Meet Auburndale. The first attempt at an Intel iGPU. Never released, never photographed before now.

[crispysilicon]

Pity it will never see power.

 

[Bill_Bright]

never photographed before now.

Ummm, pretty sure that's not true. There is a Youtube video with photos out there from April 2020. And of course, others on your reddit thread showed where there are earlier photos on ebay.

My friend Bing Google can find more.

Not sure I would call that Intel's first attempt either. I note this from 2009: Intel details first CPU with integrated GPU. From what I can find, this is about the same time as the Auburndale. If it got to the prototype/engineering stage of development too, I suspect there were even earlier attempts. I seem to remember discussing integrated processors years before then but my aging memory may be a little fuzzy there. I just seem to remember discussing this with a couple specific colleagues with whom I worked with around 2004 - 2005. But again, not sure of my timing there.

I would not call it a pity it will never see power or hit the market. Intel wisely pursues multiple lines of research and development simultaneously. And when one line of pursuit clearly shows promise over the other(s), they drop R&D on those that don't show as much promise.

Plus, IMO, having a discrete CPU and discrete GPU on the same substrate is not technically an "integrated" processor - at least not as it is known today where they are both on the same die.

BUT - if your point is to illustrate to those interested in the history of microprocessors an important step in the evolution of integrated graphics, then for me, it was a nice walk down memory lane.

 

[crispysilicon]

Ummm, pretty sure that's not true. There is a Youtube video with photos out there from April 2020. And of course, others on your reddit thread showed where there are earlier photos on ebay.

My friend Bing Google can find more.

Not sure I would call that Intel's first attempt either. I note this from 2009: Intel details first CPU with integrated GPU. From what I can find, this is about the same time as the Auburndale. If it got to the prototype/engineering stage of development too, I suspect there were even earlier attempts. I seem to remember discussing integrated processors years before then but my aging memory may be a little fuzzy there. I just seem to remember discussing this with a couple specific colleagues with whom I worked with around 2004 - 2005. But again, not sure of my timing there.

I would not call it a pity it will never see power or hit the market. Intel wisely pursues multiple lines of research and development simultaneously. And when one line of pursuit clearly shows promise over the other(s), they drop R&D on those that don't show as much promise.

Plus, IMO, having a discrete CPU and discrete GPU on the same substrate is not technically an "integrated" processor - at least not as it is known today where they are both on the same die.

BUT - if your point is to illustrate to those interested in the history of microprocessors an important step in the evolution of integrated graphics, then for me, it was a nice walk down memory lane.

Knock yourself out with the search engines, there is exactly one previous photo I could find of a similar CPU, which was a previous version, and the photo was corrupt. If you can, more power to you.

That video also isn't the same CPU.

My 5775C also heavily disagrees with your definition of iGPU, since it's also not on the same die and all.

 

[tabascosauz]

Knock yourself out with the search engines, there is exactly one previous photo I could find of a similar CPU, which was a previous version, and the photo was corrupt. If you can, more power to you.

That video also isn't the same CPU.

My 5775C also heavily disagrees with your definition of iGPU, since it's also not on the same die and all.

5775C is not what you think it is. The only thing on the separate die is the 128MB eDRAM. The cores, SA, iGPU and eDRAM controller are all on the same die. The GT3e BGA parts are the same, and the GT3 parts have the same fully functional iGPU without the eDRAM.

It is a cool product still and I don't see the reason for all the holier-than-thou hate above, but Clarkdale is essentially the same thing just die shrunk and readily available. I like to think of this as Clarkdale's early early ES lol

 

[crispysilicon]

5775C is not what you think it is. The only thing on the separate die is the 128MB eDRAM. The cores, SA, iGPU and eDRAM controller are all on the same die. The GT3e BGA parts are the same, and the GT3 parts have the same fully functional iGPU without the eDRAM.

It is a cool product still and I don't see the reason for all the holier-than-thou hate above, but Clarkdale is essentially the same thing just die shrunk and readily available. I like to think of this as Clarkdale's early early ES lol

Yeah, just too tired and too heated at all the hate to think clearly, sorry and thanks. You'd think of all people I would know better too since I delidded the stupid thing.

I swear I don't know why I bother sometimes though.

 

[ZoneDymo]

but, the real question is....can it...it should it be able to...run Crysis?

 

[TheoneandonlyMrK]

Yeah, just too tired and too heated at all the hate to think clearly, sorry and thanks. You'd think of all people I would know better too since I delidded the stupid thing.

I swear I don't know why I bother sometimes though.

It was nice to see bare chipage either way mate Ty.

 

[Toothless]

Yeah, just too tired and too heated at all the hate to think clearly, sorry and thanks. You'd think of all people I would know better too since I delidded the stupid thing.

I swear I don't know why I bother sometimes though.

I'm not sure where the hate is coming from, since they're telling the truth as far as we know. You never listed a specific model of what you delidded.

As for your 5775c.

It's literally a 4770k with big iGPU and eDRAM. The entire eDRAM is the other die on the chip.

 

[crispysilicon]

I'm not sure where the hate is coming from, since they're telling the truth as far as we know.

Auburndale was a mobile only chip, the desktop version, that would have been Havendale.

The only "real" version of it, would be BGA, like the one I found. The previous corrupt picture I found was also BGA. All the other pictures I've found, that video included, are PGA parts. It's easy to see, square, vs rectangle. If it was to actually go into a laptop, it should look like this.

You'll notice in the video Bill_Bright posted above

Watch towards 2/3rd when he posts the pictures of the released Arrandale. You'll notice it's also rectangular. But that was also on a new shrink, so the dies are of differing size.

I've seen lots of supposed pictures of Auburndale, but this is the only one I've ever seen that looked that like corrupted one, and also resembles something that would actually go into a laptop. Somebody in the Reddit post said that there were PGA Auburndales as he tested them. But I can't find any confirmation on that. He DID however, verify that any with dies of varying size are not Auburndale.

 

[Hardware Geek]

Auburndale was a mobile only chip, the desktop version, that would have been Havendale.

The only "real" version of it, would be BGA, like the one I found. The previous corrupt picture I found was also BGA. All the other pictures I've found, that video included, are PGA parts. It's easy to see, square, vs rectangle. If it was to actually go into a laptop, it should look like this.

You'll notice in the video Bill_Bright posted above

Watch towards 2/3rd when he posts the pictures of the released Arrandale. You'll notice it's also rectangular. But that was also on a new shrink, so the dies are of differing size.

I've seen lots of supposed pictures of Auburndale, but this is the only one I've ever seen that looked that like corrupted one, and also resembles something that would actually go into a laptop. Somebody in the Reddit post said that there were PGA Auburndales as he tested them. But I can't find any confirmation on that. He DID however, verify that any with dies of varying size are not Auburndale.

I just watched that video and it incorrectly states the F series doesn't have an igpu. Sure it is disabled, probably due to a defect in thqe gpu, but it is the video would be better for a video intended to be informative. I thought the rest was pretty good otherwise.