Posted on Tuesday, June 16 2009 @ 2:02 CEST by Thomas De Maesschalck
TweakTown
heard a rumor that PC Partner, the company behind Sapphire and Zotac, may be planning to retool an operation to accommodate Intel's upcoming Larrabee GPU.
Of the five possible segments for Larrabee to hit - WS, Enthusiast, Performance, Mainstream, and Value/entry – graphics guru, Jon Peddie, reckons “Intel will shoot for the Performance segment,” taking a cue from ATI’s model of targeting the segment with the highest volume of sales. This would largely make sense, although the firm might also do well to target the WS segment with its high margins and options to out-invest partners in ISV relations. Indeed, this could even make or break success at the end of the day.
WS, however, is very much NVIDIA’s bread-basket for margins - one which AMD has tried and failed repeatedly to crack. If Intel manages to convert Zotac, a dyed in the wool NVIDIA partner, it would be a massive blow to the Green machine, sending yet another partner to the wall.
Industry insiders tell us they are “pretty positive” PCP will be retooling for Larrabee, but whether or not this goes to Sapphire or Zotac, is another matter entirely.
