INTERVIEW: Dan S. Snyder, Intel Inside[r]

Intel vs. nVidia, the curious case of Larrabee
BSN*: In the past few years, nVidia has made several eyebrow raising statements recently. Most notably, in the spring of 2008, nVidia more or less declared the death of the CPU [Central Processing Unit]. Do you feel there is any truth to these statements? Is the industry running head on into the wall of diminishing returns with regard to CPU tech?
Dan Snyder:  Ahhh, the tough question. My stance on this is simple and I’ve given public statements on this for several years. I’ve got many friends working at nVidia; I’ve got many good friends across the entire industry from working in the industry for fifteen years. I don’t think the CPU or graphics is going away. You need both in a good [computer] system. I’ve never really understood why people want to talk about one system component being obsolete when if you are a hardcore gamer you need great graphics. If you’re a hardcore gamer I’m never going to tell you to get integrated graphics. I’m never going to tell you that graphics are not important. Absolutely, go out and buy the fastest graphics card you can if you’re into gaming or that kind of stuff. I’m not going to go tell you to buy the fastest graphics card you can buy and the processor doesn’t matter because people don’t do just pure gaming. Almost any user is going to be using some other stuff that a good processor is important for. That includes the video stuff, any high performance integer stuff. I mean, there are tons of things that the CPU is needed for so I don’t see the CPU as being obsolete. I also think that if you’re not a hardcore gamer, like I recently got a new system for my mom; she doesn’t even know what those games are so integrated graphics is fine for her. What it comes down to on a fundamental line is each user needs to spec their system based on what they are doing with the system.

BSN*: On the subject of graphics, how has the Larrabee project influenced the relationship between Intel and nVidia if at all?
Dan Snyder: I think all you have to do is look at Jen-Hsun Huang’s comments in the press and you’ll see that answer. My opinion on it is really this; I’ve seen various graphics efforts by Intel. Some were more successful than others and at the end of the day Intel has an idea and we’re working with the industry to bring it to market. I tell this to everyone that at the end of the day the market will decide on any product. So as a company this is what we do for a living, we make products we try them out. If the market goes crazy and loves it, take the iPhone or take our Core i7s or the new Lynnfield the market goes gaga. It’s a great product and they love it and it sells. So the product teams learn from that and the go back and they make tweaks and they plan for roadmaps based on that response. I think Larrabee is a very ambitious goal and just as someone who works with a lot of skeptical, unbiased outside parties I will just say that Intel is working hard on it and the market will decide. Intel has a kind of paradigm shift in how we look at this [graphics] and we’re going for it. So time will tell. And on a day to day working level with nVidia, we work with them. Obviously, SLi is fully functional on X58 and P55 chipsets. That’s a first, a big move from the start at launch we’ve had SLi support across our product lines for desktops. So that’s really nice. I think that goes to show that on a day to day level, there are good things going on between Intel and nVidia.

BSN*: How do you feel about the future of computing? Do you feel that x86 based microprocessors are the best way going forward? Or do you see Intel moving in another direction in the future?
Dan Snyder:  Well, for the foreseeable future we’re obviously very dedicated to x86, to multi-core. We’ve publicly disclosed that we are going to have a six-core, 32 nanometer CPU next year, so that is 2010 for Gulftown. So x86, its more cores, more threads, isn’t going anywhere anytime soon. Beyond that, who knows? It’s anyone’s guess. I think what you see with x86 is 64-bit, it’s power efficient, the threading cores and widespread software compatibility. The installed software base is not something to take lightly. The x86 installed software base is hundreds and hundreds of thousands of programs and applications, which is not a small feat. That’s a result of decades with the architecture spawning those applications. I’ve been here fifteen years, never say never but I know that we’ve got a hell of an installed base of x86 software out there.

BSN*: The Lynnfield P55 based chipset platform launched almost a year later than the Bloomfield X58 based chipset. Why the delay between launches? Were there any technical hurdles that had to be overcome that prevented closer launch dates?
Dan Snyder:  No there weren’t. There was no difficulty or anything. It was a matter of a planned disclosure and a planned product launch. There are changes to the processor and chipset with P55 to move the PCI Express x16 lane right into the processor for Lynnfield so it’s a redesigned processor and chipset. There are major differences that didn’t allow us to do just a simultaneous launch. We planned on launching Lynnfield when we did [given the discrepancy in state of development between P55 chipset and Lynnfield, motherboard vendors wholeheartedly disagree, Ed.].

BSN*: The X58 chipset features the LGA-1366 socket while the P55 chipset features the LGA-1156 socket. Why spit the desktop sockets after seven years of one socket - LGA-775.
Dan Snyder:  Well, the first I’d to say, and I’ve been asked the socket question for fifteen years at this company, is that the only people who get into socket discussion are the DIY [do-it-yourself] guys. Those kinds of guys are a small percentage of the market so first off the consumer and end-user, such as my mom, my uncle will never give a hoot about the package, right? So the do-it-yourself guy is also going to know that he wants the latest and greatest board, the latest and greatest memory, and you know things happen and things change in the industry. Also, Lynnfield and Bloomfield are much different processors in a lot of ways because of what are integrated and different functionalities and things like that. Lynnfield is targeted towards a smaller form factor boards and systems, higher volume systems. So there’s many, many technical marketing and business reasons that facilitated the change in the socket. And we never guarantee that once you buy a motherboard you’ll be able to upgrade the CPU on that motherboard for the rest of your life. That is never there and you never know what is going to happen with future architectures or what is going to happen with future technical, electrical, thermal, mechanical specs may be required. So in a perfect world we’d have the same socket forever. We’d be on the twenty-pin socket we had with the 8086 or whatever.