AMD 28nm graphics chips being tested already

The interim CEO of AMD has announced recently that AMD have functioning 28nm samples of GPU chips based on the "Southern Islands" HD 7000 series architecture, which is a 28nm fabrication process and is highly likely to be based on the PCI-E 3.0 interface. The chips are reportedly being produced by "Global Foundries" as they have a lot of information on their website about it and have been heavily linked with these sample productions. Apparently the chips will be ready by the end of 2011, but obviously won't be developed into retail video cards until 2012.

This comes as a surprise to many as most market analysts had expected the company TSMC to produce the 28nm chips for AMD but now it seems that both companies (TSMC and Global Foundries) will be producing the chips which seems like an expensive option. So far we know that there will be three AMD 28nm cores codenamed: "Thames", "Lombok" and "Tahiti". It is believed the first GPUs to hit the market will be entry and mid range cards as AMD is reportedly taking its time to perfect the high end and dual GPU cards to make sure it can compete with the 28nm Nvidia equivalents.