Thanks OrangeSoul for the news! :)
IT MIGHT be the only chip capable of doing H.264 video in hardware for a while, as we believe that not even Nvidia G70 will be able to do this. H.264 is next generation codec used for HD-DVD content. Despite that we heard more than once that R520 aka Fudo is the biggest chip ever built.
R520 was showed in Taiwan and it's up and running, showcasing two games, PREY and Alan Wake at ATI booth and doing some H.264 video decoding at a different corner.
We learned that R520 might be quite hot as it is the biggest chip ever with its 300+ millions transistors. Since its 90 nanometre its kind of logical that you can place quite a lot of pipelines under its hood and it turns out that ATI has managed to pack in 32 pipes. Having 32 happy Scottish chaps in kilts playing the pipes at the same time is perhaps the best metaphor.
News source: The Inquirer
