Ahead of its presentation and preview of its Larrabee graphics processing unit at SIGGRAPH 2008, Intel posted a paper on the GPU titled Larrabee: A Many-Core x86 Architecture for Visual Computing, which will be presented at the Los Angeles conference.

According to the paper, Larrabee uses "multiple in-order x86 CPU cores that are augmented by a wide vector processor unit, as well as some fixed function logic blocks." Intel notes that its pipeline is derived from the dual-issue Intel Pentium processor.

The many-core architecture, which Intel claims is a first for the industry, allows for "dramatically higher performance per watt and per unit of area than out-of-order CPUs on highly parallel workloads." It also designed to increase the flexibility and programmability of the architecture as compared to standard GPUs.

Furthermore, Larrabee's native programming model supports "a variety of highly parallel applications, including those that use irregular data structures. This enables development of graphics APIs, rapid innovation of new graphics algorithms, and true general purpose computation on the graphics processor with established PC software development tools."

The chip manufacturer also added that the first Larrabee-based products are expected to launch in late 2009 or early 2010, and will target "discrete graphics applications, support DirectX and OpenGL, and run existing games and programs."