Larrabee Could Come on 32nm

Intel's foray into the graphics industry; Larrabee could possibly make its first appearance on 32nm in 2010. It all depends on how well Intel transitions to the 32nm process. According to internal roadmaps, Intel is expected to start production on the 32nm process in mid 2009.

Given Intel's apparent preference of ray-tracing over rasterization, we expect Larrabee to perform very well in ray-tracing apps. Both AMD & Nvidia have already committed on providing ray-traced based rendering by the time Larrabee launches. Some products such as the 4800 series already supports 100% ray-traced pipeline but using DX9.

Larrabee could also be the first DX11 GPU as Intel owns its fabs unlike Nvidia or AMD who rely on TSMC to provide them with the latest process technology. Intel is also expected to play a key role during the drafting stages of the DX11 spec with Microsoft, AMD & Nvidia. Key performance details about Larrabee will be released at the upcoming SIGGRAPH on August 12, so stay tuned.

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