Intel says that its many-core supercomputer-like x86 Larrabee GPU chip, a challenge to Nvidia and ATI, has seen first silicon and is currently in debug.

The widget is expected to hit volume production early next year.

Now all Intel needs is multi-threaded streaming vector software that can parallelize across maybe 16 cores so it can scale linearly, well, nearly.

Of course, during the company's earnings call Tuesday, CEO Paul Otellini said the Larrabee chip shown recently in China was an "extreme" version and that other versions with fewer cores and lower price points would hit market too.