Intel CEO Brian Krzanich disclosed during an analyst event last week that it will have its first discrete graphics chips available in 2020. This will mark the beginning of the chip giant’s journey toward a portfolio of high-performance graphics products for various markets including gaming, data center and artificial intelligence (AI).
Some previous rumors suggested a launch at CES 2019 this coming January might be where Intel INTC, +0.55% makes its graphics reveal, but that timeline was never adopted by the company. It would have been overly aggressive and in no way reasonable with the development process of a new silicon design.
In November 2017 Intel brought on board Raja Koduri to lead the graphics and compute initiatives inside the company. Koduri was previously in charge of the graphics division at AMD AMD, +0.76% helping to develop and grow the Radeon brand, and his departure to Intel was thought to have significant impact on the industry.
A typical graphics architecture and chip development cycle is three years for complex design, so even hitting the 2020 window with engineering talent is aggressive.
Intel did not go into detail about what performance level or target market this first discrete GPU solution might address, but Intel’s executive vice president of the data center group, Navin Shenoy, confirmed that the company’s strategy will include solutions for data center segments (think AI, machine learning) along with client (think gaming, professional development).
This is a part of the wider-scale AI and machine-learning strategy for Intel that includes these discrete graphics chip products in addition to other options like the Xeon processor family, FPGAs from its acquisition of Altera, and custom AI chips like the Nervana-based NNP.
While the leader in the space, Nvidia NVDA, +0.75% maintains its position with graphics chips, it is modifying and augmenting those processors with additional features and systems to accelerate AI even more. It will be interesting to see how Intel plans to catch up in design and deployment.
Though few doubt the capability of Intel for chip design, building a new GPU architecture from the ground up is not a small task. Intel needs to provide a performance and efficiency level that is in the same ballpark as Nvidia and AMD; within 20% or so. Doing that on the first attempt, while also building and fostering the necessary software ecosystem and tools around the new hardware, is a tough ask of any company, Silicon Valley juggernaut or not. Until we see the first options available in 2020 to gauge, Nvidia and AMD have the leadership positions.
Both AMD and NVIDIA will be watching Intel with great interest as GPU development accelerates. AMD’s Forest Norrod, senior vice president of its data center group, recently said in an interview that he didn’t expect Koduri to “have any impact at Intel for at least another three years.” If Intel can deliver on its 2020 target for the first in a series of graphics releases, it might put pressure on those two existing graphics giants sooner than most expected.
