Larrabee is a x86 capable part for pci-express, meant to compete against ati and nvidia, but it aint a graphic card only, unlike nvidia and ati cards which sport a rigid (soldered) graphic logic in the core + some narrow space for programming (the foundation of all gpus), Larrabee can run costume drivers for the whole render pipeline ( the order in which things are processed before display).

The reason why some sli or crossfire games dont scale well, or some games run better with nvidia or ati parts, its because, the developer cant really decide what to render first, so, at best, nvidia/ati have to wait for a game to be near release and have their scientific monkeys profiling each game, so most of the tiame game profiles appears months after release.

See larrabee as one of those chips for college students with empty logic, it has the best of a software renderer but it doesnt run in windows, the software layer runs in the chip itself and uses opengl/dx10 to show results. With such a feature for example you could update a PS3 or xbox 360 to shader model 5.0 and so on. It can be an adobe accelerator a folding home for the masses, why? it uses actual x86 code, the same we use to make apps, so no CUDA learning needed.

If you had read tech sites like ars or theinquirer for the past 3 years, you would have expected this move, Nvidia is no longer targeting ATI, they're going for Intel, not for their market share, but for the relevance the market gives to cpus, lets say, if you sell a gpu (next 55nm GTX280) at the same price of an upcoming eight core mid range , and concentrate in super accelerating a few key applications like photoshop or HD video encoders, then the consumer from a not so distant future driven by real life earning needs would think "why a $400 32 core and a GTX 240*, when I mostly encode and post 30min design tutorials in youtube and make money with adobe at my uncles print shop"; then instead, he buys a $200 16 core and a $400* GTX 280.

So the main stream conservative market no longer sees Nvidia as company for games or watching blu ray movies, the commodity becomes mainstream necessity (Intels playground). Nvidias worst nightmare isnt AMD which sports a market cap of $3.8 billion with 5 billions in debt after they bought ATI. Nvidia already enjoys a $10 billion market cap and only need discounts rebranded stuff and broader "the way is meant to be played" support to slow down ATIs earnings

And Yes, Nvidia will win Larrabee`s 1st round, since larrabee is a proof of concept, on the other hand theres nehalem (and 8 to 84 core with a larrabee inside), Intel with 180 billion market cap and 9 times AMDs net income; this crappy vga maker worth 18 times nvidia not only sells cheap P4s united by an awesome architecture (coreduo) at higher prices than AMD, its also has been the world biggest gpu maker for a long time, yes, they make crap gpus, these are for everyone not some like us.

How about if you give the same gpu tech chained monkeys 10 times the funding and permission to use 8 or more cores from the next cpu in order to create a gpu, well, with 32mb+ cache access at 45nm and up to (84) 3.8ghz cores then, after 5 years of paper and wafer cooking (nehalem dev cycle), theyll give you a reason to think "Hey! Nvidia didnt had alien technology applied in their cards and drivers, It was just about size, design and gigahertz, why would I buy an nvidia or an ati card?, when I can spend $400 in a 32 core cgpu that can later "slicross" in my new multi socket $130 mobo, yes some cores go for Havok physics". This my friend its THE WORST NIGHTMARE for Nvidias CEO and co-founder Jen-Hsun Huang.

I have almost none consumer innocence for this or that brand due to my marketing career and geeky habits. My point, Nvidia is doing what its left for them to do, play hard and show no sweat, with their outstanding PR and marketing dep, everyone thinks they re in safe harbor. AMD made some investors go suicide and went red numbers, knowing this Intel plan, they bought a 6 billion "out of Jail" ticket. Now they can make the same as Intel and extend their fight 10 more years, the most brilliant hard decision.

Nvidia, the respected Nvidia, needs a really rigid 0 error, road map and strategy to survive, they ve been doing this with near perfection for the last 2 years, until they made a $1200 million notebook chip fiasco blamed their provider (TSMC) for a design flaw which was their fault, and made HP to pay 50% for their own mistake. Interesting times to come, never the less my 8800 still deserves a life achievement award.

About the Gamespot´s sidebar article "Darker" Diablo plea falls on deaf ears

"From Hardcore to Casual"

Look Im a designer, I hate using just 2 colors,(being pink and black like all emos) and I really like the look of the game (I play wow a bit), but, I read the petition and 200+ comments, and I can tell you, most of the anger, comes because loving fans are genuinely worried that Diablo 3 gameplay videos and scenarios present a whole new feeling. Like a LEGO Gran Turismo with Hot-Wheels cars and just 3 tunning sliders; It works for casual gamers but to hardcore fans, some questions must be answered first.

At first, It seems like someone at blizzard said "how about we make a wow brawler for newcomers and busy people, taking the best of wow but for people that just have 1 hour to play coop, not 8h and 40 people to kill one dragon? how about a magic gears of war?", watch the videos It does feel like a portable wow and I like it a lot, just what I needed since I got a very demanding job + demanding girlfirend and most importantly my friends also got them and our schedules to raid are all messed up.

On the other hand, I was 17 once and I did 1500+ kills in Diablo 2 and played Blizzard`s dark franchise Blackthorne, so I also like a dark tone. Im certain Blizzard will deliver a game of the year no matter what color palette, but the targeting reasons from the dev team sound disrespectful to our intelligence, they simply wanted to exploit a great franchise in order to introduce a broader market to an express wow.

