Intel Unveils Its Second-Generation Intel Core Ultra Chips, Delivering a Big Boost to AI Performance
Double the performance for Stable Diffusion and more than triple for Meta's Llama 3 8B LLM.
Intel has doubled down on its desire to bring about "the age of the AI PC," announcing new second-generation Core Ultra parts designed to dramatically boost on-device machine learning and generative artificial intelligence (gen AI) at the edge during its keynote at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas this morning.
Back in December 2023 Intel announced that it was to "usher in the age of the AI PC," as part of its vision to "bring AI everywhere." Key to that promise: the integration of high-performance neural processing unit (NPU) hardware into its processors. That integration has now been extended to the company's second-generation Core Ultra parts — all designed, the company claims, with edge AI firmly in mind.
"Intel Core Ultra processors are setting new benchmarks for mobile AI and graphics, once again demonstrating the superior performance and efficiency of the x86 architecture as we shape the future of personal computing," claims Intel interim co-chief executive officer and Intel Products chief executive officer Michelle Johnston. "The strength of our AI PC product innovation, combined with the breadth and scale of our hardware and software ecosystem across all segments of the market, is empowering users with a better experience in the traditional ways we use PCs for productivity, creation and communication, while opening up completely new capabilities with over 400 AI features. And Intel is only going to continue bolstering its AI PC product portfolio in 2025 and beyond as we sample our lead Intel 18A product to customers now ahead of volume production in the second half of 2025."
The second-generation Intel Core Ultra chips announced by the company at the Consumer Electronics Show today span four product classes: the 200HX, 200H, and 200U, and 200V families. The V-suffix parts are, Intel says, designed for "business productivity" and include an updated vPro security platform with support for the Microsoft Pluton security processor; the HX and H parts target "creators and gamers" with up to 24 cores, split between performance-oriented P-cores and low-power efficiency-focused E-cores, in the HX range and the company's latest Arc graphics core in the H range. The HX parts, meanwhile, are described by Intel as its first "mobile enthusiast AI PC" processor to feature a built-in 13 tera-operation per second (TOPS) NPU coprocessor.
The company claims that its new parts deliver a major boost in on-device machine learning and artificial intelligence performance over both its first-generation parts and the competition: the Intel Core Ultra 9 285H, Intel says, more than doubles its predecessor's performance in the Procyon AI computer vision benchmark and the Stable Diffusion 1.5 generative AI model, and more than triples its performance in Meta's source-available Llama 3 8B large language model (LLM).
Intel Core Ultra 200V-series machines are available now, Intel has confirmed, with 200H and 200U devices to follow next month; 200HX systems will be available in the first half of this year, while its 200S desktop processors and systems built around them will launch on January 13, 2025.
