Intel to Introduce GPGPU Functions Into Westmere
Intel figures that two heads are better than one, so why not use both?
Despite Intel's shelving of Larrabee (at least what we knew of the first version), the company still sees a future in offloading tasks to the GPU.
According to X-bit labs, Intel said last week that its upcoming Westmere processors will offload some of the video transcoding duties from the CPU over to the integrated GPU.
Both the Clarkdale desktop and Arrandale notebook will feature a dual-core 32nm CPU and a 45nm GPU on the same chip (but not the same die). Intel did say that systems shipping with Clarkdale and Arrandale chips won't initially support such GPGPU functions, but it will come at a later date through a driver update.
Of course, those with much beefier graphics chips from AMD or Nvidia will likely have little use for what Intel's IGP can do, but it's a good signal from Intel that the chip giant still believes in GPGPU utility.
Follow us on Twitter for more tech news and exclusive updates here.
Get Tom's Hardware's best news and in-depth reviews, straight to your inbox.
-
lowguppy They'll get it all on one die eventually, and it will be more cost effective than manufacturing separate dies, but they'll never compete in gaming class graphics. Having the whole platform, including graphics, on one die will make it hard for nVidia to compete in enterprise graphics markets. AMD could do something similar, though they haven't moved in that direction yet.Reply -
JMS3096 GPGPU on an Intel GMA IGP? Intel IGPs can barely handle the graphics processing that already gets thrown at them!Reply -
pbrigido cknobmanIntel = FAILReply
Hey AMD Fanboy, get over it. Intel and AMD are both great companies. -
pbrigido Zoonie2 heads ARE better than 1 DReply
So that explains why guys are better than girls...I knew there had to be a reason.