Intel Details Upcoming GPU Project (Larrabee) Due in 2009
Intel has started releasing some details about their upcoming GPU project code named Larrabee. New graphics cards based on this technology will compete with NVidia and ATI video cards that currently dominate the market. Larrabee appears to be a hybrid design between existing CPUs and GPUs, according to Extremetech:
Intel also explains that existing programming APIs such as DirectX and Open CL can be used so existing games should be able to take advantage of Larrabee. While Apple has made no announcements surrounding the adoption of Larrabee, Arstechnica's Jon Stokes claims that Apple will be adopting it:
Larrabee is expected to be released in 2009-2010 and will be initially targeted at "the personal computer market". Apple should be well equiped to leverage this technology with the introduction of Snow Leopard sometime in 2009. Snow Leopard will incorporate tools such as Grand Central and Open CL to harness both multi-core and GPU processors.
Each of these Larrabee cores is quite distinct from the execution "cores" in many current graphics processors. It's not the x86 instruction set that makes it special (though that is certainly unique as well). Rather, it is the support for full context switching and preemptive multitasking, virtual memory and page swapping, and full cache coherency. These are features developers have come to expect in modern x86 CPUs, but don't yet exist in modern GPUs.
The advantage of such a design is said to be improved scalability as additional processor cores are added. Intel claims an almost linear improvement in gaming performance as the number of processor scores increase:Intel also explains that existing programming APIs such as DirectX and Open CL can be used so existing games should be able to take advantage of Larrabee. While Apple has made no announcements surrounding the adoption of Larrabee, Arstechnica's Jon Stokes claims that Apple will be adopting it:
And I've heard from a source that I trust that Apple will use Larrabee; this makes sense, because Larrabee, as a many-core x86 multiprocessor, can be exploited directly by GrandCentral's cooperative multitasking capabilities.
Intel is quick to point out that describing Larrabee as just a GPU is misleading, in that they expect Larrabee multi-core processors could be used in a number of applications outside of gaming.Larrabee is expected to be released in 2009-2010 and will be initially targeted at "the personal computer market". Apple should be well equiped to leverage this technology with the introduction of Snow Leopard sometime in 2009. Snow Leopard will incorporate tools such as Grand Central and Open CL to harness both multi-core and GPU processors.
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46 months ago
This is REALLY good news. Its about time someone does something with the GPU. Im really excited about where laptops in 2009-2010 will be.
Perfect time for me to upgrade! :)
Perfect time for me to upgrade! :)
46 months ago
i somehow doubt that apple will use it. does apple use the hardware acceleration for H.246 encoding on current graphics cards?
i somehow feel apple doesn't want to deviate from standard technology platform because that would lead to a mix of systems using larrabee and others using integrated GPU's and again others using Nviea cards. Too complicated and unpredictable.
i somehow feel apple doesn't want to deviate from standard technology platform because that would lead to a mix of systems using larrabee and others using integrated GPU's and again others using Nviea cards. Too complicated and unpredictable.
46 months ago
That graph is really misleading. Unless near 85% of that program is running in parallel, you're not going to see that kind of speedup. Mr. Amdahl says that normal programs (i.e. 50% concurrency) will cease to see the benefits of multiple cores at around 16 cores.
46 months ago
I'm very disappointing in the graphics card on the macBook. I would think that Apple would have met the power of the intel chip with a good graphics card. But the most simple of graphics often causes my macbook to crash or have errors. I'm totally not impressed.
This is good news, especially if they'll incorporate it into the macbook, it needs a serious graphics card update.
This is good news, especially if they'll incorporate it into the macbook, it needs a serious graphics card update.
46 months ago
This is REALLY good news. Its about time someone does something with the GPU. Im really excited about where laptops in 2009-2010 will be.
Perfect time for me to upgrade! :)
This does sound pretty damn cool! I'll be upgrading my C2D 2.16 Macbook in 2010 so I'm looking forward to this and Snow Leopard.
46 months ago
Interesting: GPUs are evolving in to general processors on a card.
When you realize you need more computational horsepower in your system you'll be able to upgrade your "graphics" card.
Even though this isn't a traditional design, Intel is going to have to perform on the traditional beanchmarks to make headway in this market.
When you realize you need more computational horsepower in your system you'll be able to upgrade your "graphics" card.
Even though this isn't a traditional design, Intel is going to have to perform on the traditional beanchmarks to make headway in this market.
46 months ago
Now I'm really interested in seeing how this turns out.
Especially with the nearly-perfect linear scaling and the driver support for future APIs.
Also the possibility that there could be a Larrabee Mac without an extra CPU could mean that multi-threaded performance would increase very highly in the Mac Pro.
Especially with the nearly-perfect linear scaling and the driver support for future APIs.
Also the possibility that there could be a Larrabee Mac without an extra CPU could mean that multi-threaded performance would increase very highly in the Mac Pro.
46 months ago
Nice for Intel Apple and some of us.
But I definitely dont want for Intel to prove to be a tough competitor in the graphics market! If it does... it'll be the hardest (and probably the last) blow to AMD ATi which is actually standing due to its graphics business!
So why bother about AMD? Because Intel has the worst product pricing in the industry and history is proof to it. With AMD gone it'll be a field day for Intel but a death curse for us..... considering that: only processor manufacturer + horrible pricing decisions = poorer consumers!
But I definitely dont want for Intel to prove to be a tough competitor in the graphics market! If it does... it'll be the hardest (and probably the last) blow to AMD ATi which is actually standing due to its graphics business!
So why bother about AMD? Because Intel has the worst product pricing in the industry and history is proof to it. With AMD gone it'll be a field day for Intel but a death curse for us..... considering that: only processor manufacturer + horrible pricing decisions = poorer consumers!
46 months ago
The only problem is, if Intel keeps coming out with such awesome products, when is the possible monopoly going to arrive?
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