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Intel reveals details of Larrabee graphics chip
New GPU will be compatible with DirectX and OpenGL
Larrabee has been the subject of much debate since Intel’s CEO, Paul Otellini casually said that it would move the company 'into discrete graphics' at the Intel Developer Forum last year. Until now, all we knew was that it was going to feature multiple x86 cores, and many assumed that it was going to push ray tracing into the mainstream. However, Intel has now finally given us some more details on the mysterious new chip.
Featuring many IA++ (Intel Architecture - basically x86) cores, Intel claims that Larrabee will be scalable to TeraFlops of processing power, while Intel’s new vector instruction set is capable of both floating point and integer calculations. As well as this, Intel says the chip will feature a new cache architecture, although no details of this have been specified yet.
What’s interesting is that Intel sees Larrabee as a strong alternative to today’s traditional GPUs. In a presentation slide shown at a US press conference yesterday, Intel listed ‘triangle/rasterisation’ and ‘rigid pipeline architecture’ as problems with today’s GPUs. However, it listed ‘life-like Rendering e.g. Global Illumination’ as a benefit of Larrabee.
Considering that Global Illumination is a part of DirectX 10.1, and is supported by ATI’s latest Radeon HD 3000-series GPUs, which also feature multiple stream processors rather than traditional pixel pipelines, you could think of this as pretty rich. However, the fact that the cores are based on Intel’s x86 architecture with a new vector processing unit, rather than being simple scalar stream processors, could mean that the chip is capable of some impressive calculations.
One example is physics, and Intel claims that current mainstream graphics cards are ‘inefficient for non-graphics computing’ such as this. Intel sees the programmable and ubiquitous nature of the x86 cores as a big benefit of Larrabee over traditional GPUs, although the company also says that Larrabee will function with DirectX and OpenGL, so it will still need to be able to perform traditional rasterisation in games.
There’s still a lot that we don’t know about Larrabee, but it’s now clear that Intel is taking the gaming graphics market very seriously, and that it plans on shaking up the traditional GPU architecture. Could Intel take on Nvidia and ATI in the graphics business, and are current GPUs too limited? Let us know your thoughts.
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Imagine if it changed the way graphics cards could be augmented. Fitting new cpus to the graphics board and more ram dimms vs now with the disposable card. Maybe even software architecture with a pure processing emphisis. If all components on the system worked like this then performance would be based purly on a combined processing power for all components. Infact if you had a software controlled superchip that could perform an almost unlimited number of functions depending on requirements. But hey thats way off yet...... lol
Comment by AceTelekinesis at 1:19am 28th May 2008
Imagine if it changed the way graphics cards could be augmented. Fitting new cpus to the graphics board and more ram dimms vs now with the disposable card. Maybe even software architecture with a pure processing emphisis. If all components on the system worked like this then performance would be based purly on a combined processing power for all components. Infact if you had a software controlled superchip that could perform an almost unlimited number of functions depending on requirements. But hey thats way off yet...... lol
Comment by AceTelekinesis at 1:19am 28th May 2008
in theroy, if intel managed to do this and have highend graphics and cpu combined as well as amd, this could skrew nvidia!!!!! i no they wanted to buy amd or mentioned bein intrested in it, meaning nvidia havnt perfected a cpu yet. this could be a problem!!!!! come NVIDIAAA!!!!!!! i brought ur 8800 dont fail me now! lol
Comment by unrealfarcry at 3:16pm 25th March 2008
in theroy, if intel managed to do this and have highend graphics and cpu combined as well as amd, this could skrew nvidia!!!!! i no they wanted to buy amd or mentioned bein intrested in it, meaning nvidia havnt perfected a cpu yet. this could be a problem!!!!! come NVIDIAAA!!!!!!! i brought ur 8800 dont fail me now! lol
Comment by unrealfarcry at 3:16pm 25th March 2008
Now dont get me wrong here I am no company's fan boy,,,but! I really hope intel start making some high end GPU's. Firstly this will drive up competition in the G card industries leeding to better product's and preventing company's like N vid sitting on there new tecknologys!!!! Also it will bring about more competative prices. The only thing we DON'T want is for these knew products from intel to be so good that they kill Nvid and ati, then we'd be back to where we started . With one huge dominating company able to set it's prices and release dates as it pleases!!!
