Intel's Sandy Bridge CPU to have up to 2 GPUs

jmke · 9th February 2010, 11:06

We were quite shocked to learn that Intel might be the first company to ever launch two GPUs on the same die. Not only does it look like Intel might be the first with monolithically integrated with the CPU and have Fusion before AMD, bit it might be the first “graphics” company to ever launch two GPUs on the same die.

According to Intel’s plans that were revealed to partners and industry insiders Sandy Bridge, brand new 32nm architecture will have one to two graphics cores on a monolithic die.

http://www.fudzilla.com/content/view/17576/34/

9th February 2010, 16:20

Why?

Can hypothesize that these will hardly be any different than the current IGP found in 'dale processors, given would need to be extremely small, basic GPU cores to put 2 of them AND a dual-core CPU on a single die.

Sandy Bridge was going to be DX10 and use shaders, would make more sense to increase the shader count for performance rather than double the transistors for 2x GPUs?

jmke · 9th February 2010, 17:23

a high performance and low performance one? that auto-switches between the two when needed?

9th February 2010, 19:00

On a single MCM package? Both "GPUs" would already be so small that it wouldn't matter appreciably...

The only reason I could see is for yield reasons, Intel can sell models with at least one working core. I think I'll take this report with a block of salt though.

9th February 2010, 11:06	#1
jmke Madshrimp Join Date: May 2002 Location: 7090/Belgium Posts: 79,021	Intel's Sandy Bridge CPU to have up to 2 GPUs We were quite shocked to learn that Intel might be the first company to ever launch two GPUs on the same die. Not only does it look like Intel might be the first with monolithically integrated with the CPU and have Fusion before AMD, bit it might be the first “graphics” company to ever launch two GPUs on the same die. According to Intel’s plans that were revealed to partners and industry insiders Sandy Bridge, brand new 32nm architecture will have one to two graphics cores on a monolithic die. http://www.fudzilla.com/content/view/17576/34/ __________________

9th February 2010, 17:23	#3
jmke Madshrimp Join Date: May 2002 Location: 7090/Belgium Posts: 79,021	a high performance and low performance one? that auto-switches between the two when needed? __________________

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9th February 2010, 16:20	#2
Kougar Posts: n/a	Why? Can hypothesize that these will hardly be any different than the current IGP found in 'dale processors, given would need to be extremely small, basic GPU cores to put 2 of them AND a dual-core CPU on a single die. Sandy Bridge was going to be DX10 and use shaders, would make more sense to increase the shader count for performance rather than double the transistors for 2x GPUs?

9th February 2010, 19:00	#4
Kougar Posts: n/a	On a single MCM package? Both "GPUs" would already be so small that it wouldn't matter appreciably... The only reason I could see is for yield reasons, Intel can sell models with at least one working core. I think I'll take this report with a block of salt though.