Intel was quick to debunk the rumor on Friday that it would be launching its new Larrabee platform of GPU’s at Siggraph. This comes as little surprise to most of us since Intel CEO Paul Otellini announced in January of this year that Larrabee’s first sample silicon wouldn’t be ready for internal testing until late 2008. With general release slated Q4 2009 this would have been a significant deviation from plan had the rumor been true. The information on current release dates comes from Intel’s long-term roadmap and is known as “The ****** Book”.
Intel hasn’t revealed much about Larrabee since it’s was first presented to the press in March of 2007. The specifications posted after the presentation have since been retracted but the card was rumored at the time to be a PCI Express 2.0 expansion card, fabricated on a 45nm process. Larrabee’s most significant difference over its competition will be its use of x86 instruction set. Both AMD & Nvidia utilize a custom graphics-oriented instruction set which is somewhat less flexible. While compatibility with legacy applications is sure to slow adoption, Intel’s close ties with OEM’s should keep the product from stalling. Larrabee is still a long way out but it has kept Nvidia on the defensive.
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