Comment by ramos001 at 2:09pm 21st March 2008
this might actually take us a step closer to being forced to have a certain setup we use for our systems, so it will no longer be a custom setup, the only choice we will have would be whether we go Intel, Nvidia or AMD, with Nvidia planning on developing CPU's and this going on and AMD already developing graphics, it'll be almost impossible to combine these setups from the other manufacturers... think about it... so in the end, i dont think i am going to be enthusiastic about this because i want the abillity to CHOOSE my setup
Comment by NikoBellic at 7:54pm 19th March 2008
I think intel will take the best of ati's nvidia's tech and from this will rise larrabee. Then many lawsuits to follow! Just like there core and next cpu's. ;-p
Comment by lord2999 at 7:49am 19th March 2008
this sounds very interesting if it truly is based on x86 processors then in non graphics applications it could be configured to augment the standard CPU and if they have a build in version it could then be configured that way if a person adds an Nvidia or ATI card or might even make it easier for multi GPU i.e. have a built in one and ad any other card to augment it just building power rather than having to have matched cards
Comment by wonkothesane at 4:36pm 19th March 2008
I honestly hope this works out... the graphics market could do with a shakedown... especially in the physics department.
Comment by NewParadigm at 1:36pm 19th March 2008
I seem to remember words to the same effect when Sony first announced its foray in to the console market with the Playstation and again when Microsoft joined in. A company as big as Intel can succeed in any market if they invest the resources in to it and they will only do that if they see a large (EXTREMELY LARGE) profit potential. I seem to remember Microsoft saying that they did not expect to be a major player in the console market until at least their 3rd or even 4th generation console... But as with anything else... I\'ll wait and see and decide when it hits the shops... after all, who would go out and buy a physics card now?
Comment by PokerMuppet at 4:01am 19th March 2008
it is not in intel's nature to be innovative, they take the pre-existing technology and accelerate it's natural progression. and these idea's arn't that great, as i understand it these will just be multi-core cpu's with a new arcitecture for better video processing. if i am right they will probably just be heavily modified core 2's. this is not a market that intel can suceed in, they will probably scale it all back to mid-range integrated graphics after they get their ass's handed to them by ati and nvidia.
Comment by yougotkicked at 9:11pm 18th March 2008
they have now chance of competing with Nvidia or ATI... they are just, and always will be, simple office systems, which may run aero at full settings, and maybe a Low Quality HD movie here or there... but never ever will they compete with Nvidia
Comment by NikoBellic at 8:36pm 18th March 2008
Fear not, Ati are in no risk of sinking at all... They still have 30% market share, and seem to be clawing thier way back.
Comment by NotFred at 5:25pm 18th March 2008
That they can stop Nvidia from totally dominating if ATi sink without a trace. I can't stand the thought of the prices we might see otherwise.
Comment by Nemiro at 5:17pm 18th March 2008
totaly agree with ben, this could push some serious calculations about if it works as good as they hope, also if they are x86 based chips i take it they might be able to be used for other apps like f@h, if they play it right then they maybe able to use them for a processing boost when not in games after all pretty much everthing can use x86 based architecture.
Comment by MDK_UK at 4:17pm 18th March 2008
Sounds very rich to me, just slagging off current gpus and saying they're better without any real evidence. I reckon this will be useful for basic office systems with integrated graphics and allow them to take full advantage of aero, but I doubt it'll put much if any of a dent on the gaming graphics industry.
Comment by TWeaKoR at 3:54pm 18th March 2008
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