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Intel unveils Larrabee details
The most fascinating graphics product since the original 3D accelerators
You can now stop counting down the days to Siggraph on your calendar, as Intel has finally unveiled the truth about its Larrabee graphics architecture, and it’s completely different from any GPU we’ve ever seen.
The first feature worthy of note is that Larrabee is indeed based on several original Pentium cores, as we reported last month. Of course, the Pentium cores have had a bit of souping up since last decade, and Larrabee’s cores will also feature a 16-wide vector unit, 64-bit extensions, a sophisticated prefetching system and the ability to execute four threads.
Each core will not only feature a wide vector unit, but it will also feature a scalar processing unit. As well as this, each core will have access to a huge pool of Level 2 cache, and the chip will feature a ring bus memory system, much like ATI’s GPUs.
Hardware intricacies aside, though, the major shocker with Larrabee is its graphics pipeline. Those of you who are old enough to remember playing first person shooters before the first 3D accelerators turned up may rightly start backing into a corner at the mention of ‘software rendering,’ but this is precisely what Intel has planned for Larrabee.
The advantage of this, according to Intel, is that every stage of the pipeline is completely programmable. Currently, only the geometry shading, pixel shading and vertex shading stages are programmable on a current GPU architecture, but Larrabee’s software-orientated architecture will mean that the rasterisation, primitive setup and frame buffer blend stages are also fully programmable.
This means that Larrabee will not only be completely compatible with DirectX and OpenGL, but that it can also be easily opened up to other new APIs with its x86-based architecture. On top of this, it could also theoretically work with future versions of DirectX via a software update, without having to upgrade your hardware. However, Intel has also added a few fixed function blocks to the Larrabee architecture for features such as texture filtering.
Intel has also outlined a few of Larrabee’s potential 3D visual benefits, which include an ‘irregular Z-buffer’ that results in clean, non-jagged edges of shadows. Intel also claims that Larrabee’s ability to process multiple layers could result in more accurate transparency effects, and provided the example of seeing post-processing effects, such as fog, through transparent surface such as a dragon’s wing.
One feature Larrabee does have in common with current GPUs, however, is the ability to scale well as more cores are added. According to Intel’s own test results, F.E.A.R., Gears of War and Half-Life 2: Episode 2 all pretty much doubled their frame rate as the number of cores doubled, up to a total of 64 cores. Intel hasn’t confirmed how many cores Larrabee will feature, or whether dual-graphics card configurations will be available to take further advantage of this. However, we asked Intel’s Nick Knupffer about the ability to chain together Larrabee cards, and he told Custom PC that ‘you should expect the sort of features that are in high-end GPUs will still be the kinds of features that Larrabee will support.’ Basically, it’s not a confirmation, but it looks likely.
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You all must be mad, sounds fantastic to me, as for a new approach if it works better ,cheaper, harder,faster and cooler then i myself will love it the more compatition for nvidia and the like the better.Iremember the pentium 4 very well, it was faster than any other chips for a long time or so it seemed i for one am glad to see them doing what they used to do best,LOOKING FORWARD TO IT :).
Comment by jmcgartland at 3:38pm 8th August 2008
Pentium was never competitive in terms of processing power per transistor, it wastes time and energy maintaining compatibility with processors that are 30 years old. So why on earth use it for an application where compatibility offers so little advantage? I can understand Intel wanting to compete with Cell, but not why they believe they can do so under this kind of handicap.
Comment by kingpin2 at 2:06pm 8th August 2008
"Can I just point out tht I broke the pentium-cores-in-Larrabee story back in June 2007. Yes! June 2007! But nobody cares, sob!" - You're right. Nobody cares. :) If you had broken the news with "larrabee uses secret military pentium design rumoured to contain subliminal mind altering code" then people might have listened. :)
Comment by feathers633 at 2:59pm 6th August 2008
Can I just point out tht I broke the pentium-cores-in-Larrabee story back in June 2007. Yes! June 2007! But nobody cares, sob!
Comment by jeremy at 1:52pm 6th August 2008
hmm.. i still think they shoulda gotten some SPARC cpus instead.. while theyre at it, add an HDD, some ram, install Solaris and run a web server AT THE SAME TIME! while playing doom 95.
Comment by thegreat0mi at 8:50am 5th August 2008
IT could have more than 64 cores and it would produce negligeble heat since the vast die shrink.
Comment by eddie543 at 12:39am 5th August 2008
But we dont care about the mumble jumble bumble fumble. We want to know: FPS on 3 versions that they have or equivilant. We want to know the size, power, power needed, and basic tech specs. We dont care on scaling. What is it... We hear all this crap and we know nothing. This better be something good Intel or im going to kick you harder than i would like to kick amd. And in somewhere not so pleasant either!
Comment by Lightning_Pete at 10:14pm 4th August 2008
um my gpu have 128 stream processors and its cooled by just 1 fan. Old P2s had chips big enough to use as door stops. I think when they say old P2's they wont be getting them out of old Dell and Gateways they will be manufactured at when do intel use these days 45nm or something. heat density will be high but nothing a good twin slot cannot handle one would hope. As for ray tracing doesn't the artical say the sky is the limit you can do anything you want with the gpu type. (still have to agree with who ever said that it still does not sound like enough grunt for more than say 320x240 screen size.)
