Future GPU Thoughts and Musings

The Intel Visual Computing Institute announcement leaks more LRB info.

The announcement about Intel opening a lab in Germany here
http://www.dailytech.com/Intel+Visual+Computing+Institute+Opens+Will+Spur+Larrabee+Development/article15115.htm
is interesting in its own right. And its cool to be starting a lab in the EU.

Of more interest to us LRB-ites are the 2 tidbits of info on LRB that were released in that announcement:
1)"which is expected to launch in the first quarter of 2010 and built using a 45nm process"
2)"the first Larrabee products are expected to use up to 32 cores"

So there is the 1st leak of the product release date. and a confirmation of part of the theories on Beyond3D forums here
http://forum.beyond3d.com/showthread.php?p=1292593#post1292593
on what can be gleaned from the die photos.

No official word yet on number of texture samplers and memory units, so the gleaners need to wait a bit there.

Update:
the extra tidbits got quite a bit of coverage, see:
http://www.pcper.com/comments.php?nid=7154
http://www.engadget.com/2009/05/14/intel-shows-larrabee-die-shot-in-germany-speculators-go-berserk/
http://www.tgdaily.com/content/view/42452/135/
http://www.electronista.com/articles/09/05/14/intel.larrabee.2010/
http://www.dvhardware.net/article35363.html