As I discovered over The Inquirer today ATI’s forthcoming R350 and RV350 processors have been recently taped-out at TSMC’s fabs. According to the media source, the R350 graphics processor is manufactured using 0.15 micron process, just like we revealed a week ago (see this news-story), while the RV350 chip is made using advanced 0.13 micron technology.

R350 graphics processor is based on the R300 architecture, but with certain optimisations that allow higher core-clock speed. According to rumours, the R350 VPU incorporates 8 rendering pipelines with two texture units per pipeline, hence, there will be sixteen TMUs in this chip. Graphics cards powered by the R350 VPU will be equipped with DDR-II memory with 256-bit bus. Actual products powered by the upcoming processor will appear in Spring 2003.

RV350 VPU is said to be the next-generation mainstream offering and will also based on the R300 architecture. There is no information about its technical specifications, though, some expect it to show performance comparable to than that of the RADEON 9700. Given thinner manufacturing process and simplified architecture, the RV350 should be cheaper compared to its elder brethren with equal performance. We can expect the mobile version of the RV350 to be available shortly after the release. The availability timeframes of the part are unknown.

With the tape out now complete we may expect ATI to meet the expectations and launch the R350 based products sometimes in March. I do not believe that the company will unveil its RV350 earlier than in Summer, hence, the company will have a lot of time to optimise its next-generation mainstream VPU. As for the R350, honestly speaking, there is not a lot of time left for ATI to fully finalise the VPU.