Rumour: Intel wants Larrabee in Xbox 720

[BajiRav]

Intel is pulling out all the stops to get its Larrabee GPUs inside Microsoft's next-gen Xbox (Xbox 720) or another console, according to The Inquirer citing unnamed sources.

As rumours go this doesn't sound too off the mark. MS needs a graphics chip for the Xbox 720, and Intel, along with NVIDIA and AMD, will have suitable parts available. The bigger surprise would be that MS refused to even hear Intel's sales pitch.

But the Inq has gone further to say that Intel is doing everything it can to table an deal MS can't refuse, going so far as offering to do the engineering work on thermal design (hopefully ensuring we won't ever see a repeat of the RROD nightmare), and is even prepared to hand over the rights so that MS can get the chip manufactured at any fab it chooses.

The main motivation behind all this for Intel is developer support. The PC graphics card installed base is dominated by NV with around 60% and AMD with 30% (according to the Valve Hardware Survey), and it's just basic economics that games developers will devote most of their resources to design and test their new titles on these two families of cards.

Source

After the hard time intel gave to MS on first xbox, I will be surprised if they went their side again. Wouldn't it be difficult to emulate xbox360 architecture as well?

:sleep: Oh the rumours...

[Corris Veteran]

Intel also appears to be heding its bets by wooing Sony by going after the Playstation 4, which won?t be out until at least 2011. The Xbox720 will be out in the market a fair while before that.

Even going for Sony apparently, lol. (from the original article)

I had hoped, because I haven't seen it in a while, that the inquirer had died off as a news source.

With any "next Gen" console news we will have to take any reports with a huge grain of salt for now, we wont know anything till they officially announce any of them, and I can only hope that will be a good few years in the future too.

[DrunknMunky Veteran]

I think MS will stay with AMD/ATI for the next Xbox again, to ensure BC is close to 100%. Also, they've done a fantastic job on the Xenos, why wouldn't they use them again :yes:

[Rudy]

makes sense, it would bring them quite a bit of money

[theyarecomingforyou]

I had hoped, because I haven't seen it in a while, that the inquirer had died off as a news source.

Why? It often breaks stories way before anyone else. Sure they have plenty of inaccurate article but then so does Wikipedia - you just have to know what to expect.

NEway, it's hardly surprising to hear Intel pushing Larrabee - they need some serious leverage if they want to compete with nVidia and ATi.

[madd-hatter]

I pay no attention to rumors originating from articles written by people who cant proof read their own work.

[Ayepecks]

First of all, no, it wouldn't be hard to emulate the 360 architecture. Larrabee runs a lot of different APIs and compilations such as DirectX and OpenGL through emulation, and it allows developers to make their own games using C+ (from what I understand). I find it hard that it wouldn't be able to run the 360 games.

I'm a bit pessimistic about Larrabee's true power, but if it's good why not use it?

[The_Decryptor Veteran]

Yeah, Larrabee runs DirectX and OpenGL, as well as it's own programming API, backwards compatibility is as easy as a software upgrade.

If it works of course, I'd like to see some reviewers get their hands on samples.

[Si_]

according to The Inquirer citing unnamed sources

Stopped reading there. The Inquirer is well known to make up a huge chunk of their content.

Plus, MS won't go down the route again of having a GPU they don't own the IP for inside the box. They did it with the original Xbox, where because they didn't own the IP for the CPU (Intel P3) and the GPU from nvidia, they couldn't get the price down any lower.

This time they've been able to reduce the price dramatically because they've been able to modify the design as and when they like and don't have to go to anyone else for permission, so that would only work if that part was true and intel were willing to hand over the rights --which I find highly unlikley.

Edited September 5, 2008 by Si_

[George P Global Moderator]

We'd have to wait and see how good larrabee stacks up to current GPUs before any talk of use in next-gen consoles comes to light. And although the tech looks interesting, in the end it's all about the numbers.

