Lately whenever 3Dfx announces something the whole world waits for the other shoe to drop at nVidia. Creators of the Riva 128, 128ZX and TNT, nVidia has been making a real game out of kicking 3Dfx in the butt every time they get a little lax on new product development. This year's Comdex found nVidia confident and pleased in the way things have developed with their product line and sales, boasting even that their Riva 128ZX is still one of the top three best selling chips on the planet.
nVidia's big Comdex announcement was one designed to increase certain portions of their business outside of the hardcore gaming niche.
Named "Vanta", the next chip from nVidia is targeted at the large market that's comprised of OEM sales. One of the key themes we saw at this year's Comdex was the pursuit of tier 1 and tier 2 OEM vendors. By integrating high-end audio and video on a low cost mainboard, PC vendors can throw together a PC that performs comparatively to those that cost much higher. The Vanta is a very powerful low cost option for the inclusion on mainboards, and competes well with its intended competition.
The Vanta itself gives a hint towards what we should expect from nVidia for the future of the TNT. First, a die-shrink to .25 micron has allowed for costs to be reduced on the part to the point where the chip is below $24 in 10K blocks. This is important as the integration market dictates extremely low costs and high volume production. Added in with the .25 die-shrink, the Vanta offers a slight clock speed increase versus a standard TNT. nVidia's brass wouldn't tell us the exact amount, but from the tone of the conversation it seems that a 10 or 15MHz boost up from the TNT's 90MHz base seems likely. This would be relatively easy to hit at the Vanta's .25 die size, and would still allow the high quantity yield rate that's required when talking about these types of OEM parts.
The Vanta isn't really big news for gamers, but it is good news for OEMs, who now have a powerful option other than the ATi Rage 128 GL or S3 Savage3D to choose from.
