Intel To Launch Graphics Chip Line

[PaSSoA]

Intel unveils graphics chip line

Intel has unveiled details of the chip that will spearhead its move into computer graphics.

It has revealed blueprints for the Larrabee chip that is scheduled to first appear in finished products in late 2009 or early 2010.

Larrabee will be a stand-alone graphics processor unlike the onboard chips it produces for many PC makers.

The move will bring Intel into direct competition with graphics specialists Nvidia and the ATI division of AMD.

Intel is aiming to put Larrabee into graphics cards for PCs that help show games and video in very high detail.

Like existing graphics chips from Nvidia and ATI, Larrabee is expected to have many separate processing cores onboard.

So far Intel has not said how many processing cores Larrabee will have onboard at launch or in subsequent generations. Future Nvidia and ATI graphics chips are expected to be made up of several hundred cores.

While Intel will initially target the PC graphics card market, it expects the raw computer power in the chip to help with oil and gas exploration, medical imaging and financial services in the future.

Many scientists and researchers already use coupled graphics cards as a desktop supercomputer that helps them carry out simulations far faster and cheaper than on a larger dedicated machine.

"Intel is showing its cards, but will have to deliver the products that live up to an attractive architecture," said Peter Kastner, an analyst with research firm Scott-Page.

Intel said it would release more details about Larrabee at the upcoming Siggraph computer graphics conference due to be held in Los Angeles from 12-15 August.

More bad news for AMD? If they bundle their motherboards with their graphics cards, then the market could be huge.

[alexmanners]

Thank god! The best part about this will be that Intel will release their drivers as open source, meaning AMD, NVIDIA, and ATi are going to lose a HUGE portion of their market (teh linuX us3rs). The number one gripe that linux users have with the major graphics card companies is that their drivers are all closed source meaning support is minimal. Intel is going to have huge profits from this move.

[argatoga]

Originally Posted by alexmanners

Thank god! The best part about this will be that Intel will release their drivers as open source, meaning AMD, NVIDIA, and ATi are going to lose a HUGE portion of their market (teh linuX us3rs). The number one gripe that linux users have with the major graphics card companies is that their drivers are all closed source meaning support is minimal. Intel is going to have huge profits from this move.

I hate to burst your bubble, but that market is pretty small (probably well under 1%).

I wish Intel luck, but this isn't the first time they have promised competitive mainstream graphics.

[alexmanners]

It's larger then you think actually, many people are now moving to Linux from Windows because it offers familiarity as well as security. It's definitely over 1%, but you are right about Intel. This is the second time they've promised to make a Graphics line that will compete with the establish ATi and Nvidia lines.

[jeffy777]

Originally Posted by alexmanners

It's larger then you think actually, many people are now moving to Linux from Windows because it offers familiarity as well as security. It's definitely over 1%

Nope, it's under 1% actually (0.82%)....

Here's a OS market share report which is generated daily:
http://marketshare.hitslink.com/report.aspx?qprid=8

[alexmanners]

Owned. Okay thanks! Didn't realize that...

[jeffy777]

No worries. I wasn't even sure till I googled it out of curiosity

[_HighVoltage_]

Well, if it's anything like the Intel740 I guess it's good news. At the time it was targeted between the Riva 128 and the Voodoo 2. I am not sure if trying to beat nVidia and AMD will be such a good idea.
I hope they make a really good mobile version.

[PaSSoA]

^Yeah, that'll be a "smarter" way of approaching the market. To fight with ATI and nVidia in the "gamers" market would be suicide.

[h-p]

Intel has a simple way to beat nVidia (and AMD): buy nVidia.

edit: sorry, i meant NVIDIA

[PaSSoA]

Well, to add to this, they just announced a new processor which, quote is "turbo powered" and "race-car like"... rriiggghhtt...

Intel details new core chip line

Intel has unveiled the processors that will form the core of its product line from 2009 onwards.

Details about Nehalem, now officially called Core i7, were given at the Intel Developers Forum in San Francisco.

The chips will appear in laptops, desktops and servers and with them Intel aims to boost processing ability, cut power use and improve graphics.

"Nehalem will be the backbone of Intel for years to come," said Intel fellow Rajesh Kumar.

"It provides the best of both worlds," he said. "Higher performance and energy efficiency are not mutually exclusive if you innovate enough."

With Nehalem Intel has combined memory and processing functions into a single chip instead of using two. On the most powerful Core i7 processors this will result in as many as eight processing cores co-existing on a single chip.

Intel claims the innovations on the family of products will offer three times the memory bandwidth of the previous generation of chips and twice the performance of 3-D animation.

Nehalem is also able to ramp down its power demands thanks to a "turbo mode" that turns off parts of the chip that are not being used.

Intel also said the Nehalem design boosts the speed at which data can be shunted from memory in the computer to the microprocessor.

With this technology Intel has matched a capability that rival Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) has been using for the last five years in its Opteron processor.

Randy Allen, a senior vice president at AMD, said that it had its own advances on the way that will keep AMD ahead on performance and power efficiency.

Mr Kumar, who helped to guide development of Core i7 features, told IDF attendees: "When you go into performance versus energy there is a trade off argument. We don't want to have that argument.

"We want to give you a race car that gives you the miles per gallon of an economy car."

Mr Kumar maintained the company has managed with Nehalem which he said would power everything from desktops to servers and from laptops to mobile devices.

"As much as we get more efficient in how we use the battery we're always finding more ways to leech off the battery," Matt Eastwood, an analyst at market researcher IDC told Reuters.

"A lot of these technologies that will be living on the periphery like Wimax are going to be pretty battery hungry," he said.

Intel's chips are used in around 80% of computers while AMD has the majority share of the remaining 20%.

"Right now it's Intel's game to lose," said analyst Cody Acree of Stifel Nicolaus.

Mr Eastwood from IDC was also convinced by Intel's blueprint for how the computing world will develop.

"Their overall story about the increasing graphics intensity running on our desktops I think that's absolutely true," said Mr Eastwood.

"The vision they have there in terms of how they think that will all converge is credible to me."

Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/h...gy/7571600.stm

[XeroState]

Turbo-Mode [not Turbo Powered.. there is a difference] isn't new.. many old PC's had it to slow them down to run even older programs.. now they are just putting it in new CPU's, just saves power and cuts down on the heat. Really when you are sleeping and your PC is downloading torrents how much cpu power do you need?

As far as the race car analogy, I think a hybrid sports car [or super car for that 8-core beast] would be more accurate lol

[petarkb]

^Turbo mode used to be a button which slowed down the clock rate. Eventually, nobody needed it anymore, so they stopped including it after 486.

Previous generation CPUs produced immense heat, so they slowed down the clock rate, automatically. This new one shuts down cores.

Shutting something off while it isn't used, huh. I like how marketing always tries to dress up common sense as ground-breaking innovation.