Intel scraps Larrabee chips

 

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By Barry Collins

Posted on 7 Dec 2009 at 07:03

Intel has ditched plans to launch its Larrabee graphics chips, claiming performance simply isn't good enough.

Larrabee, an x86-based chip comprised of up to 48 individual cores, was to be Intel's first attempt at the discrete graphics market. However, the company claims Larrabee hasn't got the performance to launch next year, as planned.

"Larrabee silicon and software development are behind where we hoped to be at this point in the project," Intel spokesman Nick Knupffer told CNet.com. "As a result, our first Larrabee product will not be launched as a standalone discrete graphics product."

Larrabee silicon and software development are behind where we hoped to be at this point in the project

Instead, the company plans to release Larrabee as a software development platform for both internal and external use, although it hasn't given any indication of when it might appear.

The cancellation will be a blow to Intel's pride and reputation, having bullishly defended Larrabee against outspoken attacks from competitors in the graphics market. Nvidia famously branded Intel's graphic chip as "Laughabee" last year, publicly describing its graphics plans as "a joke".

Yet, as recently as September this year, Intel was showing off Larrabee, with its first public demonstration of the graphics chip at this year's Intel Developer Conference. "I'm super-excited with our progress," Bill Mark, Intel's senior research scientist, said at the time.

Even Mark couldn't disguise the paltry performance of that recent demonstration, however, with PC Pro's Darien Graham-Smith estimating that the scene was running at only 15fps, despite being powered by a six-core processor.