Intel to double down on AI with upcoming Lunar Lake chip, aims to ship 40 million AI PC processors this year

financialexpress.com:

Intel has announced a release window for its Lunar Lake laptop processors. It is set to debut in the third quarter of this year itself. These new x86 chips are specifically designed to enhance the AI capabilities in Copilot Plus PCs.

Interestingly, the announcement comes alongside Microsoft’s Surface and AI event, which was Qualcomm heavy and seemed like the start of a new war with Apple. Intel, which has been at the receiving end, of both parties needed a comeback moment. Maybe, this is it.

In response, Intel has claimed that its Lunar Lake laptop processors deliver 1.4 times faster performance in Stable Diffusion 1.5 compared to the Arm-based Snapdragon X Elite, which was all the buzz at Microsoft’s Copilot Plus PC event.

While technical details are still under the wraps, the Lunar Lake processors will include an unspecified CPU, an integrated Xe2 GPU, and a neural processing unit (NPU). Compared to Meteor Lake, Intel is quoting some phenomenal gains in AI squarely because its NPU can clock over 40 tera operations per second (TOPS) compared to the puny 10 TOPS provided by Meteor Lake chips. And so, these new chips can deliver up to three times faster AI performance, at least in theory.

In a press release sent out to the media, the American chip giant said over 80 new laptop designs from more than 20 OEMs will be rocking its new Lunar Lake chip starting Q3 2024. The company aims to ship 40 million AI PC processors by the end of this year, marking a significant push into the AI-enhanced computing market. This development is part of Intel’s broader strategy to compete with other chipmakers in the rapidly evolving AI landscape, ensuring that its processors can handle demanding AI applications more efficiently. More details