By Rutvi Trivedi, Murali Ambati, Freddy Chiu
As Artificial Intelligence (AI) is infused into every application, it’s transforming the PC experience, enabling new AI capabilities for creators to innovate, new tools to enhance productivity, and innovative ways to collaborate. To enable these new AI experiences, it requires a new approach to building the PC. Intel is leading the PC transformation by unlocking the possibilities of AI in the PC starting with our upcoming Intel Core Ultra, and the establishment of the AI PC acceleration program to boot-strap the ecosystem for the next generation of PCs: AI PC.
One of the most exciting capabilities in Intel’s Core Ultra is the integration of a dedicated AI accelerator: the Intel Neural Processing Unit (NPU). This accelerator is integrated directly into the SoC, enabling high-performance AI compute to be executed with relatively low-power envelope and freeing up compute resources from the CPU and GPU. This innovation unlocks new possibilities, enabling exciting AI usages in the PC.
To unleash AI in the PC ecosystem with this powerful NPU, Intel has partnered with Microsoft to deliver the industry’s first NPU with Windows API support through DirectML. This partnership enables developers to take advantage of the rich ONNX (Open Neural Network eXchange) ecosystem which includes models from the ONNX Model Zoo, tools like Intel’s Neural Compressor, and the ONNX Runtime, to bootstrap and enable developers to deploy their AI on PC. With added support for NPU with DirectML, developers can take advantage of APIs like the ONNX Runtime to offload AI model execution on Intel’s NPU with DirectML, as shown in the following figure:
This is just the beginning of the AI PC! Stay tuned for further announcements on Intel’s Core Ultra, its NPU capabilities for high-compute/low-power AI engine, and upcoming DirectML release supporting NPU acceleration in early 2024. We look forward to the age of AI and excited to accelerate the AI PC together, scaling with our partners at Microsoft to enable high-performance and low-power AI on the Windows developer ecosystem, to enable our developers deliver transforming AI experiences for our customers.
Additional Reading: https://blogs.windows.com/windowsdeveloper/?p=56905