Standard chip development usually spans two years, involving multiple revisions to identify and fix bugs after a chip “tape-out,” when a finalized chip design is sent for prototype manufacturing. The NV1, for example, had three or four physical tape-outs. Nvidia could afford just one physical tape-out for the NV3 before the company had to send it to production. To shorten the timeline, Nvidia would have to shorten the testing cycle.
