We have learned that the first Larrabee product will intially appear as a software development platform instead of  a discrete graphics product, and AMD believes the fact that Intel fails to deliver the graphics processor in a timely manner is resulted by Intel’s improper design philosophy.

Different from today’s GPUs, Larrabee is based on a Pentium P54C design uses the x86 instruction set. Dave Erskine, Graphics Public Relations of AMD, told Tom’s Hardware that this is not the right one to go with.

“It really comes down to design philosophy,” said Erskine. “GPUs are hard to design and you can’t design one with a CPU-centric approach that utilizes existing x86 cores.”

“We’re entering a new era in PC computing and it requires that visual computing technologies drive the pace of innovation. We call this Velocity. AMD Velocity builds on our already established GPU design cycle to achieve a faster pace of innovation than AMD previously achieved with a CPU-only development focus. AMD velocity is designed to deliver performance breakthroughs via teraFLOPS-class GPU compute power in tandem with performance and low-power x86 core options. We expect this will result in a clear, compelling platform differentiation for AMD, and the delivery of the best APU on the market every year.”

“From the outset, we have seen Larrabee as further validation of the importance of visual computing. We continue to assert that GPU technology is essential to the computing experience, today and tomorrow,” Erskine claimed. “AMD is the technology leader in GPU technology for 3D graphics, video and GPU Compute.”

“With only CPU, or GPU, a company is limited in its ability to respond to the needs of the industry,” Erskine added. “AMD is the only company in command of both GPU and CPU IP portfolios, and in response to the clear direction of the computer industry we’re bringing CPU and GPU together in Fusion.”