon HD 2900 XT with GDDR3 memory released on May 14, and the higher clocked GDDR4 version in early July. ATI Radeon is a brand of Graphics processing units (GPU that since 2000 has been manufactured by ATI Technologies and subsequently AMD and is GDDR3, Graphics Double Data Rate 3, is a graphics card-specific memory technology designed by ATI Technologies with the collaboration of JEDEC GDDR4 SDRAM (Graphics Double Data Rate version 4 is a type of Graphics card memory specified by the JEDEC Semiconductor Memory Standard The mainstream and value segment products are the "Radeon HD 2600" and the "Radeon HD 2400" series respectively, both launched June 28th, 2007. [10] Previously there were no HD 2000 series products being offered in the performance segment while AMD using models from the previous generation to address that target market, the situation has not been changed until the release of variants of the Radeon HD 2900 series, the Radeon HD 2900 Pro and GT, which filled the gap of the performance market for a short period of time.

The desktop product lineup was refreshed as the arrival of the performance market-oriented Radeon HD 3800 series based on the "die shrink" version of R600 on a 55 nm process. ATI Radeon is a brand of Graphics processing units (GPU that since 2000 has been manufactured by ATI Technologies and subsequently AMD and is The term " die shrink " (sometimes " optical shrink " or " process shrink " refers to a simple semiconductor scaling of Semiconductor Two variants, the Radeon HD 3850 and the 3870, became available mid-November 2007. An enthusiast variant, the Radeon HD 3870 X2, with two RV670 cores on single PCB, was launched on January 28, 2008. A printed circuit board, or PCB, is used to mechanically support and electrically connect Electronic components using conductive pathways or traces

Further, the half-generation refresh will span to the mainstream and value market with the codenamed RV635 and the RV620 GPU cores, based on the die shrink version of the RV630 and the RV610 cores, on 55 nm fabrication process.

An odd variant, the Radeon HD 3690, was released early February 2008 for the China market only. China ( Wade-Giles ( Mandarin) Chung¹kuo² is a cultural region, an ancient Civilization, and depending on perspective a National What makes it odd is the GPU core it carries. The Radeon HD 3690 is actually based on an RV670 core with half of the memory interface bit width and memory amount to that of an Radeon HD 3850/3870 graphics card. A further announcement was made that there will be an Radeon HD 3830 variant bearing the same features as Radeon HD 3690, but with unique device ID and does not allow add-in card partners in China to re-enable the burnt out portion of the GPU core for more memory bandwidth.

Mobile products

All Mobility Radeon HD 2000/3000 series share the same feature set support as their desktop counterparts, as well as the addition of the battery conserving PowerPlay 7. ATI PowerPlay is a collective name for a set of technologies implemented in a series graphics adapters manufactured by ATI, including Mobility Radeon, Imageon 0 features which is augmented from the previous generation's PowerPlay 6. 0. It should be noted that several products, branded the Radeon X2000 series, are in fact based on the older R520 architecture and spotting the support of DirectX 9. ATI's "R520" core (codenamed Fudo) is the foundation for a line of DirectX 9 0c only and do not have UVD on die.

The Mobility Radeon HD 2300 is a value product which includes UVD "in silica" but lacks unified shader architecture and DirectX 10. Microsoft DirectX is a collection of Application programming interfaces (APIs for handling tasks related to Multimedia, especially Game programming and 0 / SM 4. The High Level Shader Language or High Level Shading Language (HLSL is a proprietary Shading language developed by Microsoft for use with the Microsoft 0 support, limiting support to DirectX 9. Microsoft DirectX is a collection of Application programming interfaces (APIs for handling tasks related to Multimedia, especially Game programming and 0c / SM 3. 0 using the more traditional architecture of the previous generation. A high-end variant, the Mobility Radeon HD 2700, with higher core and memory frequencies as the Mobility Radeon HD 2600 was released in mid-December 2007.

