Image Claims to Show 2nd-Gen Intel Larrabee Graphics Card

From Tom's Hardware: Hardware collector YJFY has posted images of what they claim is Intel's 2nd Generation Larrabee graphics card — which never came to market, but existed as hardware evaluation samples. Intel's Larrabee 2 graphics board was meant to be based on the chip eventually known as the Knights Corner, and this is the first time we've seen (supposed) images of this device published.

The alleged 2nd Generation Larrabee graphics card carries a processor that looks exactly like Intel's Knights Corner, which was demonstrated by and Intel exec at the SC11 conference in Nov. 2011. The processor is an engineering sample produced in late 2011 featuring the QBAY stepping. It allegedly features 60 cores and operates at 1.00 GHz, which corresponds to specifications of Intel's KNC. Unlike production Xeon Phi 'Knights Corner' products, this processor is paired with 4GB of GDDR5 memory. 

The board is clearly a very early evaluation sample, with diagnostic LEDs, multiple connectors for probes, and various jumpers. It also features a DVI connector that is typically used for video output. Keeping in mind that Tom Forsyth, a developer of the Larrabee project at Intel, once said that the company's Knights Corner silicon still feature GPU parts like graphics outputs and texture samples, we're not surprised to see a DVI connector on a KNC-based board. 

While we cannot be sure that the card in the picture is indeed Larrabee 2 based on the Knights Corner silicon, there's a lot of direct and indirect evidence that we're dealing with the 2nd Generation Larrabee.

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