Intel's Larrabee Architecture Disclosure: A Calculated First Move
by Anand Lal Shimpi & Derek Wilson on August 4, 2008 12:00 AM EST- Posted in
- GPUs
The Awesome Potential of Fully Programmable Graphics
Certainly we can't judge the applicability and impact Larrabee will have until we see how it handles real-world applications. But we absolutely cannot write off such a giant as Intel when they throw their chips into the pot. Some of the current graphics hardware establishment have tried to suggest to us that Intel is not in touch with the current development community and that the only reason some developers are excited about the extensive low level programmability of Larrabee is because they are nostalgic for the old days of graphics programming where it was all about the software renderer.
I don't think anyone is under the illusion that DirectX and OpenGL performance are irrelevant for Larrabee. If Intel fails at delivering equivalent or greater price/performance in games and applications that use these programming APIs, then no matter how well the hardware could be used for any software engine it will fail. But the potential to customize every part of the rendering pipeline, the capability of supporting a software renderer with the same level of performance as if the hardware was customized to it, adds a level of value to the development community that will absolutely blow away anything NVIDIA or AMD can currently (or will for the foreseeable future) offer.
Re-opening the door for Tim Sweeney, John Carmack, Michael Abrash, and other pioneers and visionaries in the field of 3D graphics to once again have the freedom to take a piece of hardware that can offer the kind of data parallel speed that has heretofore been limited to the GPU and literally do anything they want with it is something to be excited about. Limited much less by the physical design of the hardware to once again only be limited by the performance of any given segment of code could help speed up the transition from SIGGRAPH to games. Larrabee could help create a new wellspring of research, experimentation and techniques for real-time graphics, the likes of which have not been seen since the mid-to-late 1990s.
We have absolutely been seeing the current graphics hardware giants move toward more flexibility and programmability. But if Intel is able to effectively leap-frog their slow trudge toward true general purpose programming DX version by DX version, we will see the end of an era where games are feature limited by hardware. No longer will we need new hardware to handle a new DX version with new techniques and effects: we would only need a driver update to add support for the new API. The only obstacle to running games using future APIs will be performance. The only reason to upgrade in the future will be speed. It will be a different world, altogether different than anything we've known or experienced before yet incredibly similar to the roots from which the industry was born.
It is an exciting time to be in the field of computer graphics.
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Griswold - Monday, August 4, 2008 - link
You seem to be confused. Time for a nap.MDme - Monday, August 4, 2008 - link
but AMD will have Cinema 2.0. did you see that demo? by 2010, AMD will have the RV990 or whatever...and Nvidia will have GT400?phaxmohdem - Monday, August 4, 2008 - link
Considering how long it took nVidia to release a single GPU significantly faster than G80, I'd be shocked if we wee GT300 by 2009/2010. however a GTX 295GT X2 ULTRA OC is not out of the question ;)shuffle2 - Monday, August 4, 2008 - link
mm², how hard is that to write? >.>1prophet - Monday, August 4, 2008 - link
They need to hit one out of the park with the drivers (software)as well.jltate - Tuesday, August 5, 2008 - link
I've got a bunch of comments, so I'll just list them all here.SSE doesn't have fused multiply-add operations. Larrabee does -- thus that 10 core processor could perform a peak of 320 floating point operations per cycle (it's mentioned in the SIGGRAPH paper).
Larrabee's programming model is variable width -- the hardware can and likely will be augmented in the future to perform more than just 16 operations in parallel.
The ring bus between cores was stated to be for each group of 16. Intel stated that for more than 16 cores they'd use "multiple short-linked rings".
Also, the diagram only shows one memory controller on one side with fixed function logic on the other, not two memory controllers as you showed on page 5 of your article. However, Intel stated in the paper that the configuration and number of processors, fixed function blocks and I/O controllers would be implementation dependent. So in effect it could very well have a half-dozen 64-bit interfaces like G80.
My forecast? This thing will rock. I for one simply cannot wait.
Laura Wilson - Monday, August 4, 2008 - link
that's the truththey say they know this. it sounds like they know this ... we'll see what happens :-)
gigahertz20 - Monday, August 4, 2008 - link
I'm going to predict Larrabee will provide a huge boost of performance over Intel's current crappy integrated graphic solutions, but will not be able to compete with AMD/ATI's and Nvidia's high end GPU's when it (Larrabee) finally launches. If Intel can deliver a monster that can push 100+ FPS in Crysis and doesn't cost so much that it breaks the bank like the current Nvidia GTX 280's, then they will have a real winner! When it finally launches though, who knows what AMD/ATI and Nvidia will have out to compete against it, wonder if Intel is just trying to push out a mainstream chip or go high end as well...guess I need to read the rest of the article :)JEDIYoda - Tuesday, August 5, 2008 - link
dreaming again huh??? you people who want top notch performance without having to pay for it....rofl..hahahaFITCamaro - Monday, August 4, 2008 - link
This isn't mean to compete with their IGPs. At least not initially.