Samsung has announced an increase in the volume of memory output HBM2 type just before the formal announcement of the graphics solutions of the AMD Vega family. As we later managed to confirm, Vega GPUs are really equipped with Samsung's HBM2 memory. Now we can assume that NVIDIA also left SK Hynix "on the sidelines" when choosing a supplier of HBM2 for the accelerators of Volta calculations.
The launch of mass production of such a large monolithic processor (211 billion transistors on an area of 815 square meters) required large material costs, as the head of NVIDIA admitted yesterday. At the first stages, the output levels of the products are far from the targets, and there are "other difficulties". According to him, the cost of producing one Volta generation accelerator ranges from a few hundred dollars to a thousand. For this reason, the selling price is unlikely to be lower. However, the founder of the company immediately adds that each Volta accelerator allows you to save hundreds of dollars. At least in terms of computing performance. Volta turned out to be 100 times faster than Kepler, which came out four years ago, and Kepler was already ten times faster than the central processors.
In short, in matters of pricing, if it comes to Volta, the CEO of NVIDIA shows calm, and argues that "the price will be favorable." We emphasize that for the time being we are talking only about accelerators of computations, and not game video cards. Volta head of the company considers the most difficult processor ever created, and is very proud of the team of specialists who worked on it.
During the year, NVIDIA's revenue in the data center solutions sector grew by 175%, but the company's management refuses to determine the degree of Volta's influence on the progress in financial performance. While NVIDIA is simply happy that the Volta release is streamed. In sufficient quantities, as the founder of the company underlines.