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  • corinthos - Friday, February 2, 2018 - link

    Tim Cook moonlighting at Intel?
  • HStewart - Friday, February 2, 2018 - link

    Well the image is of Michael Mayberry if you search internet, they do look very close a like. I am sure the Tim and Michael have talk before knowing the relationship between Intel and Apple.
  • Kevin G - Sunday, February 4, 2018 - link

    But can you find a picture with both of them in it? Sort of like me and Batman.... not that I'm saying anything.
  • HStewart - Friday, February 2, 2018 - link

    "including withdrawal from mobile SoC business and return to discrete GPU business"

    1. Intel has not complete remove them from mobile Soc business - it actually depends on what you can Mobile Soc business means - Atom based phones yes - mobile laptop and tablet CPU - are you kidding - this is likely there primary business.

    2. Has Intel had a discrete GPU before - this sounds like a new task in improving there technology's in graphic area. I would not doubt Raju will be involved with.improving iGPU's also. But Raju also will help in Intel connection with Apple.
  • Drumsticks - Friday, February 2, 2018 - link

    Technically, yes, they have had a discrete graphics product before:

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intel740

    This one actually existed. Larrabee was after that, but it couldn't do graphics very well, and was repurposed as Xeon Phi.
  • HStewart - Friday, February 2, 2018 - link

    From the following link, it looks like this was the first generation of GPU that lead to current iGPU
    So I would not call this return to Discrete GPU.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Intel_graphi...

    To me this sounds like something new is coming down the pipe, likely they are quite concern over both NVidia and AMD in graphics arena.

    It possible that Intel will used Raju in high performance area, but it sounds logical with combination of Kaby Lake G units - not really CPU and also Raju's Apple connection that Raju is going to be used for some mainstream GPU enhancements.

    I don't think the Larrabee and certainly not Xeon Phi was every intended as GPU. The following link states that it not was going to release as GPU - but external performance computing device like Tesla.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Larrabee_(microarchi...
  • Kevin G - Sunday, February 4, 2018 - link

    Larrabee was intended to do graphics card work. The ROPs are still on the x100 series die for example. In fact, it was rumored that Intel got the contract for the PS4 and had to abandon it when they couldn't get the software stack for Larrabee as a GPU in order.
    https://www.engadget.com/2009/12/28/ps4-larrabee-s...

    Outside of the PS4, Larrabee was supposed to be the GPU going into Sky Lake. It didn't make it due to its power consumption for mobile parts. The theoretical peak performance was supposed to be fine but again, depended heavily on Intel getting the software side right.
    http://www.techradar.com/news/computing-components...

    Intel will likely return to the discrete GPU market as that has seen a very recent high profile run on GPU supply. Pretty much very GPU faster than Intel's integrated offerings are being purchased right now and that's a pretty big, profitable market that currently could fit another player (granted by the time Intel does enter, the crypto-mining bubble will have burst to return GPU pricing to sane levels). With Raja at the helm, Intel could very well develop a new GPU architecture from scratch but I do see them moving toward buying what's left of Imagination and their PowerVR architecture. It is rather power efficient and they have a ray tracing accelerator design that could make waves if it were released to the mainstream. The Imagination patient portfolio is also something as it can be used against various competitors as incorporate more tile based rendering techniques. Considering that Intel's CEO has been on a spending spree acquiring other companies, this could happen in the short term.
  • Vatharian - Saturday, February 3, 2018 - link

    I had Larabee in my hands. It actually could run Crysis Warhead, at quite a bit resolution, but there were artifacts. VPG couldn't fix it before they axed the project, that's one - and second, it wasn't even close in terms of performance to then-flagships, much less products it would compete with after release.

    And while it's rarer than unicorn's fart, they have Valley Vista accelerator.
    https://www.intelserveredge.com/intelvca/
    It's geared for heavy-duty media transcode, but if VT-d was properly implemented into the drivers, one could actually... maybe not game, but display a desktop. But again, it's a cheat, since it contains full x86 processor.
  • Kevin G - Sunday, February 4, 2018 - link

    Speaking of VCA, I though Intel had a Xeon D variant coming down the pipe with an integrated GPU to handle that market? It was a basic GT2 on the GPU side but the number of transcoders was radically increased. The new Sky Lake-D chips have been spotted on price list recently after being long overdue. I wonder if this project fell off the radar completely.
  • MrSpadge - Friday, February 2, 2018 - link

    "After the former resigned from the position in mid-2013, it remained vacant for nearly half of a decade."

    I'm waiting for the cynical comments suggesting Intel simply stopped R&D during this period.
  • HStewart - Friday, February 2, 2018 - link

    "I'm waiting for the cynical comments suggesting Intel simply stopped R&D during this period."

    Back in 2013 Intel was Haswell, not even 14nm process

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haswell_(microarchit...

    I have an original Surface Pro 1 - which has the 3317U which was re;ease during this time frame and right before Haswell's came out. And comparing it performance to say the m3-6y30 which I on currently - I would say they are about equal in performance
  • HStewart - Friday, February 2, 2018 - link

    BTW during most of that time AMD was on Bulldoser CPU's - between 2011-2017

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_AMD_micropro...

    It is interesting that people compain about how long Intel's 10nm took to come out it appears the current Zen Architexture was being developed during the same time line. Officially started in 2012

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_AMD_micropro...

    "AMD began planning the Zen microarchitecture shortly after re-hiring Jim Keller in August 2012.[39] AMD formally revealed Zen in 2015."

    it shows it takes time to R&D a new architexture in CPU - AMD Revealed Zen in 2015 but took another 2 years to get out.
  • Kevin G - Sunday, February 4, 2018 - link

    Intel never stopped R&D, they just hit a brick wall between 10 nm difficulties and their own strict design rules. Post Sky Lake, if a feature increased performance by 2% it could make the chip consumer more than 1% more power. This forced an ever increasing performance/watt efficiency. The problem isn't the lack performance options, just they they'd blow the power budget. This is in conjunction with problems getting 14 nm out initially as well as the massive delays in 10 nm. Intel's public road map has been spinning their wheels with rebrands but their

    Ice Lake is said to be an entirely new architecture not based off of the current evolutionary heritage. Case in point is that Ice Lake is the first chip to drop some ancient legacy modes for 8 bit and 16 bit code to simplify x86 designs.

    However, all is clearly not well inside Intel. Their integrated GPU team was pretty much laid off and Raja was brought in. Knight's Hill was recently cancelled. due to 10 nm delays though the Knight's family hasn't formally ended. 3D Xpoint having difficulty getting all the way out the door though part of are platform issues in Sky Lake-X. Xeon + FPGA packages are also no where to be seen, though Broadwell-EP with on package FPGA were sampled to partners. Intel has also been purchasing outside companies under the new CEO. Altera and Nervana are the two most mentioned but there have been a wave of smaller firms being absorbed to fill some very specific niches. Under the old leadership, they had a plan of x86 anywhere and now I don't know what their plans are.
  • peevee - Monday, February 5, 2018 - link

    Oh... nobody was flogging the slaves for the failure of 10nm...
  • peevee - Monday, February 5, 2018 - link

    What happened with the old CTO? Got sacked for the failure of 10nm process?
  • peevee - Monday, February 5, 2018 - link

    Can we please get an article with the full story of Intel 10nm fiasco, from the first promises to the modern day?
  • mode_13h - Thursday, February 8, 2018 - link

    I imagine Intel will be spending a bit of time & effort trying to find security bugs in AMD products...

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