Although they've gotten better recently, Intel's integrated graphics chipsets have never gotten a ton of love -- the underpowered 915 chipset is at the heart of the whole "Vista Capable" debacle, for example -- but it looks like the company's about to make a strong play to be your new pixel-pusher of choice with the new Larrabee graphics chip. Based on the x86 instruction set, the new chip isn't just limited to GPU duties, but can serve as a general-purpose processor as well. Early 16-core versions have been developed with max speeds of over 2GHz, but the design can apparently scale to thousands of cores in the future. The plan is first to release Larrabee chips as separate graphics units in Q4 of this year, but early next year we should see both laptop and desktop-oriented 45nm Nehalem processors with the Larrabee tech built right in. That should beat AMD's Fusion processors to market -- looks like the race is on.

Read - PC Perspective roadmap article with Intel slides
Read - DailyTech roadmap with Larrabee details

Quad-core shmod-core Intel, we need 6 cores or more to keep our uh, web browsers snappy. While you're at it, how about tossing in some Simultaneous Multithreading (SMT) so that each core can process two threads at a time -- 16 simultaneous threads per 8-core processor or 32 for dual-processor, 8-core rigs. If that sounds good then you're in luck; Intel just went official with its near-term architecture plans which include the 2008 launch of a 6-core Dunnington-class server CPU platform based on Intel's 45-nm Penryn "tick" architecture. On deck is Intel's second generation Nehalem "tock" architecture with SMT and scalable from 2- to 8-cores. We're talking "dramatic" performance and energy improvements, according to Intel, from a microarchitecture bent on delivering an 8 MB level-3 cache, DDR3-800 memory support, 25.6GB per second Quickpath interconnects (so long Front Side Bus!), an integrated memory controller and optional integrated graphics to high-end servers and eventually laptops. Hear that AMD? Tick, tock goes the clock.

P.S. That's Nehalem pictured. What, can't you tell?

[Via BetaNews, thanks Mike O.]

Intel's Paul Otellini IDF keynote shed some new light on the company's Larrabee processor, which is now set for a 2010 release and will compete against AMD and NVIDIA in the realm of high-end graphics. Paul says the chips will scale up to teraflops in speed, and be targeted at science and analytics in addition to graphics -- though he dodged questions about Larrabee potentially being a discrete graphics competitor for AMD and NVIDIA, and only reiterating that "Graphics will also be an area for the chip." Intel has so far stayed squarely in the realm of integrated graphics, but a move to discrete graphics would be quite a welcome shakeup to the current market, and teraflops would certainly make it all the more interesting.

Intel's already been doing quite a bit of talking about future products amid the hubbub of the Intel Developer Forum, but it looks like it still has plenty on its plate, with the company now revealing some details on two slightly nearer-term initiatives. First up, the company has confirmed its long-rumored, general purpose GPU-competing Larrabee processor, which it describes as a programmable, multi-core processor that'll reach "at least one teraflop." The first such chips, apparently with "tens of cores," are set to be demonstrated sometime next year, with a number of different versions of the processor also planned, each with varying numbers of cores. On another front, Intel also looks to be making a big push for integrated powerline Ethernet, with the company set to work the HomePlug AV 200Mbps powerline standard into its desktop designs next year as an optional feature, in particular in its Viiv platform.

Read - The Register, "Intel confirms programmable, multi-core chip"
Read - Reg Hardware, "Future PCs to integrate powerline Ethernet"

There's been rumors, but Intel looks to have finally made its challenge to the NVIDIA, AMD/ATI establishment official, revealing some details of its so-called Larrabee project in a new round of job postings on its website. Now less-mysteriously named the Visual Computing Group, the division looks to be taking square aim at the two big players in the graphics business, promising to deliver "discrete graphics products based on a many-core architecture targeting high-end client platforms." In other words, a big step up from Intel's current underpowered integrated graphics offerings. Unfortunately, that's about all that Intel's saying about the project for the time being, and given that the first official word we're about it comes in the form of a job posting, it's probably safe to assume that we're still a ways off from actually seeing any products come out of the newly-formed group.

[Via Slashdot]