Phoronix reports that Intel's Meteor Lake and Arrow Lake might feature a similar VPU, suggesting that Intel plans for an early-stage adoption for now. The rapid AI developments promoted Intel to what it calls a "VPU", which is a dedicated AI engine.
Intel Meteor Lake & Arrow Lake CPUs Feature A Similar VPU For AI Tasks, Eventually Pushing The Throttle With Lunar Lake In 2025
The Intel VPU (Versatile Processing Unit) is an effort by Intel to catalyze genAI developments on a consumer end. The idea was revealed in May 2022 for Meteor Lake CPUs, when the company demoed an enormous performance bump in applications such as Stable Diffusion, along with providing much better power efficiency figures. To sum it up, it is a step towards catering to every part of the industry, and since AI-based applications are on the rise now, the inclusion of VPUs will make Meteor Lake stand out.
Now coming back, Linux has foreseen early "VPU" developments for a while now, with Intel's next-gen Lunar Lake lineup getting the support as well. Phoronix discloses that the PCI IDs associated with the respective VPUs of Meteor Lake and Arrow Lake suggest that both lineups may feature a similar type. However, we are yet to know about the exact details. Intel has divided the advantages of VPUs into two different tiers, which you can look at below:
- Enhanced Audio Effects
- Creator And Gaming Effects
- AI Assistants (Microsoft 365 Copilot)
- Bringing AI locally to client machines.
The second-tier advantages include:
- AI Compute Required For Enhancements GOPS
- AI Compute Required For Large Language Models (TOPS) - ChatGPT
Now, with VPUs, Intel is transitioning towards the future, and today's development by no means is a setback since the technology is currently in a "naive" state, and Intel still has a lot of work to do. However, industry sources have cited that dedicated AI engines squeezed into processors hold immense potential, especially for the generative AI sector, since it will cater to many problems involving the need for "complex" hardware.
Intel has recently released its Meteor Lake products, set to debut by the 14th of December. You can view our detailed roundup of the 1st Gen Core Ultra family to learn about the lineup's capabilities, especially the enhancements made in the AI department.
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