Put it this way, if you havent played wow (and dont hate it), youll play Diablo 3 and wonder what it would be to kill something bigger with 40+ people, so youll try wow and feel at home after Diablo3. If you occasionally play wow like me, and want something more practical but still social and intense, youll buy Diablo 3. If you are a hardcore fan of Diablo like me, no matter what color you will buy Diablo 3, even if its just to say thanks for the previous 2.

Its a hard call for Blizzard that cant be solved with a hue slider, since the petition doesnt talk about color only, but arcade stuff like monsters dropping life bubbles instead a proper inventory with some potions inside or big shoulder pad models that differ from the lifelike models from Diablo 2 (lol?). I respect their concern which is the same as mine. After a 8 year wait we woke up and Bam!! Diablo 3 isnt a rumor or project looking for financing, its an already running game with engine, looks and multiplayer. And if they made it all that different without asking hardcore fans, what else did they compromised in order reach a broader audience?.

Addendum Edit: After a bit of thinking, maybe Blizzard is making a game for a 25 year old me, not the 17 year old I once was. Blizzard then, is making something perfect in its oddity, they did think of me after all, while delivering a game that happens 20 years after Diablo 2 it takes into account I played it 8 years ago and knows Ive become a different player. I can still say "Hell, its about time" and dont care if Blizzard wanted more people to play it.

For Nvidia fans, cheer up, if ATI didnt scored this one, Nvidias next flagship card would have been very expensive in order to raise again the price top (as Intel does with the extreme line, as Toyota does), while they kept the mid end market market happy with rebrandred 2 years old technology with die fixes at discount prices. OMG! they already did this! a 9800 gtx sells for $200 and the GTX 280 sell for $650.

If you had read tech sites like ars or theinquirer for the past 3 years, you would have expected this move, Nvidia is no longer targeting ATI, they're going for Intel, not for their market share, but for the relevance the market gives to cpus, lets say, if you sell a gpu (next 55nm GTX280) at the same price of an upcoming eightcore mid range , and concentrate in super accelerating a few key applications like photoshop or HD video encoders, then the consumer from a not so distant future driven by real life earning needs would think "why a $400 eight core and a GTX 240, when I mostly encode and post 30min design tutorials in youtube and make money with adobe at my uncles print shop"; then instead, he buys a $200 six core and a $400 GTX 280. So the main stream conservative market no longer sees Nvidia as company for games or watching blu ray movies, the commodity becomes mainstream necessity (Intels playground). Nvidias worst nightmare isnt AMD which sports a market cap of $3.8 billion with 5 billions in debt after they bought ATI. Nvidia already enjoys a $10 billion market cap and only need discounts rebranded stuff and broader "the way is meant to be played" support to slow down ATIs earnings

On the other hand, Intel with 180 billion market cap and 9 times AMDs net income; this crappy vga maker worth 18 times nvidia not only sells cheap P4s united by an awesome architecture (coreduo) at higher prices than AMD, its also has been the world biggest gpu maker for a long time, yes, they make crap gpus, these are for everyone not some like us, but, what if you give the same gpu tech chained monkeys 10 times the funding and permission to use 2 or more cores from the next cpu in order to create a gpu, well, with 18mb cache access at 45nm and 2 or more 3.8ghz cores then, after 5 years of paper and wafer cooking (nehalem dev cycle), theyll give you a reason to think "Hey! Nvidia didnt had alien technology applied in their card and drivers, It was just about size, design and gigahertz, why would I buy an nvidia or an ati card?, when I can spend $600 in a 16 core cgpu that can later "slicross" in my new multi socket $130 mobo, yes some cores go for Havok physics". This my friend its THE WORST NIGHTMARE for Nvidias CEO and co-founder Jen-Hsun Huang.

I mean no offense to ATI or Nvidia fans, I ordered this week 2 $175 4850s at newegg that replaced my lovely 8800GT, the last Ati I had was a 3850, before that I had a dumb Quadro FX540; I Actually own a quad phenom ( :)no errata). I have almost none consumer innocence for this or that brand due to my marketing career and geeky habits. My point, Nvidia is doing what its left for them to do, play hard and show no sweat, with their outstanding PR and marketing dep, everyone thinks they re in safe harbor. AMD made some investors go suicide and went red numbers, knowing this Intel plan, they bought a 6 billion "out of Jail" ticket. Now they can make the same as Intel and extend their fight 10 more years, the most brilliant hard decision.

Nvidia, the respected Nvidia, needs a really rigid 0 error, road map and strategy to survive, they ve been doing this with near perfection for the last 2 years, though. Nvidias included a not so ethical fix that includes Ageias physics driver in the new forceware and forces 3dmark Vantage Physics Performance tests to activate Ageia Optimizations the result = HIgh Numbers that are already misleading some reviewers to state that Nvidias physics have no match. Interesting times to come. ATI to their defense has created the new 9700 = stellar next gen performance for the masses while nVIDIA sells stellar old chips with massive discount, which helps competition but hurts in the long term when costumers realize how easily you can discount a recently launched product (-$100 9800gtx).