Intel has officially begun phasing out its Ponte Vecchio and Arctic Sound data center GPUs, marking the end of a chapter in its high-performance accelerator strategy.
The company will now focus its efforts on a new unified architecture called Falcon Shores, scheduled to debut in 2025.
Ponte Vecchio and Arctic Sound Give Way to Falcon Shores
Ponte Vecchio was one of Intel’s most ambitious projects in the field of high-performance computing. Based on a chiplet design and 3D stacking technology, it combined multiple process nodes and high-bandwidth HBM2e memory. Its main purpose was powering the Aurora supercomputer, a key part of Intel’s attempt to compete directly with Nvidia and AMD GPUs. However, the company has decided not to continue deploying this architecture in new systems, limiting its use to existing installations.
Meanwhile, Arctic Sound was developed with a different goal — to provide video processing, graphics virtualization, and light AI capabilities for data centers. Intel had planned a direct successor named Lancaster Sound, but that project was canceled in favor of a more ambitious redesign called Melville Sound, representing a deeper evolution of Intel’s GPU concept for servers.
The transition also affects Rialto Bridge, which was meant to succeed Ponte Vecchio. This GPU has been canceled as part of Intel’s effort to simplify its product portfolio. With Falcon Shores, Intel aims to integrate CPU, GPU, and memory into a modular design known as XPU, offering unified performance and greater energy efficiency.
This decision marks a major shift in Intel’s vision for the future of accelerated computing — focusing on fewer, more coherent, and more efficient products.
