Core i7, Larrabee, and QPI links

[VirtualLarry]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but the current crop of enthusiast consumer i7 CPUs only come with one QPI link enabled, whereas the server 1366 chips come with two.

That brings me to this question - Nemisis1 keeps talking about high-speed QPI links between i7 and Larrabee. How will that work, if the second QPI link is disabled on consumer chips? And will there be a "QPI slot" on the mobo for Larrabee? Methinks this whole thing will require both new motherboards, and new CPUs, leaving current i7 early adopters in the dust when all of this new tech comes out.

Either that, or Intel will make Larrabee mainstream, by using a conventional PCI-E x16 2.0 link, at the cost of potentially crippling what it can really do.

It seems like it's a struggle between the pure technology (using QPI for higher performance), versus marketing and consumer marketability (use PCI-E x16 for ubiquity and lower prices).

 

[aigomorla]

the second qpi is really only needed for cross cpu communications... (DP Board)

That is what i heard...

 

[dmens]

heh QPI and PCI-E are interchangable

 

[heyheybooboo]

Originally posted by: dmens
heh QPI and PCI-E are interchangable

PCIe uses 8- or 10-bit encoding.

Quickpath uses 20-bit encoding.

HyperTransport reaches up to 32-bit.

 

[PCTC2]

Originally posted by: dmens
heh QPI and PCI-E are interchangable

Intel's DMI and PCIe are interchangable. It is a slightly modified PCIe 1x I believe. But QPI is different I thought.

EDIT: I was beaten to the post. I guess i shouldn't leave replies up for 50 minutes before hitting reply...

 

[dmens]

well not directly interchangable, but it is nonetheless

can't really say much more sorry