The Mobility Radeon HD 2400 is offered in two model variants; the standard HD 2400 and the HD 2400 XT. [11]

The Mobility Radeon HD 2600 is also available in the same two flavours; the plain HD 2600 and at the top of the current mobility lineup the HD 2600 XT. [12]

The half-generation update treatment had also applied to mobile products. Announced prior to CES 2008 is the Mobility Radeon HD 3000 series. The International Consumer Electronics Show (CES is a Trade show held each January in Las Vegas, Nevada, and is sponsored Planned to be released in the first quarter of 2008, the Mobility Radeon HD 3000 series consists of two families, the Mobility Radeon HD 3400 series and the Mobility Radeon HD 3600 series, all featuring DirectX 10. 1 support while the GPU was made on 55 nm process. The Mobility Radeon HD 3600 series also features industry's first implementation of 128-bit GDDR4 memory on-board. GDDR4 SDRAM (Graphics Double Data Rate version 4 is a type of Graphics card memory specified by the JEDEC Semiconductor Memory Standard

About the time of late March to early April, 2008, AMD renewed the device ID list on its website [13] with the inclusion of Mobility Radeon HD 3850 X2 and Mobility Radeon HD 3870 X2 and their respective device IDs. Later in Spring IDF 2008 held in Shanghai, a development board of Mobility Radeon HD 3870 X2 was demonstrated alongside a Centrino 2 platform demonstration system. Intel Developer Forum (IDF is a gathering of technologists to discuss Intel products and products based around Intel products Centrino is a platform- Marketing initiative from Intel. It is not a mobile CPU - rather the term covers a particular combination of mainboard Chipset [14] The Mobility Radeon HD 3870 X2 are based on two M88 GPUs with the addition of a PCI Express bridge chip on a single PCB. The demonstrated development board is on PCI Express 2. 0 x16 bus, while the final product is expected to be on AXIOM/MXM modules. A Mobile PCI Express Module (MXM is an interconnect standard for GPUs ( MXM Graphics Modules) in Laptops using PCI Express created by MXM-SIG

Variants

Radeon HD 2900

The Radeon HD 2900 series was ATI's high-end product with 320 stream processors, spanning a 420 mm² die size. [15] The Radeon HD 2900 XT is the first graphics card product to implement digital PWM onboard, specifically 7-phase PWM. Pulse-width modulation (PWM of a signal or power source involves the Modulation of its Duty cycle, to either convey information over a

The R600 core used in the HD 2900 lacks the ATI Unified Video Decoder (UVD) required for hardware acceleration of certain types of HD video. The Unified Video Decoder, previously called " Universal Video Decoder " or UVD in short is the video decoding unit from ATI Technologies to support [16] Nonetheless, the card is fully capable of playing any HD video format; however, shaders are utilized for the decoding process. Initially there was much confusion as to whether or not the product included dedicated video processor hardware, due in part to statements that it supported the software program AVIVO HD. Many reviewers and subsequent readers/consumers interpreted this as meaning the HD2900 incorporated the same UVD hardware as found in the HD 2400 & HD 2600 series, despite some sites noting this difference at launch time,[17] weeks before the issue first gained traction as a result of a TechReport article. [18] This confusion and subsequent discussions prompted AMD to make a formal statement designed to clarify exactly what UVD was available in which models. [19][20] The HD 2900 XT video playback capabilities are similar to those of the previous X1000 cards with AVIVO capabilities. ATI's "R520" core (codenamed Fudo) is the foundation for a line of DirectX 9 AVIVO is a video platform ATI first introduced with its R520 -based line of GPUs

Starting August, 2007 some system builders including Falcon Northwest received the 1 GB GDDR4 (with Samsung 0. A custom built PC is a computer that is built by using either components at hand or ordering various components to erect a system from scratch Falcon Northwest is a Personal computer manufacturing company located in Medford Oregon, USA which was founded in 1992 by its GDDR4 SDRAM (Graphics Double Data Rate version 4 is a type of Graphics card memory specified by the JEDEC Semiconductor Memory Standard 9 ns (K4U52324QE-BC09) GDDR4) version of the Radeon HD 2900 XT. GDDR4 SDRAM (Graphics Double Data Rate version 4 is a type of Graphics card memory specified by the JEDEC Semiconductor Memory Standard This was incorrectly referred to as the "Radeon HD 2900 XTX". [21]

Variants of the series include the Radeon HD 2900 Pro and the Radeon HD 2900 GT. The Radeon HD 2900 Pro uses the same R600 GPU, but is clocked lower at 600 MHz core and 800 MHz memory (1600 MHz effective). This variant is configured with 512 MB or 1 GB (GDDR3/GDDR4) of video memory and the same 512-bit memory controller as the Radeon HD 2900 XT instead of the previously rumoured 256-bit memory controller. GDDR3, Graphics Double Data Rate 3, is a graphics card-specific memory technology designed by ATI Technologies with the collaboration of JEDEC GDDR4 SDRAM (Graphics Double Data Rate version 4 is a type of Graphics card memory specified by the JEDEC Semiconductor Memory Standard [22] The Radeon HD 2900 GT is a 240 stream processor variant clocked the same as the HD 2900 Pro with 256 MB of video memory on a 256-bit interface.

