Last month, Intel revealed that it would launch Core Ultra processors, codenamed Meteor Lake, for mobile devices (such as laptops) on December 14, 2023. These are the first consumer-grade chipsets from the brand to feature neural processing units (NPU), which accelerate tasks that use artificial intelligence (AI). However, there aren’t many applications on Windows that make use of AI, which means that the NPUs in the company's upcoming processors won’t be very useful in real life, and Intel doesn’t want that.
That’s why Intel has now announced the AI PC Acceleration Program. This initiative will help developers integrate AI-powered features into their applications so that these apps can use the NPUs in the Intel Core Ultra processors and prove these hardware AI accelerators to be a worthy addition to the chipsets. In order to help them design AI-powered apps, Intel will introduce developers to AI toolkits like OpenVINO, and it will also help them market those AI features.
Intel is working with more than 100 independent software vendors (ISVs) on this program, including Adobe, Audacity, BlackMagic, BufferZone, CyberLink, DeepRender, Fortemedia, MAGIX, Rewind AI, Skylum, Topaz, VideoCom, Webex, Wondershare Filmora, XSplit and Zoom, to bring more than 300 AI-accelerated features to developers which will help in many tasks, including audio effects, content creation, gaming, security, streaming, and video collaboration.
Intel AI PC Acceleration Program will also help Apple and AMD
In an interview with Engadget, Rober Hallock, Senior Director of Technical Marketing at Intel, said that the AI features developers integrate into their applications using the AI PC Acceleration Program should also work on devices from Apple and those with AMD processors. So, according to him, this initiative also helps Intel’s competitors and the whole industry.
Hallock says that NPU will soon be common in PC processors, which would make them something that developers can rely on. “In the quest for performance per Watt, having this third accelerator (NPU) makes a big difference. It extends battery life, it allows GPU offloads. That's one of the key benefits,” said Hallock to the publication. Note that the recently-launched processors from AMD, such as the Ryzen 7040 Series also feature NPU cores, which are dubbed AMD XDNA Cores.