Comment by Cool_CR at 9:22pm 4th August 2008
"hmm no real-time ray-tracing mentioned because...it takes bloody ages. an 800-frame sequence takes 13hrs to ray-trace using 6 machines." Well there is already a raytraced Quake! http://www.idfun.de/temp/q4rt/ From previous news reports it seems that intel had the intention of using larrabee for realtime raytraced gaming. Of course studio quality 3d raytracing will take many hours and many processors but a game engine will always cut corners to speedup rendering time. OpenRT is a project to bring realtime raytraced graphics to desktop computers. http://www.pcper.com/article.php?aid=334 http://www.idfun.de/temp/q4rt/
Comment by feathers633 at 8:20pm 4th August 2008
I was going to say that. Of course Intel aren't going to use the same manufacturing process to make these larrabee cores! The original pentiums were based on processes ranging from 250nm to 800nm! That's a hugely ancient process, and I'm sure by scaling the cores down to a decent size (I'm sure by then it'll be either 45 or 32nm depending on when nehalem's die shrink is getting launched) they can make the architecture FAR more power efficient and much cooler running. Plus they never said there would be 64 cores on one card, they just said they tested scaling to that many cores. There may only be 16 or so cores per top of the range card... I for one can't wait to see what this does for gaming. I'm also interested in Nvidia and ATI's reactions to this news, as well as what they are going to do to compete with it (if it's as good as it's supposed to be).
Comment by RedHotsRule549 at 8:04pm 4th August 2008
just how long do you have 2 wait for the change getting that blog removed was fast posted at 5 + pm removed 7 + pm or was it just moved over 2 a secret posting spot . jj7
Comment by kingjohn721 at 7:12pm 4th August 2008
no real-time ray-tracing mentioned because...it takes bloody ages. an 800-frame sequence takes 13hrs to ray-trace using 6 machines. Even with 64 cores on a larrybird and 4 cores in your cpu, it won't be anywhere what you'd consider playable. If the cores are fully programmable then yes larrybird could come in handy for people who do CG work to cut down render times - yes, ratracing single frames, so it could be possible to turn your home PC into a renderfarm (which I would find very handy). however, I'm not coninced by the graph that's in this article. listing three games (none of which are in the same hardware-hungry league as crysis etc) and saying"look, performance goes up when we add more cores without giving specific frame rates is a bit iffy
Comment by EdArch at 6:23pm 4th August 2008
Dream has come true if all goes to plan as they say.
Comment by Drake at 4:17pm 4th August 2008
with them being massively downsized chips they will generate little heat at 45 nm
Comment by eddie543 at 4:18pm 4th August 2008
The words "Software" and "Rendering" strike fear into me ... not to mention the nightmares I will have tonight regarding critically low FPS. Crysis in Software mode anyone? As C7ouD said - we will see. Let's see some comparisons asap!
Comment by CSQuake at 4:17pm 4th August 2008
To outperform current GPU's and offer something new: raytracing. If all the larrabee does is provide a more flexible architecture then perhaps it won't be as revolutionary as we were led to believe. I would expect more than softer shadows and nice AA on larabee. Realtime raytracing would be something new and groundbreaking on a mainstream graphics card. I can see the x86 architecture does give it a big advantage over current GPU design though. It stands to reason the card would have to be direct-x compatible and therefore compatible with previous games. It's not necessary to test every single game! :)
Comment by feathers633 at 12:52pm 4th August 2008
Intel has said Larrabee will support rasterisation/DirectX for games
Comment by Sifter3000 at 11:47am 4th August 2008
I thought Larabee wasn't compatible with current rasterisation games. Is than in correct? Can Larabee play every current game on the market through software? I'm assuming so if they tested all those games. If it can play existing games, then as long as it performs as well as current GPU's I can see it becoming very popular.
Comment by l3v1ck at 11:42am 4th August 2008
No mention of that. Perhaps intel have dropped that idea. So perhaps the larrabee will just become a regular GPU with a more open architecture.
Comment by feathers633 at 11:33am 4th August 2008
I agree, surely 64cores means 64 times the heat? I know original Pentiums didn't generate a great deal of heat, and were often passively cooled, or cooloed with a 40mm fan that sounded like a dentist drill, but 64 cores means a great deal of heat...will these cards ahve some fancy cooling mech! And as for power, I have been tempted recently to buy an independant PSU for my graphics, but will Larabee make this a necessity?
Comment by mitchell2k7 at 11:16am 4th August 2008
Intel hasn't given out any details of final hardware specs - they won't have decided any of those kind of details yet, given that Larrabee won't launch for another year or two.
Comment by Sifter3000 at 11:11am 4th August 2008
That reduces the need to replace hardware to enjoy direct x 10 and other future developements can only be a good thing, as frankly spending money to enjoy direct x 10 (something of a lie) has proven a waste, but the ability to upgrade by downloading a patch is awsome. Nvidia will of dropped one in their pants at the sight of this information.
Comment by kazara1001 at 10:50am 4th August 2008
I'd like to know a bit more about the hardware itself - what kind of cooling will be required for a 64 core graphics card? And what about the power requirements?.
Comment by Spreadie at 10:46am 4th August 2008
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