Radeon HD 2600

The Radeon HD 2600 series is a line of mainstream products with 120 stream processors, GDDR4 support, AVIVO HD with UVD, 128-bit memory ring bus and 4-phase digital PWM,[23] spanning a die size of 153 mm². AVIVO is a video platform ATI first introduced with its R520 -based line of GPUs The Unified Video Decoder, previously called " Universal Video Decoder " or UVD in short is the video decoding unit from ATI Technologies to support [24] Neither the GDDR3 nor GDDR4 reference PCI-E designs require additional power connectors whereas the HD 2600 Pro and XT AGP variants require additional power through either 4-pin or 6-pin power connectors. [25] Official claims state the Radeon HD 2600 series consumes as little as 45 W of power. The watt (symbol W) is the SI derived unit of power, equal to one Joule of energy per Second.

Another variant incorporates two RV630 cores onto a single PCB with a PCI-E bridge splitting the PCI-E x16 bandwidth into two groups of PCI-E x8 lanes (each 2. A printed circuit board, or PCB, is used to mechanically support and electrically connect Electronic components using conductive pathways or traces Not to be confused with PCI-X, a different bus architecture Peripheral Component Interconnect Express, officially abbreviated as PCI-E 0 Gb/s). This functionally provides a CrossFire configuration on one video card with a total of four DVI output (HDMI output via dongle) with HDCP. The High-Definition Multimedia Interface ( HDMI) is a compact audio/video connector interface for transmitting uncompressed digital streams High-bandwidth Digital Content Protection ( HDCP) is a form of digital Copy protection developed by Intel Corporation to prevent copying of digital audio AMD calls this product the "Radeon HD 2600 X2" as seen by some vendors and as observed inside the INF file of Catalyst 7. An INF file (or Setup Information file is a plain text file used by Microsoft Windows for installation of software and drivers 9 version 8. 411. Sapphire and other vendors including PowerColor and GeCube have either announced or demonstrated their respective "Crossfire on a card" products. [26] Catalyst 7. 9 added support for this hardware in September 2007. However, AMD did not provide much publicity to promote it. A vendor may offer cards containing 256 MB, 512 MB, or 1 GB of video memory. Although the memory technology utilized is at a vendor's discretion, most vendors have opted for GDDR3 and DDR2 due to lower manufacturing cost and positioning of this product for the mainstream rather than performance market segment. GDDR3, Graphics Double Data Rate 3, is a graphics card-specific memory technology designed by ATI Technologies with the collaboration of JEDEC

Radeon HD 2400

Low-end products with 40 stream processors with AVIVO HD and UVD, not implemented with a ring bus memory interface, and a 64-bit memory bus width,[23] spanning a die size of 85 mm². AVIVO is a video platform ATI first introduced with its R520 -based line of GPUs [27] The official PCB design implements only a passive cooling heatsink instead of a fan, and official claims of power consumption are as little as 35 W. The RV610 core used in Radeon HD 2400 series has 16 KB unified vertex/texture cache away from dedicated vertex cache and L1/L2 texture cache used in HD 2600 and HD 2900 products.

Reports has that the first batch of the RV610 core (silicon revision A12), only being released to system builders, has a bug that hindered the UVD from working properly, but other parts of the die operated normally. A custom built PC is a computer that is built by using either components at hand or ordering various components to erect a system from scratch The Unified Video Decoder, previously called " Universal Video Decoder " or UVD in short is the video decoding unit from ATI Technologies to support Those products were officially supported with the release of Catalyst 7. 10 driver, which the cards were named as Radeon HD 2350 series. [28]

