Nvidia's mainstream Fermi generation got cancelled. It's not tragic, as the promising GF104 architecture takes over and Nvidia's future mainstream as well as entry level chips will be based on this improved architecture.

There are two chips to come after the GF104, the GF106 and finally the cheapest and slowest GF108.

Both of these chips are expected for back to school so Nvidia can have the final DirectX 11 portfolio ready for August, just before the start of the shopping spree in western hemisphere.

The chips based on Fermi that were supposed to have two times or four times fewer shaders have been cancelled due to high TDPs and the fact that the GF104, Nvidia's new chip architecture, was brought in earlier than expected. You can view a performance chip as ½ of the original high end design and entry level as ¼ of the original big chip.

The GF104 is coming to the rescue, but despite it Nvidia will be some six month behind ATI on the mainstream and performance front.

Still some customers will wait for Nvidia and we are hearing that notebook manufactures are very excited about GF104 and its derivatives.