Intel's Cancelled Arctic Sound 'Xe-HP' GPU Resurfaces With Dual Tiles & Quad-HBM2E, a Ghost From Its Abandoned 2021 Roadmap

Key Points:

• Intel's Arctic Sound 2T GPU, based on the Xe-HP architecture and cancelled in 2021, has resurfaced as a rare sample featuring a dual-tile configuration with 1024 EUs and four HBM2E memory sites.
• Originally announced alongside the massive Ponte Vecchio GPU, Arctic Sound was intended for workstation and server markets but was cancelled amid delays and strategic shifts, including the subsequent cancellation of the Falcon Shores lineup.
• The Arctic Sound 2-Tile GPU was designed to deliver around 20.48 TFLOPs at 1.25 GHz with an estimated 300W power draw, part of a lineup scaling up to a 4-Tile GPU with 2048 EUs and 36 TFLOPs.
• Intel has since moved away from HBM memory in favor of GDDR and LPDDR solutions, with upcoming products like Big Battlemage and Crescent Island targeting AI workloads and high memory capacities, while the Jaguar Shores architecture is anticipated in 2027.
• Despite past setbacks and missing early opportunities in the datacenter AI market dominated by NVIDIA and AMD, Intel's current leadership under Lip-Bu Tan aims to avoid further major delays or cancellations in its GPU roadmap.