Radeon HD 3800

Radeon HD 3870
Radeon HD 3870

The Radeon HD 3800 series is based on the RV670 graphics chip, manufactured on a 55 nm fabrication process with 256-bit memory controller, die size at 192 mm² and packed with 666 million transistors,[29] with the same 320 Stream Processing Units as the R600 core. The Radeon HD 3000 series supports DirectX 10. Microsoft DirectX is a collection of Application programming interfaces (APIs for handling tasks related to Multimedia, especially Game programming and 1 and Shader Model 4. The High Level Shader Language or High Level Shading Language (HLSL is a proprietary Shading language developed by Microsoft for use with the Microsoft 1 with double-precision floating-point operations support,[30] the UVD has also been implemented on-die, providing full hardware decoding of VC-1 and H.264 video streams. The Unified Video Decoder, previously called " Universal Video Decoder " or UVD in short is the video decoding unit from ATI Technologies to support VC-1 is the informal name of the SMPTE 421M Video codec standard initially developed by Microsoft. H264 is a standard for Video compression. It is also known as MPEG-4 Part 10, or MPEG-4 AVC (for Advanced Video Coding) AMD claims that the support of DirectX 10. 1 can bring improved performance and processing efficiency with reduced rounding error (0. 5 ulp compared with average error 1. In Computer science, Unit in the Last Place or' Unit of Least Precision (ULP is the gap between two very close Floating-point numbers 0 ulp as tolerable error), better image details and quality, global illumination, a technique used in many animated films such as Shrek 3, and more improvements to consumer gaming systems therefore giving more realistic gaming experience. Global illumination is a general name for a group of Algorithms used in 3D computer graphics that are meant to add more realistic lighting to 3D scenes Shrek the Third, released 6 years after the first ''Shrek'' and 3 years after the second ''Shrek'', is a 2007 Animated film, and the [31] Further, the Radeon HD 3800 series also sees the implementation of power state controller as well as the PowerPlay technology for the desktop graphics, allowing Catalyst Control Center to monitor GPU utilizations and further reduce power draw of the graphics by switching states of the GPU core for different usage scenarios with different performance settings. ATI PowerPlay is a collective name for a set of technologies implemented in a series graphics adapters manufactured by ATI, including Mobility Radeon, Imageon [32]

The Radeon HD 3800 series has one more variant, the Radeon HD 3870 X2 (codenamed R680) released on January 28, 2008, featuring two RV670 cores with a maximum of 1024 MiB GDDR3, targeting the enthusiast market and replacing the Radeon HD 2900 XT, the card implements ATI PowerPlay technology to reduce power consumption and digital PWM, to provide steady current for each GPU core. A mebibyte (a contraction of me ga bi nary byte) is a unit of Information or Computer storage, abbreviated MiB. GDDR3, Graphics Double Data Rate 3, is a graphics card-specific memory technology designed by ATI Technologies with the collaboration of JEDEC ATI PowerPlay is a collective name for a set of technologies implemented in a series graphics adapters manufactured by ATI, including Mobility Radeon, Imageon Pulse-width modulation (PWM of a signal or power source involves the Modulation of its Duty cycle, to either convey information over a The card is able to achieve a peak single-precision floating point performance of just over 1 TFLOPS, at 1. Measuring performance In order for FLOPS to be useful as a measure of floating-point performance a standard benchmark must be available on all computers of interest 06 TFLOPS, being the world's first single-PCB graphics product breaking the 1 TFLOP mark. [33]

The Radeon HD 3870 X2 uses the same approach for communications between the two GPU cores as the previous generations of products, the Sapphire Radeon X1950 Pro Dual and the Radeon HD 2600 X2, the two GPU cores were able to communicate to each other through an onboard PCI-E switch,[34] providing each core with x8 (Radeon X1950 Pro Dual) to x16 (Radeon HD 2600 X2) PCI-E bandwidth and becoming a software CrossFire setup and thus allow to plug in two hardware CrossFire bridges. While the Radeon HD 3870 X2 will implement PEX8547 PCI-E switch,[35] each core sharing x16 PCI-E bandwidth, the card will only see one CrossFire bridge being placed onboard and between the cores, thus only allows one CrossFire bridge to be plugged onto the card. [36]

AMD stated the possibility that the Radeon HD 3870 X2 of supporting four card CrossFire, to reach 8 GPU scalability on several motherboards, including the MSI K9A2 Platinum and Intel D5400XS, due to the fact that these motherboards have sufficient spaces between PCI-E slots for dual-slot cooler video cards, presumably as a combination of two separate hardware CrossFire setups with a software CrossFire setup bridging the two, but currently with no driver support. Intel's Skulltrail is an enthusiast gaming platform that was released on February 19, 2008. [37]

