Larrabee at GDC 09

[bowman]

Yay! Michael Abrash and I are finally going to do a talk each about the instruction set we helped develop: Rasterization on Larrabee: A First Look at the Larrabee New Instructions (LRBni) in Action and SIMD Programming with Larrabee: A Second Look at the Larrabee New Instructions (LRBni) in Action. They're pretty much a pair - going to mine without seeing Mike's first won't mean very much for example. Note that these aren't graphics talks, they're for anybody who wants to program these cores in assembly or C. We will be using parts of the graphics pipeline as examples, because that's what we've spent most of our time doing, but there's no graphics knowledge required at all. Just bring your assembly head - we're going all the way to the metal.

There's very few programmers that can say they got to invent their own ISA, and I'm really looking forward to finally being able to talk about it in public after about three years of secrecy. Creating an ISA is all about compromises between programmer flexibility and how difficult the hardware is to build, but I am always astonished how much we managed to pack in without too much screaming from the hardware folks. It will be interesting seeing how people react to it - it's got a lot of funky features not found in other ISA that I know of.

http://home.comcast.net/~tom_forsyth/blog.wiki.html
https://www.cmpevents.com/GD09/a.asp?option=C&V=11&SessID=9138
https://www.cmpevents.com/GD09/a.asp?option=C&V=11&SessID=9139

 

[stevem]

I heard they've got a group of 500 programmers working on LRB drivers...

 

[rpg.314]

Wow, it would be exciting. Looking fwd to it.

 

[kyetech]

I heard they've got a group of 500 programmers working on LRB drivers...

Where did you hear that?

 

[Nick]

I heard they've got a group of 500 programmers working on LRB drivers...

If you count the implementation of its software renderer, raytracer, Havok, compiler, etc. as its driver, then that sounds like it could be about right. I doubt though that 500 people are working on a driver in the classical sense.

 

[RudeCurve]

Wow...this is just epic. I really admire Intel for doing what they're doing. LRB is going to be one heck of a processor. Any news on the guys at Project Offset and what they've done so far with LRB? Oops looks like I should've done a little research before asking.

http://www.projectoffset.com/

 

[MfA]

The talk will then take a close look at a specific - and not obviously vectorizable - application of LRBni - rasterization.

Hope it's something better than simply doing parallel intersections for each pixel in a block of pixels then, because that would be obvious

 

[stevem]

Where did you hear that?

A relatively recent shindig. The non-Intel speaker was attempting to impress upon a few people the scale of Intel's commitment. Drivers will also be available for Linux, BSD, & Solaris. Intel has the ability/right to sign its own Windows drivers... Take the info as you will...

 

[Nick]

Intel has the ability/right to sign its own Windows drivers...

Unless you're talking about something different, neither NVIDIA nor AMD has the ability to sign its own drivers, so what makes Intel so exceptional that Microsoft would allow it for immature technology?

 

[stevem]

Unless you're talking about something different, neither NVIDIA nor AMD has the ability to sign its own drivers, so what makes Intel so exceptional that Microsoft would allow it for immature technology?

They don't comprise Wintel last time I checked.

MS WHQL certification process is well known, so what does that tell you about Intel's leverage & their in-house test team? There will be "simultaneous" accreditation from MS...

 

[neliz]

intel and Microsoft are partnering on the same level as AMD and Microsoft. Remember it's x64 and not EMT64.

 

[Davros]

Remember it's x64 and not EMT64.

what is the difference between them is there one?

 

[neliz]

what is the difference between them is there one?

There are (were) quite a few. http://jetteroheller.wordpress.com/2007/03/09/whats-the-difference-between-amd64-and-intel-em64t/

With Microsoft developing the x64 OS'es on AMD hardware, I'm happy they chose the superior implementation.

 

[stevem]

intel and Microsoft are partnering on the same level as AMD and Microsoft.

Partnering, is an interesting term regarding Intel & MS.

Remember it's x64 and not EMT64.

Meaningless, as it's functionally equivalent. AMD's x86-64 extensions were licensed by Intel after P4/Yamhill vacillation let AMD get their superior Opteron out earlier since they had no qualms cannibalizing IA64. With the big OEMs baying to ship into this higher margin segment, a split in the x86-64 codebase would've been lunacy. BTW, X64 encompasses both x86-64 & EMT64 nomenclatures & updated equivalents.

 

[codedivine]

Will the notes or videos be posted anywhere?

 

[shyam335]

Havent heard much yet.
Just Intel GPA so far.

 

[neliz]

Havent heard much yet.
Just Intel GPA so far.

Yeah, just read that, though I wonder how much intel was involved in game development of the titles mentioned on those pages.

 

[Tao~]

I heard they've got a group of 500 programmers working on LRB drivers...

they better did

 

[hoom]

There's very few programmers that can say they got to invent their own ISA

I heard they've got a group of 500 programmers working on LRB drivers...

But but... I thought its supposed to be x86 so that anyone can code a new renderer if they don't like the way Intel wants you to run it

 

[Ether_Snake]

Project Offset site has been updated with new videos, more info coming soon.