Microsoft plans to integrate its Copilot artificial intelligence into its operating systems, there are even rumors about a Windows 12 which would use this technology in several of its functions. Thinking about this technology, Intel has just announced the Core Ultra Lunar Lake processors. These processors are characterized by the integration of specific cores necessary for the AI to function as intended.
AI-specific cores in processors are called NPU (Neural processing unit). They have a different design from “classic” cores, offering large computing capacity for a very specific task. Its computing power is measured in TOPS (billions or tera operations per second). In simple terms, it measures the number of simple AI-related mathematical operations per second that can be performed.
Better AI performance with new NPUs
during the conference Intel Vision Core Ultra Lunar Lake processors have been confirmed. These processors will be intended for what is called Ultrabook, very compact, light and powerful laptops. The specifications of these processors have not been revealed, but they have yielded some interesting data.
Intel talked about Lunar Lake NPUs, providing some pretty interesting general data. We offer them at least until 45 TOPS. The current Core Ultra Meteor Lake They offer a power of up to 10 TOPS, so we have more than quadrupled the power for AI. They haven’t revealed if they will increase the number of NPUs, although it seems pretty obvious.
Microsoft recently stated that the Co-pilot artificial intelligence will perform tasks locally. Microsoft’s AI will have a big integration in the rumor Windows 12
An important aspect for the new Copilot is that it will be quite demanding. The company emphasized that NPUs offering at least 40 TOPS would be required to have adequate performance.
As we mentioned, Intel’s Meteor Lakes already on the market offer 10 TOPS. AMD It only offers the processor Ryzen 8040 which has an NPU with a power of 16 TOPS. For its part, AMD would finalize the development of Strix Point chips with NPUs which would offer up to 40 TOPS.
We can therefore understand that Microsoft does not need either the AMD Ryzen 8040 processor or the current Core Ultra Meteor Lake for its AI. This implies that you will have to change equipment (or at least processor) to take advantage of the new Copilot.
Lunar Lake launches in December
The company has hinted that Lunar Lake will arrive by Christmas 2024. This means that the first laptops equipped with these chips should hit the market between late November and early December. Undoubtedly, the company wants to take advantage of the sharp increase in technology sales during the Christmas period.
Among other things, these processors will use Arc Xe2 Battlemage graphics integrated into the processor. Something very interesting, because it will mean a big jump in gaming performance. So we should be able to play a wide variety of games smoothly, without large graphic displays.