New model numbering scheme

The numbering scheme for Radeon HD 3000 series as well as Mobility Radeon HD 3000 series was notably changed. While previous PRO, XT, GT, and XTX suffixes will be eliminated, products will be differentiated by changing the last two digits of the product model number (for instance, HD 3850 and HD 3870, giving the impression that the HD 3870 model having higher performance than HD 3850). ATI video cards can have one of multiple suffixes attached to their name indicating relative level of performance the use of suffixes was abandoned with the release of Radeon [38] Similar changes to the IGP naming were spotted as well, for the previously launched AMD M690T chipset with side-port memory, the IGP is named "Radeon X1270", while for the AMD 690G chipset, the IGP is named "Radeon X1250", as for AMD 690V chipset, the IGP is clocked lower and having fewer functions and thus named "Radeon X1200". The AMD 690 chipset series is a Chipset family developed and manufactured by AMD subsidiary ATI for the AMD platform The AMD 690 chipset series is a Chipset family developed and manufactured by AMD subsidiary ATI for the AMD platform The AMD 690 chipset series is a Chipset family developed and manufactured by AMD subsidiary ATI for the AMD platform The new numbering scheme of video products are shown below:

Product Category Model number
range (steps of 10)1		 Price range
(USD)		 Shader amount
(VS/PS/SPU)2		 Memory Outputs Product(s)
Type Width
(bit)		 Size (MiB)
Enthusiast
Dual GPU		 800 X2-990 X23 >$250 200% GDDR3,
GDDR4		 2x 256-bit 512/1024 2 DVI,
HDMI, DP (Dongle)		 HD 3870 X2/HD 3850 X2
Enthusiast
/high-end		 800-990 >$150 75-100% GDDR3,
GDDR4		 256-bit 256/512/1024 2 DVI,
HDMI, DP (Dongle)		 HD 3870/3850
Mainstream 600-790 $100–$150 37. The United States dollar ( sign: $; code: USD) is the unit of Currency of the United States; it has also been A shader in the field of Computer graphics is a set of software instructions which is used by the graphic resources primarily to perform rendering effects A pixel shader is a shader program often executed on a Graphics processing unit. A bit is a binary digit, taking a value of either 0 or 1 Binary digits are a basic unit of Information storage and communication A mebibyte (a contraction of me ga bi nary byte) is a unit of Information or Computer storage, abbreviated MiB. GDDR3, Graphics Double Data Rate 3, is a graphics card-specific memory technology designed by ATI Technologies with the collaboration of JEDEC GDDR4 SDRAM (Graphics Double Data Rate version 4 is a type of Graphics card memory specified by the JEDEC Semiconductor Memory Standard The High-Definition Multimedia Interface ( HDMI) is a compact audio/video connector interface for transmitting uncompressed digital streams DisplayPort is a digital display interface standard (approved May 2006 current version 1 The Graphics processing unit (GPU codenamed R600 is the foundation of the Radeon HD 2000/3000 series and the FireGL 2007 series Video GDDR3, Graphics Double Data Rate 3, is a graphics card-specific memory technology designed by ATI Technologies with the collaboration of JEDEC GDDR4 SDRAM (Graphics Double Data Rate version 4 is a type of Graphics card memory specified by the JEDEC Semiconductor Memory Standard The High-Definition Multimedia Interface ( HDMI) is a compact audio/video connector interface for transmitting uncompressed digital streams DisplayPort is a digital display interface standard (approved May 2006 current version 1 The Graphics processing unit (GPU codenamed R600 is the foundation of the Radeon HD 2000/3000 series and the FireGL 2007 series Video 5-75% DDR2,
GDDR3,
GDDR4		 128-bit 128/256/512 D-Sub, DVI
 HD 3650, HD 3690
DVI, 2 DP,
HDMI (Dongle)
Budget/Value 350-590 <$99 25-50% DDR2,
GDDR3		 64-bit 64/128
(HM: 768/1024)		 D-Sub, DVI,
HDMI, DP (Dongle)		 HD 3450/3470
IGP 000-300 N/A 25-50% UMA,
side-port memory
(GDDR2/GDDR3)		 UMA + 32-bit
(side-port) 4		 64/1284 + UMA
(OS dependent)		 D-Sub, DVI,
HDMI, DP
Component (YCbCr)		 X1270/X1250/X1200
HD 3200/HD 3100/2100

