Intel’s First 7nm Xe Discrete GPU Is Allegedly Called Ponte Vecchio

Intel has definitely been slow playing the more interesting details of its modern play in discrete graphics—all we really know for sure is Intel will be launching it first modern discrete GPU in 2020, and that it plans on attacking several different market segments, gaming included. As we wait for more official details, unofficially, one of Intel’s upcoming Xe GPUs is codenamed Ponte Vecchio.

Codenames often have meaning that is tied to the product. In this case, Ponte Vecchio, also known as Old Bridge, is the oldest bridge in Florence, Italy. It extends over the Arno River, and up until 1218, was the only bridge to do so.

According to Videocardz, Intel has shared some details about Ponte Vecchio with the press, including the inspiration behind the codename. It is in reference to an interconnect between the GPUs. The actual interconnect technology is called Compute Express Link (CLX), and will be used by Ponte Vecchio GPUs.

Ponte Vecchio is said to be Intel’s first Xe GPU to be built on a 7-nanometer manufacturing process. It’s not aimed at gaming, though. Instead, Ponte Vecchio is for exascale computing, according to the leaked information. Ponte Vecchio is also reportedly part of project Aurora, an exascale computer featuring a pair of Intel Xeon “Sapphire Rapids” scalable CPUs, half a dozen Ponte Vecchio GPUs, and a new initiative called oneAPI.

Apparently there is a press deck that details some of this stuff. I have not seen the press deck, but if its contents are being reported accurately, Ponte Vecchio will use Intel’s Foveros 3D stacked packing technology. It will also feature ultra-high cache, high memory bandwidth, and high double-precision floating point throughput.

This one is a little further off in the distance, though—Intel Aurora is said to be releasing in 2021. By then, Intel will have already unveiled its first discrete GPU, and perhaps multiple ones.

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