Intel preaches Larrabee gospel

IDF Beijing: Hallelujah! Praise the Core!

Intel's chief evangalist Pat Gelsinger took to the IDF stage today in the hope of converting thousands of Chinese developers to Intel's latest client, server and embedded product lines, whilst also promising the imminent coming of Larrabee.

In a sermon entitled IA: The Intelligent Architecture Investment, Gelsinger laid out Intel's future product roadmap in tablets of stone and noted that the firm was looking ahead to more mainstream PC and laptop versions of its Nehalem microarchitecture.

These, he said, would include 32nm versions with on-processor graphics and a multi-socket Nehalem EX server processor which should start production by the second half of this year.

Nehalem-EX, Gelsinger preached, would also pack eight cores and was the obvious choice for the enlightened within the multiprocessor "intelligent server" market. Closing his eyes, Gelsinger delivered a vision of something never before mentioned in Intel gospel, disclosing plans for the Nehalem-EP based processor codenamed 'Jasper Forest' ('Burning Bush' was, apparently, already taken).

Jasper Forest, whispered Gelsinger with awe, was specifically designed to provide increased compute density and integration for embedded and storage applications.

Moving on to praise the blessed Atom, Gelsinger told his Chinese congregation that the little wonder would soon be used for such embedded miracles as industrial automation and in-vehicle infotainment.

Finally, for a dramatic climax, Gelsinger spoke of the long-awaited coming of lord Larrabee, the many-cored architecture designed for high throughput applications and featuring a programmable graphics pipeline, which Gelsinger promised would emancipate all developers who turned to it with an open heart.

Gelsinger announced the availability of a C++ Larrabee prototype library, and discussed how developers could use a future parallel programming ritual based on 'Ct' technology to prepare themselves for imminent Larrabee salvation sometime in 2009 or 2010.