Visual Adrenaline: Visual Computing Seminar and Larrabee

[axehandle]

Last week Intel held a "Visual Computing Seminar" focusing on Larrabee. Gabe Newell (Valve) as well as Will Wright (Maxis/EA) gave talks as well as Jeffrey Katzenberg (Dreamworks). Supposedly Project Offset was shown. Yet I haven't heard a peep from anyone about this. I'm assuming it must have been heavily NDA'd because otherwise you wouldn't even have known it took place.
Anyone have any scoop on what went on? I'm dying for new larrabee details.

This is all I could find:

"Friday Pat Gelsinger talked about how serious Intel is about the Larrabee hardware project and what the long-term goals are. And then Elliot Garbus talked about the Larrabee software side and what Intel is doing to support Larrabee and developers who adopt it.

Doug Carmean, Intel Fellow and Larrabee Chief Architect, had a breakout session where he talked about the hardware architecture, with more details on the hardware than we gave out at SIGGRAPH 2008; since this was an RS-NDA event.

Steve Junkins, Principal Engineer and Larrabee Software Architect, had a breakout session where he talked about the hybrid and native software programming model to give attendees a feel for developing on Larrabee.

And the Project Offset team gave the last session of the show with a discussion about what the Offset engine is doing with Larrabee and a demo. Offset should be the perfect showcase title for Larrabee."

Why do they tease us so?

 

[CNCAddict]

Great first post I can't wait to see what Intel has done with Project Offset. Next year sure is gonna to be exciting in the PC space.

 

[repi]

It was a good event, I was there. But fully under NDA so that is why there haven't been any public noise about it.

Sorry for the additional tease

 

[Acert93]

It was a good event, I was there. But fully under NDA so that is why there haven't been any public noise about it.

Sorry for the additional tease

Battlefield 3 to officially support Larrabee! Confirmed here first people!

/this should teach repi to tease in such cruel ways

 

[bowman]

It was a good event, I was there. But fully under NDA so that is why there haven't been any public noise about it.

Sorry for the additional tease

So when is the lift date for the NDA.. Or is that under NDA too?

 

[axehandle]

Does anyone know when the next public larrabee disclosure will be? They are being awful quiet about a product that they plan to release Q4 2009/Q1 2010.

 

[Cypher]

Does anyone know when the next public larrabee disclosure will be? They are being awful quiet about a product that they plan to release Q4 2009/Q1 2010.

I'd put a lot of money on that being in April at the next IDF (and also being a huge showcase for that one).

 

[kyetech]

I'd put a lot of money on that being in April at the next IDF (and also being a huge showcase for that one).

Maybe, but they are keeping their cards very close to their chest, would they not prefer to beat their chest in the US in september closer to the time of launch? Or maybe do a demo at the E3?

No graphics card vendor demos their hardware too early.

 

[Davros]

question is who are they keeping it secret from exactly ?

 

[rpg.314]

question is who are they keeping it secret from exactly ?

From ATi/nV of course. For me, the details left out are the clockspeed/buswidth/core count. And I think they are keeping it secret in an attempt to surprise their next-gen offerings.

 

[Ateo]

From ATi/nV of course. For me, the details left out are the clockspeed/buswidth/core count. And I think they are keeping it secret in an attempt to surprise their next-gen offerings.

I agree, allthouhg Larrabee is interesting, I am more interested in Larrabee2, as a sign of performance and how dedicated Intel really are with the GPU.

 

[rpg.314]

While we are at it, how do you think ATi's mid-range first strategy affect Intel's plans? Since they are doing everything in software, They should achieve next to 100% scaling. (ok, ~80-90%). Or will they go for NV-esque uber-massive die sizes.

I vote for the former.

 

[Jawed]

While we are at it, how do you think ATi's mid-range first strategy affect Intel's plans? Since they are doing everything in software, They should achieve next to 100% scaling.

How many different Larrabee chips will there be?

Version 1 might only come in an "enthusiast" class configuration. Lower performance variants either have cores turned of or/and lower clocks. Sort of like we see with CPUs.

Also, as IGP and eventually "Fusion" GPUs take over more and more of the market, the "entry level" performance for a discrete GPU may well rise. $30-50 discrete graphics might disappear entirely...

Jawed

 

[Arun]

Also, as IGP and eventually "Fusion" GPUs take over more and more of the market, the "entry level" performance for a discrete GPU may well rise. $30-50 discrete graphics might disappear entirely...

FWIW, I've seen even NV say that this is their current belief of where the market is going as IGPs improve in performance.