Is Larrabee a sleeping beauty or a slain beast? Intel recently canned the first generation of its x86-derived graphics processor, relegating it to a development platform. Now, however, the folks at TechEye have heard from a "key member" of the team at Intel that Larrabee "will come back with a vengeance when you least expect it."
The source, purportedly a former member of the Larrabee design team, told TechEye that Intel brought in "some really big hitters" to work on the project. Many of those big hitters are "still hovering around waiting for Larrabee to come online again."
In spite of that, the effort has suffered public relations blows. The insider believes Intel mishandled last December's cancellation announcement, leading some to believe the company had given up on building a discrete GPU altogether. To make matters worse, disgruntled staffers have purportedly been spreading negative, factually incorrect rumors about Larrabee—for example, that Intel licensed elements from Imagination Technologies to fill "gaps" in the design.
Last we heard, Intel planned to offer the first-gen Larrabee design as part of a software development platform for both internal and external use some time this year. We'll presumably have to wait for a second-generation design based on new silicon before a full-fledged Larrabee GPU hits the market, and Intel has yet to release a schedule for that.
