Intel's Larrabee chip--in pictures

Intel's future Larrabee graphics chip is still just a PowerPoint presentation. But one worth noting because it's likely one of the most important projects inside the world's largest chip manufacturer.

That doesn't mean Larrabee will be a slam dunk. Intel has a checkered past in the discrete graphics chip market and this 10-year-old CNET article about Intel's 740 graphics processor reads eerily like some of the chatter about Intel's Larrabee today.

But Intel is older and presumably wiser now. (Though of course that remains to be seen.) Here's a quick look at how Intel depicts the future Larrabee architecture graphically.

Intel slide shows Larrabee with up to 48 cores

(Credit: Intel)

Larrabee packs separate scalar and vector processing units

(Credit: Intel)

Each Larrabee core has 256KB of level-2 cache

(Credit: Intel)

Workload in games

(Credit: Intel)

[truthteller33]

Please help me make the connection between perception and reality here. Intel repotedly has challenges designing and manufacturing competitive integrated graphics with respect to performance, experience, heat, and compatibility. Just run the latest movie game, IronMan and you willl see the issues. Look at the Vista class-action lawsuit related to Vista anmd Intel 915 graphics. Here comes this graphics monster promising everything under the sun. What should we make of it? Will it be a success because of new people, a new process, something else?

[dascha1]

Just call the chip "L-dopa" for its 40 years in the making of silicon... Then Intel will decide where the real solution market is, at Dreamworks or real life problems to be solved.

[AppleSuxLeo]

Did`nt Maxwell Smart hold the patent on "Larrabee" ?

[Zorched]

It's funny how Intel is just NOW getting into the Graphics chipset market, and using game benchmarks for examples when the PC gaming market is being forgotten by the game makers in favor of the consoles.

There's a number of games that that I want to play that have come out that are only available on consoles that I refuse to buy. Two such examples would be "Grand theft Auto IV" and "Bad Company". I hate First person shooters on consoles with a passion and am greatly disappointed in the gaming pc market's apparent phasing out.

So maybe Intel should be aiming their charts at something more useful.