Nvidia's next-gen GPUs may honor British mathematician Ada Lovelace

Nvidia might be delaying its latest multi-chip GPU, codenamed Hopper, to bring a new single-chip GPU architecture series to market first that will apparently honor the pioneering British mathematician Ada King, Lady of Lovelace, who is credited as writing the world first computer program in 1843.

Codenamed Lovelace, the forthcoming GPU architecture will feature Nvidia's latest 5nm design, meaning that both Samsung and TSMC could manufacture the die. That said, it's unclear whether either have secured a contract to do so or if the new architecture is even at that stage of development yet.

A fairly reliable source for Nvidia news online, kopite7kimi, wrote earlier this month about the delay of Hopper and the possible rewriting of Nvidia's planned GPU roadmap. 

The multi-chip Hopper architecture - named after another computer science pioneer, Grace Hopper - is more likely destined for the high performance computing market which took a hit in 2020 due to the coronavirus pandemic, though that doesn't necessarily mean that this is the cause of the rumored delay. 

Likewise, it isn't known whether Lovelace is destined for the gaming GPU market or not, but it's very likely to be on Nvidia's gaming GPU roadmap, according to Videocardz. Still, without an official announcement from Nvidia, it's largely just speculation at this point. 

• AMD vs Nvidia: who makes the best graphics cards
• These are the best graphics cards of 2020
• Nvidia might beat AMD in GPU stock thanks to new Samsung deal

Who is Ada Lovelace?

If Nvidia does name its next consumer-market GPU architecture after Ada Lovelace, it would be a fitting tribute to a computer pioneer who went unrecognized for over a century after her death.

A brilliant mathematician, Lovelace published an algorithm in 1843 describing how Charles Babbage's proposed Analytical Engine - the world's first mechanical computer (as we understand that term today) - that could be used to compute Bernoulli numbers. 

Her algorithm is now widely considered the world's first computer program, making her the world's first computer programmer, though she is still largely unknown outside of computer science departments around the world.

And while Nvidia lists her along with Hopper and Margaret Hamilton on its "Company of Heroes" t-shirt, we hope Nvidia's recognition of Lovelace's contribution doesn't end there.

• Stay up to date on all the latest tech news with the TechRadar newsletter