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 Future of Larrabee: The Many Core Era
I keep going back to this slide because it really tells us where Intel sees its architectures going:
Today we're in the era of the multi-core array. Next year, Nehalem will bring us 8-cores on a single chip and it's conceivable that we'll see 10 and 12 core versions in the two years following it. Larrabee isn't actually on this chart, it remains separate until we hit the heterogeneous multi-threaded cores (the last two items on the evolutionary path).
It looks like future Intel desktop chips will be a mixture of these large Nehalem-like cores surrounded by tons of little Larrabee-like cores. Your future CPUs will be capable of handling whatever is thrown at them, whether that is traditional single-threaded desktop applications, 3D games, physics or other highly parallelizable workloads. It also paints an interesting picture of the future - with proper OS support, all you'd need for a gaming system would be a single Larrabee, you wouldn't need a traditional x86 CPU.
This future is a long time from now, but just as Pentium M eventually evolved into the future of desktop microprocessors from Intel today, keep an eye on Larrabee, because in 5 years it could be behind what you're running everything on.
Changing the Way GPUs Are Launched?
Here's an interesting thought. By the time Larrabee rolls out in 2009/2010, Intel's 45nm process will have been able to reach maturity. It's very possible that Intel could launch Larrabee much like it does its CPUs, with many SKUs covering a broad range of market segments. Intel could decide to launch $199 all the way up to $999 Larrabee parts, instead of the more traditional single GPU launch (perhaps with two SKUs) and waiting months before the technology trickles down to the mainstream.
Intel could take the GPU industry by storm and get Larrabee out into the wild quicker if it launched top to bottom, akin to how its CPU introductions work.
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ocyl - Monday, August 4, 2008 - link
Larrabee will be shipped when Diablo III is, and it will mark the beginning of the end for DirectX.Calling it first here at AnandTech.
Thanks go to Anand and Derek for the very well written article. You are the ones who keep tech journalism alive.
erikespo - Monday, August 4, 2008 - link
"At 143 mm^2, Intel could fit 10 Larrabee-like cores so let's double that. Now we're at 286mm^2 (still smaller than GT200 and about the size of AMD's RV770) and 20-cores. Double that once more and we've got 40-cores and have a 572mm^2 die, virtually the same size as NVIDIA's GT200 but on a 65nm process. "this math is way off
143 mm^2 is 20449mm.. if they fit 10 there that is 2044.9 per core
286mm^2 is 81796mm.. that is 4X the space so 40 cores in 286^2
and 572mm^2 is 327184mm is 160 cores..
double length will double area.. doubling length and width will quadruple area.
bauerbrazil - Monday, August 4, 2008 - link
Hahahaha, YOUR math is way off!!!Jesus.
erikespo - Monday, August 4, 2008 - link
I see where the article and you got your math..you both did 143mm^2 / 10 and got 14.3 then divided 286^2 by 14.3 and got 20.. this math is only acting on the one number..
I know this because the area of 14.3 is 204.49 mm. 10 of those would be 2044.9mm. but the area of 143mm^2 is 20449mm.
WeaselITB - Monday, August 4, 2008 - link
Wow ... No.143mm^2 is NOT equivalent to 143^2 mm ... Your analysis is flawed.
If we use your example, 2mm^2 is NOT 2mm x 2mm ... it's actually root(2)mm x root(2)mm ... 4mm^2 is 2mm x 2mm, not 4mm x 4mm (that'd be 16mm).
Maybe you should examine in depth that Wikipedia article you linked earlier ...
Thanks,
-Weasel
MamiyaOtaru - Monday, August 4, 2008 - link
143mm^2 is NOT equivalent to 143^2 mm^^THIS
That's it in a nutshell. mm² doesn't mean you square 143, it refers to Square Millimeters, a unit of area (unlike Millimeters, a unit of distance).
Revised mspaint illustration: http://img379.imageshack.us/my.php?image=squaremmh...">http://img379.imageshack.us/my.php?image=squaremmh...
erikespo - Monday, August 4, 2008 - link
Anandtech Comment Section.. Forever record of my retardednesserikespo - Monday, August 4, 2008 - link
Dang.. Many apologies..got my square area and squared numbers confused..
WeaselITB - Monday, August 4, 2008 - link
[quote]4mm^2 is 2mm x 2mm, not 4mm x 4mm (that'd be 16mm).[/quote]Dang, that was supposed to read "(that'd be 16mm^2)."
Thanks,
-Weasel
erikespo - Monday, August 4, 2008 - link
another way to look as it is how man 143mm^2 squares does it take to make up 286mm^2?only 2 would only be 143mm x 286mm
since 10 cores fit into 143 x 143, 20 will fit into 143 x 286mm
286 x 286 (which is double that of 143 x 286mm) the 286mm^2 would fit 40