A rare Intel Larrabee prototype has been restored to working order after a Reddit user discovered the hardware at a storage auction. The system, known as Intel Visual Adrenaline, includes a DX58SO motherboard, a C0 stepping Larrabee sample, and a diagnostic board. To boot Windows 7, the user had to use a DVI connection and adjust BIOS settings for the storage controller.
The discovery included two USB drives containing 82 MB and 728 MB of development software, drivers, and VBIOS instructions. These recovered files enabled 3D acceleration on the abandoned graphics project. The Larrabee architecture, first detailed in 2008, relied on x86 cores with vector units and dedicated texture hardware to compete with NVIDIA and AMD.
Intel canceled the consumer launch of Larrabee in December 2009 due to development delays, though the technology later influenced Xeon Phi accelerators. Testing the restored prototype with the game Crysis at 720p resolution and medium settings yielded initial results of over 17 FPS. A second recovered driver further improved performance to approximately 36 FPS.
