Intel has announced that its is shelving its 'Larrabee' graphics chips project, with development proving more time-consuming than the company expected.
Intel had hoped to launch its GPGPU chip either this year or next, with the company using the technology it uses for its integrated graphics in the design of a discrete chip.
However, graphics giants NVidia and AMD will be pleased to find out that Intel's plans have suffered a major setback, and plans for a Larrabee GPGPU chip have been shelved.
Confirmation
Spokesman Nick Knupffer confirmed the news, stating to Cnet that the company is 'behind where they had hoped to be at this point in the project'.
"As a result, our first Larrabee product will not be launched as a standalone discrete graphics product," he added.
This means that that Intel's offering would not be competitive, leading to a change of direction from the market-leader in CPUs.
Larrabee is now expected to be used as a software development platform for both graphics and high performance computing, according to Knupffer.
Drowning in its own ambition
As TechRadar stated out back in November 'it's hard to tell at this point whether it's waving hello, or drowning on its own ambition'.
And it has now become clear that this was the case, with Intel returning to its core focus.
GPGPUs are big news and becoming increasingly prevalent in computing - with the parallel processing power of graphics chips being utilised more and more.
With AMD's Direct X 11 graphics cards already performing admirably, and Nvidia's coming soon, it's a tough market, and one in which Intel will not, for the time being, be entering into.
Your comments (2) Click to add a new comment
tech89
December 15th 2009
2. Anyone who is serious about gaming or video quality will know to buy a system with standalone graphics and not integrated graphics. Common knowledge for years.
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lewchenko
December 7th 2009
1. Intel needs to give up on graphics technology. Every single internal chipset (integrated graphics) is a generation or two behind Nvidia/ATI's lowest performing options.
I genuinely feel sorry for people who purchase laptops/desktops with integrated graphics from Intel and think they may have a 'gaming' option in front of them.
They dont even have a 'low end' gaming option.
Larabee was nothing but hype to dissaude people from investing / buying into Nvidia/ATI products. Another Intel Graphics failure.
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