Nvidia Unveils Specs for Potent GB10 Combi-Processor for Mini PCs

The Nvidia DGX Spark workstation, unveiled at CES, has been making waves in the tech industry. At the heart of this powerful machine lies a unique processor, the GB10, which was initially detailed at CES but its dielet partitioning was revealed at the Hot Chips conference.

The GB10 processor is a remarkable piece of engineering, consisting of two dielets: one for the GPU, dubbed the G-dielet, and one for the system-on-chip (SoC), known as the S-dielet.

The G-dielet, produced by Nvidia, contains a graphics unit of the Blackwell generation with 5th generation Tensor cores. It supports DLSS 4, ray tracing, and offers 32 teraflops for CUDA computing tasks. Additionally, it includes video decoders and encoders.

On the other hand, the SoC dielet is a contract manufacturing job from MediaTek. It incorporates function blocks from MediaTek and other sources, including Nvidia's NVLink interface and ARM cores. The SoC dielet includes 20 ARM cores, combined in two clusters of ten cores each, with 16 MB of shared level 3 cache per cluster and 16 MB of system-level cache. It also features a PCI Express controller for external system components, a display controller for HDMI and DisplayPort outputs, a USB controller, two security controllers, and a firmware TPM.

However, the journey of the DGX Spark workstation hasn't been without its challenges. There have been issues with the CPU cores and chip errors, including a major bug in the display controller that required rework and new exposure masks. The delivery of DGX Spark pre-orders has been delayed, and neither Nvidia nor partners have shipped anything yet.

One of the significant challenges facing the DGX Spark workstation is its compatibility with Windows 11. Currently, Windows 11 doesn't support true Unified Memory like Linux does, causing issues for certain systems like AMD's Strix Halo alias Ryzen AI 300 Max. Only Microsoft can resolve this issue in Windows 11.

Notebook manufacturers producing systems with the GB10 processor, the offshoot of the DGX Spark workstation intended for gaming notebooks, will need to build two power supplies on their individual mainboards, which is expensive and space-consuming.

In a positive development, Microsoft will be involved in creating suitable drivers for Windows support on the N1X, as it's the first ARM processor for Windows 11 not from Qualcomm. This collaboration is expected to improve the compatibility of the GB10 processor with Windows 11.

The connection between the GPU and SoC dielets is via Nvidia's proprietary NVLink-C2C, capable of up to 600 GB/s. This high-speed interconnect is a testament to Nvidia's commitment to delivering seamless performance in their cutting-edge products.

As the GB10 processor and the DGX Spark workstation continue to evolve, they promise to push the boundaries of what is possible in high-performance computing and gaming. The challenges faced so far are a testament to the complexity of such innovations, but with the ongoing efforts of Nvidia and its partners, we can expect to see these issues resolved in the near future.