Radeon HD 3600

The Radeon HD 3600 series features the RV635 core, the die shrink of the previous generation RV630 core on 55 nm process with 378 million transistors and 120 Stream Processing Units. The term " die shrink " (sometimes " optical shrink " or " process shrink " refers to a simple semiconductor scaling of Semiconductor The Radeon HD 3600 series will see the first GPU supporting DisplayPort natively, a new integrated audio-video interface developed solely to suit the usage of computer systems, but at the same time natively supporting a DVI port. DisplayPort is a digital display interface standard (approved May 2006 current version 1 Features of DisplayPort (abbreviated DP) is the ability of daisy chain multiple monitors using only one connection to only one DP port, while the cable can transmit 8-channel 24-bit audio simultaneously with video. The support for HDMI and D-Sub ports will also be achieved through separate dongles[39]. The High-Definition Multimedia Interface ( HDMI) is a compact audio/video connector interface for transmitting uncompressed digital streams The D-subminiature or D-sub is a common type of Electrical connector used particularly in Computers Calling them "subminiature" was appropriate Beside the DisplayPort implementations, there also exists other display output layouts as dual DVI port or DVI with D-Sub display output layout.

Other features including the implementation of Direct3D 10. 1, AVIVO HD with second generation of UVD and hardware surface tessellation. The Unified Video Decoder, previously called " Universal Video Decoder " or UVD in short is the video decoding unit from ATI Technologies to support One variant, the Radeon HD 3650 was released on January 23, 2008. Reference design with dual DisplayPort and single DVI-D port was revealed [39].

Radeon HD 3400

The Radeon HD 3400 series features the RV620 core, the die shrink of the RV610 core on 55 nm process with 181 million transistors and 40 Stream Processing Units. The products natively support DisplayPort [40] and DVI, with support of HDMI and D-Sub via dongles. DisplayPort is a digital display interface standard (approved May 2006 current version 1 Other features including the implmentation of Direct3D 10. 1, AVIVO HD with second generation of UVD and hardware surface tessellation. Products will be available in full height ATX cards and low profile cards.

One of the notable features is that the Radeon HD 3400 series (including Mobility Radeon HD 3400 series) video cards support ATI Hybrid Graphics. The AMD 700 chipset series (also called as AMD 7-Series Chipsets) is a set of current and upcoming chipsets designed by ATI for AMD Phenom processors [41]

Two variants, the Radeon HD 3450 and Radeon HD 3470 were released on January 23, 2008.

Driver support

Main article: ATI Catalyst Drivers

Windows

The latest driver is package version 8. ATI Catalyst is a utility software driver package for several ATI products for several operating systems 493, Catalyst 8. 5 [42]. New features include component video with 480i and 480p resolutions, SECAM TV output support, 1080p HDTV custom mode via HDMI, 1080p24 (1080p resolution at 24 fps) support, HDMI Audio for non-standard TV modes (CEA 861b), support for adaptive anti-aliasing under OpenGL, Windows XP SP3 support and un-install utility enhancements. This article is about analog component video for the processing of color components in digital video see Digital video, Chroma subsampling and YCbCr 480i is the shorthand name for a video mode The i, which is sometimes uppercase stands for Interlaced, the 480 for a vertical frame resolution 480p is the shorthand name for a video display resolution The p stands for Progressive scan, i SECAM, also written SÉCAM ( Séquentiel couleur à mémoire, French for "Sequential Color with Memory" is an analog color television system High-definition television (HDTV is a Digital television Broadcasting system with higher resolution than traditional television systems (standard-definition OpenGL ( Open G raphics L ibrary is a standard specification defining a cross-language Cross-platform API for writing applications that produce Windows XP is a family of 32-bit and 64-bit Operating systems produced by Microsoft for use on Personal computers including home and The driver also includes performance improvements and fixes some instability issues and rendering issues on some games.

The Purple Pill tool issue, which could allow unsigned drivers to be loaded into Windows Vista and tamper with the operating system kernel,[43] was resolved in the Catalyst 7. Windows Vista (ˈvɪstə is a line of Operating systems developed by Microsoft for use on Personal computers including home and business desktops In Computer science, the kernel is the central component of most computer Operating systems (OS 8 release (version 8. 401). [44] The AVIVO video converter for Windows Vista, and color temperature control in Catalyst Control Center was added with the release of Catalyst 7. AVIVO is a video platform ATI first introduced with its R520 -based line of GPUs Windows Vista (ˈvɪstə is a line of Operating systems developed by Microsoft for use on Personal computers including home and business desktops Color temperature is a characteristic of Visible light that has important applications in lighting photography videography publishing and other fields 9, package version 8. 411. Software CrossFire was enabled for HD 2600 and HD 2400 series video cards with the release of Catalyst 7. 10 (package version 8. 421)

