Intel has canceled at least the first product iteration of its graphics chip, code-named "Larrabee," company representatives confirmed.
However, Intel remains committed to delivering multicore graphics products to its customers, a company spokesman said.
"Larrabee silicon and software development are behind where we had hoped to be at this point in the project," an Intel spokesman, Nick Knupffer, said in an email. "As a result, our first Larrabee product will not be launched as a standalone discrete graphics product, but rather be used as a software development platform for internal and external use."
Knupffer did not say why the Larrabee project was behind, or what, if any, milestones it had missed. In May, Intel claimed that it had "sharpened" Larrabee's release date to the first quarter of 2010, in response to a report that the company had delayed Larrabee's launch.
"While we are disappointed that the product is not yet where we expected, we remain committed to delivering world-class many-core graphics products to our customers," Knupffer added. "Additional plans for discrete graphics products will be discussed some time in 2010."
Intel originally launched Larrabee as a response to the general-purpose GPU products at Nvidia and at rival AMD, which were known as "Tesla" and "Fermi" at Nvidia, and "Fusion" at AMD. Although specific details were hazy, the first iteration of Larrabee was designed to counter the Fermi and Tesla products at Nvidia. Separately, Intel also developed a series of CPUs that began integrating graphics capabilities, the "Arrandale" and "Clarkdale" processors due next year. Over time, more of the Larrabee functionality was expected to make its way into succeeding generations of the "Dales" chips, as Intel sometimes calls them.
But AMD's own Fusion architecture won't debut until 2011, so Intel's postponement of its Larrabee project simply places the true integration of GPU and CPUs a bit farther out, while Arrandale and Clarkdale begin addressing the issue in 2010.
AMD's first "accelerated processing units" (APUS) won't debut until the "Llano" and "Ontario" chips are released in 2011. Nvidia, meanwhile, lacks X86 processor technology, although some have speculated that it might be pursuing a Transmeta-like, emulated instruction-set approach. Nvidia also recently clarified its position in regard to Larrabee's reported capabilities.
Knupffer's disclosure also casts some of Intel's recent portrayals in a new light. At the recent Intel Developer Forum, Intel demonstrated Larrabee by rendering a scene from a recent 3D game, Quake Wars. While the demonstration was graphically unimpressive, some saw it as merely an early iteration of test silicon. Others were more suspicious that what was shown represented something closer to the final product, which appears to have been more the case.
James Reinders, Intel's chief evangelist for its software products, also described Larrabee in what now might be seen in a more conservative light. In an interview published in October with ExtremeTech, Reinders was asked about Larrabee's role as a new, hybrid architecture. "Yes, it's radical, and it will take a number of years to get out there and for us to fully understand how to exploit it," he replied.
Reinders was also pressed for a performance comparison.
"Comparable? Absolutely, but when you introduce a new architecture you don't expect to be the top from day on," Reinders replied. "We haven't released any numbers, so I'm not sure where it will land or where the competition will be when we introduce it. But we believe in the architecture enormously because we think that this type of design will take us further than the current types of design."
However, Intel remains committed to delivering multicore graphics products to its customers, a company spokesman said.
"Larrabee silicon and software development are behind where we had hoped to be at this point in the project," an Intel spokesman, Nick Knupffer, said in an email. "As a result, our first Larrabee product will not be launched as a standalone discrete graphics product, but rather be used as a software development platform for internal and external use."
Knupffer did not say why the Larrabee project was behind, or what, if any, milestones it had missed. In May, Intel claimed that it had "sharpened" Larrabee's release date to the first quarter of 2010, in response to a report that the company had delayed Larrabee's launch.
"While we are disappointed that the product is not yet where we expected, we remain committed to delivering world-class many-core graphics products to our customers," Knupffer added. "Additional plans for discrete graphics products will be discussed some time in 2010."
Intel originally launched Larrabee as a response to the general-purpose GPU products at Nvidia and at rival AMD, which were known as "Tesla" and "Fermi" at Nvidia, and "Fusion" at AMD. Although specific details were hazy, the first iteration of Larrabee was designed to counter the Fermi and Tesla products at Nvidia. Separately, Intel also developed a series of CPUs that began integrating graphics capabilities, the "Arrandale" and "Clarkdale" processors due next year. Over time, more of the Larrabee functionality was expected to make its way into succeeding generations of the "Dales" chips, as Intel sometimes calls them.
But AMD's own Fusion architecture won't debut until 2011, so Intel's postponement of its Larrabee project simply places the true integration of GPU and CPUs a bit farther out, while Arrandale and Clarkdale begin addressing the issue in 2010.
AMD's first "accelerated processing units" (APUS) won't debut until the "Llano" and "Ontario" chips are released in 2011. Nvidia, meanwhile, lacks X86 processor technology, although some have speculated that it might be pursuing a Transmeta-like, emulated instruction-set approach. Nvidia also recently clarified its position in regard to Larrabee's reported capabilities.
Knupffer's disclosure also casts some of Intel's recent portrayals in a new light. At the recent Intel Developer Forum, Intel demonstrated Larrabee by rendering a scene from a recent 3D game, Quake Wars. While the demonstration was graphically unimpressive, some saw it as merely an early iteration of test silicon. Others were more suspicious that what was shown represented something closer to the final product, which appears to have been more the case.
James Reinders, Intel's chief evangelist for its software products, also described Larrabee in what now might be seen in a more conservative light. In an interview published in October with ExtremeTech, Reinders was asked about Larrabee's role as a new, hybrid architecture. "Yes, it's radical, and it will take a number of years to get out there and for us to fully understand how to exploit it," he replied.
Reinders was also pressed for a performance comparison.
"Comparable? Absolutely, but when you introduce a new architecture you don't expect to be the top from day on," Reinders replied. "We haven't released any numbers, so I'm not sure where it will land or where the competition will be when we introduce it. But we believe in the architecture enormously because we think that this type of design will take us further than the current types of design."
