Intel Invests Further in Graphics
EE-Times reports that Intel has invested $12 million dollars to fund the efforts of the Isreali graphics startup Lucid Information Technology. The startup's main focus is currently on a graphics acceleration traffic organizing chipset which will offer support for up to 4 discrete GPU's. Thanks to the dedicated silicon and specific driver which coordinate communication between the CPU and all GPU's, it could very well be possible to see a system running which is comprised of ATI and NVIDIA GPU's. With full-production targeted for the end of 2007, it should certainly be interesting to see what new developments this new product will make in the world of enthusiast gaming.
Lucid's chip is mainly targeted at the gaming computer industry. The company estimates that PCs consume at least 60 million GPUs annually, while new games demand more computation than a single GPU can provide. The chip acts like a hub connecting the main processor to the multiple graphics processors, serving as a traffic cop. One part of it is a chip situated between the two units, and the other part is a software driver, that now supports Windows. The chip helps divide the graphics processing work among several GPUs, while the driver helps makes the application indifferent to the graphics processors in use.
