GeForce 8 series

The GeForce 8 Series is the eighth generation of NVIDIA's GeForce line of graphics processing units. The third major GPU architecture developed by Nvidia, Tesla (microarchitecture) represents the company's first unified shader architecture.

GeForce 8 Series overview

All GeForce 8 Series products are based on Tesla (microarchitecture).

Max resolution

Dual Dual-link DVI Support: Able to drive two flat-panel displays up to 2560×1600 resolution. Available on select GeForce 8800 and 8600 GPUs.

One Dual-link DVI Support: Able to drive one flat-panel display up to 2560×1600 resolution. Available on select GeForce 8500 GPUs and GeForce 8400 GS cards based on the G98.

One Single-link DVI Support: Able to drive one flat-panel display up to 1920×1200 resolution. Available on select GeForce 8400 GPUs. GeForce 8400 GS cards based on the G86 only support single-link DVI.

Display capabilities

The GeForce 8 series supports 10-bit per channel display output, up from 8-bit on previous NVIDIA cards. This potentially allows higher fidelity color representation and separation on capable displays. The GeForce 8 series, like its recent predecessors, also supports Scalable Link Interface (SLI) for multiple installed cards to act as one via an SLI Bridge, so long as they are of similar architecture.

GeForce 200 series

The GeForce 200 Series is the 10th generation of Nvidia's GeForce graphics processing units, still based on the Tesla (microarchitecture) (GT-codenamed chips), named after the inventor and physicist Nikola Tesla.

Architecture

The GeForce 200 Series introduces Nvidia's second generation of Tesla (microarchitecture), Nvidia's unified shader architecture; the first major update to it since introduced with the GeForce 8 Series.

The GeForce GTX 280 and GTX 260 are based on the same processor core. During the manufacturing process, GTX chips are binned and separated through defect testing of the core's logic functionality. Those that fail to meet the GTX 280 hardware specification are re-tested and binned as GTX 260 (which is specified with fewer stream processors, less ROPs and a narrower memory bus).

In late 2008, Nvidia re-released the GTX 260 with 216 stream processors, up from 192. Effectively, there were two GTX 260 cards in production with non-trivial performance differences.

Genetically modified soybean

A genetically modified soybean is a soybean (Glycine max) that has had DNA introduced into it using genetic engineering techniques. In 1994 the first genetically modified soybean was introduced to the U.S. market, by Monsanto. Soy is a widely planted genetically modified crop that is used to produce genetically modified food.

Genetic modification in plants

To modify a soybean’s genetic makeup, the gene to be introduced into the soybean must first be isolated. If the gene does not display an obvious phenotype, or visible characteristic, a marker gene must be linked to it so the modified cells and unmodified cells can be distinguished. According to Dr. Peter Celec, a professor in the Slovakian Comenius University’s Department of Molecular Biology, the “marker genes typically confer resistance to a selective agent, often an antibiotic,” so the unmodified cells can easily be killed off to leave only modified cells behind, and the “other [gene] is meant to confer a desirable phenotype, which is often agronomic (herbicide, pest, stress resistance) or related to food quality (shelf-life, taste, nutritional value).” Once the gene to be put into the soybean’s DNA is isolated, there are several ways to insert the gene, though the most popular are by “biolistics,” by using Agrobacterium, and by electroporation.