Digitimes reports that in order to get more chips out of a wafer, increase yields, and hopefully reduce the cost of production, Nvidia is expected to go to a 55nm process in the second half of this year, and is actually expected to have 4-5 new GPU's being produced on that 55nm process by the end of the third quarter of this current year.

Nvidia and AMD are also both expected to complete the tapeout of some 40nm parts by the end of the year - it will be interesting to see who gets the first working 40nm parts to market.

Apparently Nvidia's GT200 and G92b GPU's have already been "ported" to the 55nm process and the mid-range G96, expected to launch by mid July, will be made in both 65nm and 55nm varieties. Upcoming G94b, G96b, and G98b GPU's scheduled for post-August launch will be 55nm parts.

The die shrink from 65nm to 55nm is expected to lower costs by approximately 20%, and will also lower power consumption and will also likely allow for an increase of clock speeds.