Intel axes Larrabee graphics after setbacks
updated 04:20 pm EDT, Tue May 25, 2010
Intel says dedicated Larrabee graphics
Intel today quietly said it was canceling its Larrabee dedicated graphics. The company acknowledged that it had missed key steps on the way to completing the many-core graphics technology and that it wouldn't arrive with a competing product on time. Intel's focus from now on would be on the integrated graphics such as those it uses in newer Core i3, i5 and i7 chips.
Some of the technology developed for Larrabee, such as x86-based graphics and many-core high-performance computing, should still be in development. No word was given as to whether any of the technology would reach production, but concept designs were possible as part of the research. Short-term results were considered off the table.
Larrabee was originally conceived as Intel's first true high-speed graphics design and would have used as many as 32 separate, vector-optimized x86 cores that would have worked in tandem to render graphics. Along with being much faster at certain kinds of graphics, such as raytracing, they would have had the option of handling general-purpose math more elegantly than traditional graphics hardware.
