Intel Larrabee stuck with 12-layer PCB

If the rumours spread by FUD Zilla are correct the first-generation Larrabee GPUs from Intel won't be that exciting. The site claimed a few days ago that these chips won't have any power saving features which would result in 300W in load, 200W in 2D applications and a staggering 100W idle power consumption.

Today the rumour mill heard Intel is having problems to make Larrabee cost-effective as the card is stuck with a 12-layer PCB - that's four layers more than what the high-end graphics cards from NVIDIA and ATI use.

This is a cause of concern, as it'll make it very expensive to make these PCB, not taking into consideration all the other components going into making a graphics cards. Intel will be selling cards to its partners much like what AMD and Nvidia are doing today when it comes to the high-end parts.

However, if the current requirements stay in place, it's unlikely that any of Intel's partners are going to be willing to make their own cards any time soon due to the high production costs involved.

The cooling on the card is meant to look similar to what you can find on high-end Nvidia cards today, or at least that's what Intel has been showing potential partners, although this might as yet change before the final product arrives.