For now though I think that larrabee won't be able to replace the ATi and nVidia GPUs. It'll probably be a great co-processor for intels CPUs though. And if they toss it in together on the same chip that would be great.

But looking at it, I don't think larrabee can push the same level of polygons etc on screen. We'll just have to wait and see.

[morphen]

as soon as I read something about The Inquirer my brain went in to BS-mode.

They always come out with "breaking news", and some time later it turns out that it's all BS:p

[Si_]

as soon as I read something about The Inquirer my brain went in to BS-mode.

They always come out with "breaking news", and some time later it turns out that it's all BS:p

Yup, we should have a policy that anything from the inquirer can never be posted here.

[WelshBluebird]

I dunno, they seem to have gotten the faulty nVidia GPU story right (at least thats where I read it first).

It's not surprising intel would try for this. After all, it would mean their chipset in millions of consoles, and may help in the publicity for the standard desktop part.

However, as said before me in this thread, i doubt MS would want it, as it would mean more money and more fuss in the long term.

[Ricardo Gil]

I don't think Larrabee will have the horsepower needed for the next gen, but I'm very willing to be surprised.

[madd-hatter]

This time they've been able to reduce the price dramatically because they've been able to modify the design as and when they like and don't have to go to anyone else for permission, so that would only work if that part was true and intel were willing to hand over the rights --which I find highly unlikley.

This is the cause of their awful hardware stability.

MS doesn't specialize in console development. They cut costs and corners and made their own console and they overheat and are loud as hell.

MS should let the professionals do their job and stop being money whoring bitches.

[Andrew Lyle Global Moderator]

Could mean consumer savings, and might help cut down the cost of production per console, and could mean a bidding war just to have their product inside the next xbox. Maybe this was a good thing for Microsoft?

[Si_]

This is the cause of their awful hardware stability.

Wrong. What led to the hardware issues was the underinvestment in QA. They didn't hire enough skilled people or allocate enough time, they were trying to get it out the door ASAP. The bugs the console was released with is what most companies go through but sort out during the QA process, I doubt they'll make that mistake again. They have some very talented people on the hardware team in the Xbox division, they just need better testing.

[Snakehn]

I hate when they call it "Xbox720"

i remember the interviews why they called it 360, so the assumption that will be called 720 is stupid.

anyway..

[Andrew Lyle Global Moderator]

I hate when they call it "Xbox720"

i remember the interviews why they called it 360, so the assumption that will be called 720 is stupid.

anyway..

Yeah, that name was just assumed by people, and will almost certainly NOT be called that. It was only called Xbox360 so "xbox2" wouldn't look like "less" in the consumers eyes next to PS3.

[spenser.d]

makes sense, it would bring them quite a bit of money

The combination of Intel and Nvidia in the original Xbox lost them money...

-Spenser

[nmesisca]

The combination of Intel and Nvidia in the original Xbox lost them money...

-Spenser

+1

[Rudy]

The combination of Intel and Nvidia in the original Xbox lost them money...

-Spenser

no I meant that Intel would want to be in the next xbox because it would bring them money not MS

[Ayepecks]

no I meant that Intel would want to be in the next xbox because it would bring them money not MS

They only want it to promote the Larrabee and potentially get more developers to code for it. The article explains it.

[Kushan]

It would be nearly pointless putting larrabee into the neX-box.

It's main advantage is it's parallel processing ability (which CAN be used for games by computing DirectX/OpenGL calls, for example), but Microsoft OWNS DirectX, they wouldn't dump it any time soon just to use some fancy hardware, so the benefits of Larrabee would be lost.

So far, nothing we've heard seems to indicate that it will in any way outperform whatever ATI or nVidia will have, in fact things seem to indicate that Intel will be playing catchup with them both for a while.

Plus, this is from the Inq, that immediately means it's probably bull****.

[The_Decryptor Veteran]

Who said anything about MS dumping DX?, Larrabee supports DX and OpenGL.