The Catalyst 8. 1, package version 8. 451, supports for MultiView technology for accelerated OpenGL rendering on multiple video card setup (CrossFire). The driver also allows CrossFire configurations for Radeon HD 3850 and HD 3870 video cards. [45][46]

The Catalyst 8. 3 is described by AMD as a milestone release,[47] supporting DirectX 10. 1, ATI CrossFire X technology and allowing the mixing of different Radeon HD 3800 series video cards to form a CrossFire X setup with 2 to 4 GPUs. The AMD 700 chipset series (also called as AMD 7-Series Chipsets) is a set of current and upcoming chipsets designed by ATI for AMD Phenom processors Catalyst 8. 3 introduced to new video controls to further enhance the video playback quality, these controls includes edge enhancement and noise reduction settings. There is also the support for extended desktop in CrossFire X mode. The anti-aliasing support for Unreal Engine 3. 0 in DirectX 9. 0 games, support for CFAA filters (wide tent and box tent) to be enabled when Super AA is enabled, and other features as developer support for Hardware surface tessellation, hardware accelerated wide aspect ratio LCD scaling, HydraVision support for Windows Vista allowing to add maximum 9 virtual desktops and new Folding@Home client (version 6. A tessellation or tiling of the plane is a collection of Plane figures that fills the plane with no overlaps and no gaps Windows Vista (ˈvɪstə is a line of Operating systems developed by Microsoft for use on Personal computers including home and business desktops Folding@home (sometimes abbreviated as FAH or F@h) is a Distributed computing (DC project designed to perform computationally intensive simulations 10) are also officially supported in this release.

Note that Catalyst drivers 7. 10, 7. 11 and 7. 12 do not yet support the AGP versions of Radeon HD 2000 series cards with RIALTO bridge. Installing Catalyst drivers 7. 10, 7. 11 or 7. 12 on those cards will yield the following error message: "setup did not find a driver compatible with your current hardware or operating system. " or trhe setup cannot be completed. As of June 2008, the cards in question are supported unofficially by an hotfix [48]. Their PCI vendor IDs are listed below:[49]

GPU core Product PCI device ID
RV610 Radeon HD 2400 Pro 94C4
RV630 Radeon HD 2600 Pro 9587
RV630 Radeon HD 2600 XT 9586

Linux

The official closed-source ATI Linux driver was named fglrx, then renamed as Catalyst drivers for Linux, currently version 8. fglrx is the name of the Linux display driver used for ATI Radeon and ATI FireGL family video adapters and stands for "FireGL and Radeon 5. [50]

Another Linux driver is the RadeonHD driver, an open-source ATI R500/600 display driver, it is developed in part by specifications that AMD has openly published. To date, AMD has released over register specifications for M56, M76, RV630 and RS690 GPUs and 3D programming guide for R500 and R300 family of GPUs. ATI's "R520" core (codenamed Fudo) is the foundation for a line of DirectX 9 The AMD 690 chipset series is a Chipset family developed and manufactured by AMD subsidiary ATI for the AMD platform [51] AMD has committed to releasing their R500 and R600 GPU documentation along with publishing their specifications for past generations of GPUs. [52]

