According to this story over at Digitimes, AMD has already taped out (completed design and circuit testing) on the next generation graphics core known as the RV740.  It is built on TSMC’s newest 40nm process technology and I must say I was surprised to find the technology was mature enough to actually compete a design from ATI before 2009. 

There is also a report in the same story that NVIDIA’s GT212 GPU will utilize the 40nm process sometime in mid-2009.

Tape-out of AMD’s 40nm RV740 GPU is reported complete and the company will start mass production by the end of first quarter next year at Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC), according to a Chinese-language Commercial Times report.

In other news, Nvidia’s 40nm GT212 GPU is expected to complete its tape-out at the beginning of 2009, and mass production is scheduled for the second quarter. Nvidia’s next-generation GT216 and GT300 GPUs will also transition to a 40nm process in mid or late 2009, added the paper.