Larrabee differes from today's GPUs in that it will use the popular x86 instruction set for its shader cores instead of a proprietary graphics-focused instruction set, and will feature cache coherency across all its cores like a multi-core CPU (and unlike current GPUs).

Larrabee provides practical solution to current limitations of GPUs. Larrabee does not special API for Larrabee, it works with current APIs for DirectX and OpenGL. Larrabee uses 1024-bit ring bus to transfer data efficiently and fast between gpu cores. All cores are true x86 processors, based on original Pentium architecture + many extensions and additions added to that base.

Larrabee is completely flexible and completely programmable, offering many optimization compared to existing technology and will revolutionize graphics industry. To paint this more plasticly - picture this - Larrabee gpu will be able to support DirectX 10, and then when released DirectX 11, and some years in future - DirectX 12 - yes on the same board…

Larrabee supports massive parallelism and scalability, which should be high-end GPU selling point probably (maybe not at the start). Memory technology used in final product was not yet reveled, but Intel's engineers say that there is no limitation to which memory technology can be used. Our sources indicated that GDDR5 will be used in final product, and very likely Intel will include 4 cores at entry level card, with high-end card's number yet undecided. But Intel's internal goal is to reach 2 teraflops of computing power. More on New generation GPU - Intel Larrabee

Software giant Microsoft today revealed details concerning DirectX 11, the latest edition of its PC gaming graphics API. Similar to DirectX 10, the software will be available only on Windows Vista and future versions of Microsoft's operating system. DirectX 11 will add new compute shader technology that Microsoft says will allow GPUs to be used "for more than just 3D graphics," allowing developers to utilize video cards as parallel processors.

Even though DirectX 10 is still quite fresh in developers and casual gamer's minds, Microsoft are already making a push to bring more advancements in the form of DirectX 11.

The company has today announced some initial details. One particular and expected highlight of DX11 is tessellation support which as far as I know is already being used in current-gen consoles such as the 360. It blurs the line between super high quality pre-rendered scenes and scenes rendered in real-time, allowing game developers to refine models to be smoother and more attractive when seen up close. There are a number of other interesting additions MS is working on for the new API. This in a shell means that DX11 hardware will be quite different from DX10, as new features will be mandatory done in hardware. As for the tessalation unit goes, ATI is already supporting it from Radeon HD 2600 onwards..

Changes will also ba made in full support (including all DX11 hardware features) on Windows Vista as well as future versions of Windows:

•  Compatibility with DirectX 10 and 10.1 hardware, as well as support for new DirectX 11 hardware
•  New compute shader technology that lays the groundwork for the GPU to be used for more than just 3D graphics, so that developers can take advantage of the graphics card as a parallel processor
• Multi-threaded resource handling that will allow games to better take advantage of multi-core machines It also goes without saying that XP users will be left out in the cold on this one.

You can read more here.

Electronic Arts and Crytek announced today that development work has begun on Crysis Warhead. Warhead is described as the parallel story to the first person shooter Crysis. The new game will be built on an improved version of the CryEngine 2 game engine, one of the first DirectX 10 optimized gaming engines!

According to Crytek, will assume the role of Sergeant Sykes in Crysis Warhead and experience his “parallel story during the events of the original game, finding that life on the other side of the island is even more intense and explosive than they ever could have imagined.”

The game will be available for PC this fall. Rumor has it that Warhead will be Crysis Warhead will be Crytek's last PC-only game, as company intends to slowly shift focus towards gaming consoles… As Crytek is powerful in DirectX programming, it is speculated extension to Xbox 360 and its successor, while it is still unclear if company will produce a PS3 version as well…

Expected to be available for download starting March 5, ATI Catalyst 8.3 is a milestone software update in delivering both CrossFireX™ for Windows Vista® — the world’s first quad-GPU support, and scalable, cost-effective three GPU support — as well as ATI Hybrid Graphics Technology for casual gamers. These multi-GPU capabilities provide gamers a more realistic and immersive experience allowing them to play at high resolutions with demanding image quality settings, and at a better value than competing multi-GPU solutions. Download here.  BUT - if you do not want to wait another 10 hours - download drivers here! They were released to journalists at AMD's press conference in CeBit, and ARE the final version!!! Read more about Catalyst 8.3 new features on next pages…

Nvidia is usually pretty good at keeping its next-gen graphics plans hush hush, but at CeBit we managed to get exclusive backstage first pictures of upcoming Geforce 9800 GX2 (G92), which is, after months of delay (shouly be out by christmas 2007) caused by silicon problems, about to be released in early march… The best way to think of The GeForce 9800 GX2 card is basically an 8800 GPU that has been die shrunk to 65nm and placed in an SLI configuration within a single card, but not within single board (as ATI managed with 3870X2).This is interesting, as 9800 should by all means take over the position of TOP DirectX10 card, a title that was stolen from the green team a month ago with AMD's Radeon 3870X2. Nvidia is confident that its G92 high-end graphics card should win, as it packs around of teraflop of computing performance.