Posted on Sunday, January 02 2011 @ 21:41 CET by Thomas De Maesschalck
TechPowerUp
writes AMD's Radeon HD 6900 series will reportedly be revised to feature Texas Instruments' driver-MOSFETS. Current cards use Volterra chips because TI was unable to deliver enough driver-MOSFETs (DrMOS) but now that the supply issues are over AMD has the opportunity to use these cheaper, yet higher-performance chips for the Radeon HD 6900 cards.
AMD is reported to have used expensive Volterra-made digital PWM chippery in a last-ditch effort to release the Radeon HD 6900 series in time for the X'mas shopping season, after TI-made VRM components couldn't make it to foundry-partners in time (which caused the launch delay in November, 2010). The redesigned PCB with its new TI-made driver-MOSFETs (DrMOS) could also present an opportunity for AMD to patch the Radeon HD 6950, making stream processor unlocking using BIOS flash impossible, notes the source.
