Intel Shelves Larrabee

Good news for Nvidia and AMD: Intel is delaying commercial release of its chronically delayed Larrabee graphics processor.

Intel had initially promised to deliver the first version of the discrete multicore graphics processor in 2009. Later, it conceded that Larrabee might not arrive until 2010. Now, the company has postponed the processor indefinitely. Seems Intel simply hasn’t made enough progress to support moving ahead with launch plans.

“Larrabee silicon and software development are behind where we had hoped to be at this point in the project,” an Intel (INTC) spokesman said in a statement. “As a result, our first Larrabee product will not be launched as a standalone discrete graphics product, but rather be used as a software development platform for internal and external use.”

A rare failure for Intel and one that has some industry observers wondering if the company simply failed to match similar offerings from rivals AMD (AMD) and Nvidia (NVDA). Intel, for its part, insists Larrabee development continues. “While we are disappointed that the product is not yet where we expected, we remain committed to delivering world-class many-core graphics products to our customers,” a spokesman added. “Additional plans for discrete graphics products will be discussed some time in 2010.”