Chipset table

Main article: Comparison of ATI Graphics Processing Units

See also

References

  1. ^ Radeon HD 2900 product page, last line: "OpenGL 2. This page contains general information about ATI 's GPUs and video cards based on official ATI specifications in table form A video card, also known as a graphics accelerator card, display adapter, or graphics card, is a hardware component whose function is to The GeForce 8 Series is the eighth generation of NVIDIA 's GeForce graphics cards 0 support"
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Wasson, Scott. AMD Radeon HD 2900 XT graphics processor: R600 revealed, Tech Report, May 14, 2007
  3. ^ a b c d e f Beyond3D review: AMD R600 Architecture and GPU Analysis, retrieved June 2, 2007.
  4. ^ a b ExtremeTech review
  5. ^ Witheiler, Matthew. ATi TRUFORM Technology - Powering the next generation Radeon, AnandTech, May 29, 2001.
  6. ^ a b The Future of DirectX presentation, slide 24-29
  7. ^ nVidia GeForce3 SDK WhitePaper
  8. ^ Wilson, Derek. ATI Radeon HD 2900 XT: Calling a Spade a Spade: Multi-GPU Performance - Prey, AnandTech, May 14, 2007.
  9. ^ Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. R600-Family Instruction Set Architecture, X. org website, June 11, 2008.
  10. ^ HD2400 & HD2600 Press release
  11. ^ Mobility Radeon HD 2400 specifications and Mobility Radeon HD 2400 XT specifications
  12. ^ HD 2600 specifications and HD 2600 XT specifications
  13. ^ ATI Vendor ID page
  14. ^ Hexus.net report: Welcome to the world's fastest laptop, brought to you by Intel and ATI, retrieved April 8, 2008
  15. ^ Beyond3D R600 review, retrieved September 25, 2007
  16. ^ AnandTech image showing AVIVO HD consists of UVD and Advanced Video Processor (AVP)
  17. ^ EliteBastards' HD2000 preview, retrieved July 23, 2007.
  18. ^ TechReport UVD article
  19. ^ AMD press release, the third paragraph.
    “ AMD also wishes to clarify any confusion that may exist regarding the presence of the Unified Video Decoder (UVD) in its ATI Radeon HD 2000 series graphics processors. UVD is present in the ATI Mobility Radeon HD 2300, the ATI Radeon HD 2400, and the ATI Radeon HD 2600 series products, but is not present in the ATI Radeon HD 2900 series products as it is not needed due to the usage model of this high end product. ”
     
    — AMD Press release
  20. ^ Huynh, Anh T. & Kubicki, Kristopher. Whoops, ATI Radeon HD 2900 XT Lacks UVD, DailyTech, May 25, 2007.
  21. ^ Falcon Northwest President Blog on 1GB GDDR4 2900 XT
  22. ^ Kowaliski, Cyril. "AMD launches the $249 Radeon HD 2900 Pro", The Tech Report, 2007-09-25. The Tech Report is a web site dedicated to covering the latest trends in computer hardware technology and gaming and is regularly linked to by sites such as Slashdot and Digg Year 2007 ( MMVII) was a Common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar in the 21st century. Events 303 - On a voyage preaching the Gospel, Saint Fermin of Pamplona is beheaded in Amiens, France Retrieved on 2007-09-26. Year 2007 ( MMVII) was a Common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar in the 21st century. Events 46 BC - Julius Caesar dedicates a  
  23. ^ a b AMD official press release
  24. ^ Beyond3D RV630 chip reference, retrieved September 25, 2007
  25. ^ Sapphire HD2K Product Matrix
  26. ^ Beyond3D report, retrieved September 13, 2007
  27. ^ Beyond3D RV610 chip reference, retrieved September 25, 2007
  28. ^ Fudzilla report, retrieved October 31, 2007
  29. ^ a b (Spanish) MadboxPC thread, retrieved November 10, 2007
  30. ^ RV670 Cards & Specs Revealed. VR-Zone (August 22, 2007).
  31. ^ ATI DirectX 10.1 whitepaper, retrieved December 7, 2007
  32. ^ (Spanish) MadboxPC coverage, retrieved November 10, 2007
  33. ^ Hexus.net review, retrieved January 30, 2007
  34. ^ Fudzilla review, retrieved December 7, 2007
  35. ^ PEX8547 product brief, retrieved January 22, 2008
  36. ^ Hexus.net image, retrieved January 30, 2008
  37. ^ Fudzilla report, retrieved November 27, 2007
  38. ^ RV670 is Radeon HD 3800 Series. VR-Zone (October 17, 2007).
  39. ^ a b DailyTech report, retrieved December 7, 2007
  40. ^ AMD official low-profile deisgn with DisplayPort, retrieved January 23, 2008
  41. ^ (Japanese)PC Watch report, retrieved January 23, 2008
  42. ^ Catalyst 8.4 release notes, retrieved April 17, 2008
  43. ^ DailyTech report
  44. ^ The Inquirer report
  45. ^ Fudzilla review, retrieved February 15, 2008
  46. ^ Legit Reviews review, retrieved February 15, 2008
  47. ^ Catalyst 8.3 release notes, retrieved March 5, 2008
  48. ^ Unofficial AGP support in Catalyst 7.9 and above
  49. ^ guru3D discussion thread
  50. ^ Linux Catalyst 8.5 release notes
  51. ^ AMD Open GPU documentations page, retrieved February 13, 2008
  52. ^ Phoronix report

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