Dec 15, 2023 11:43:00

Intel officially announces 14th generation SoC 'Core Ultra' processor for notebook PCs, with emphasis on AI performance with NPU installed

Intel has officially announced the 14th generation Core platform processor `` Core Ultra '' series for notebook PCs. Core Ultra is the first consumer SoC designed with Intel 4 process nodes, and the key point is that it is the first Intel SoC to be equipped with a neural processing unit (NPU) specialized for AI processing.

Intel® Core™ Ultra Processor

https://www.intel.co.jp/content/www/jp/ja/products/details/processors/core-ultra.html

Intel Accelerates AI Everywhere with Launch of Powerful Next-Gen Products :: Intel Corporation (INTC)
https://www.intc.com/news-events/press-releases/detail/1663/intel-accelerates-ai-everywhere-with-launch-of-powerful

Intel Releases Core Ultra H and U-Series Processors: Meteor Lake Brings AI and Arc to Ultra Thin Notebooks
https://www.anandtech.com/show/21185/intel-releases-core-ultra-h-and-u-series-processors-meteor-lake-brings-ai-and-arc-to-ultra-thin- notebooks

Intel launches Core Ultra processors to power up your next laptop with AI | TechRadar
https://www.techradar.com/computing/cpu/intel-launches-core-ultra-processors-to-power-up-your-next-laptop-with-ai

The specifications of the announced Core Ultra H series and Core Ultra U series are as follows.

	Intel Core Ultra 9 185H	Intel Core Ultra 7 165H	Intel Core Ultra 7 155H	Intel Core Ultra 5 135H	Intel Core Ultra 5 125H	Intel Core Ultra 7 165U	Intel Core Ultra 7 164U	Intel Core Ultra 7 155U	Intel Core Ultra 5 135U	Intel Core Ultra 5 134U	Intel Core Ultra 5 125U
CPU core/thread	16 cores/22 threads	16 cores/22 threads	16 cores/22 threads	14 cores/18 threads	14 cores/18 threads	12 cores/14 threads	12 cores/14 threads	12 cores/14 threads	12 cores/14 threads	12 cores/14 threads	12 cores/14 threads
P core	6 cores	6 cores	6 cores	4 cores	4 cores	2 cores	2 cores	2 cores	2 cores	2 cores	2 cores
E-core	8 cores (LP/2 cores)	8 cores (LP/2 cores)	8 cores (LP/2 cores)	8 cores (LP/2 cores)	7 cores (LP/2 cores)	8 cores (LP/2 cores)	8 cores (LP/2 cores)	8 cores (LP/2 cores)	8 cores (LP/2 cores)	8 cores (LP/2 cores)	8 cores (LP/2 cores)
smart cash	24MB	24MB	24MB	18MB	18MB	12MB	12MB	12MB	12MB	12MB	12MB
maximum turbo frequency	P core: 5.1GHz E-core: 3.8GHz	P core: 5.0GHz E-core: 3.8GHz	P core: 4.8GHz E-core: 3.8GHz	P core: 4,6GHz E-core: 3.6GHz	P core: 4.5GHz E-core: 3.6GHz	P core: 4.9GHz E-core: 3.8GHz	P core: 4.8GHz E-core: 3.8GHz	P core: 4.8GHz E-core: 3.8GHz	P core: 4.4GHz E-core: 3.6GHz	P core: 4.4GHz E-core: 3.6GHz	P core: 4.3GHz E-core: 3.5GHz
Integrated GPU	Intel Arc GPU Up to 2.35GHz Xe core x 8	Intel Arc GPU Up to 2.3GHz Xe core x 8	Intel Arc GPU Up to 2.25GHz Xe core x 8	Intel Arc GPU Up to 2.2GHz Xe core x 7	Intel Arc GPU Up to 2.2GHz Xe core x 7	Intel graphics up to 2GHz Xe core x 4	Intel graphics up to 1.8GHz Xe core x 4	Intel graphics up to 1.95GHz Xe core x 4	Intel graphics up to 1.9GHz Xe core x 4	Intel graphics up to 1.75GHz Xe core x 4	Intel graphics up to 1.85GHz Xe core x 4
NPU	Intel AI Boost, 2x Gen 3	Intel AI Boost, 2x Gen 3	Intel AI Boost, 2x Gen 3	Intel AI Boost, 2x Gen 3	Intel AI Boost, 2x Gen 3	Intel AI Boost, 2x Gen 3	Intel AI Boost, 2x Gen 3	Intel AI Boost, 2x Gen 3	Intel AI Boost, 2x Gen 3	Intel AI Boost, 2x Gen 3	Intel AI Boost, 2x Gen 3
memory	DDR-5600 96GB LPDDR/x-7467 64GB	DDR-5600 96GB LPDDR/x-7467 64GB	DDR-5600 96GB LPDDR/x-7467 64GB	DDR-5600 96GB LPDDR/x-7467 64GB	DDR-5600 96GB LPDDR/x-7467 64GB	DDR-5600 96GB LPDDR/x-7467 64GB	LPDDR5/x-6400 64GB	DDR-5600 96GB LPDDR/x-7467 64GB	DDR-5600 96GB LPDDR/x-7467 64GB	LPDDR5/x-6400 64GB	DDR-5600 96GB LPDDR/x-7467 64GB
basic power	45W	28W	28W	28W	28W	15W	9W	15W	15W	9W	15W
Turbo power	115W	64W, 115W	64W, 115W	64W, 115W	64W, 115W	57W	30W	57W	57W	30W	57W

The Core Ultra series is based on the Meteor Lake architecture announced by Intel in September 2023. This Meteor Lake architecture is an SoC architecture that pursues power efficiency, and has a configuration method that distributes it into four tiles: compute (CPU), graphics (GPU), I/O, and SoC.

Among these, the compute tile, which corresponds to the CPU die, has a 'P core' that is a high-performance core that emphasizes processing performance, and an 'E core' that is a high efficiency core that emphasizes processing efficiency, and the SoC tile has an E core that is a high-performance core that emphasizes processing efficiency. It is equipped with the 'Low Power Island E core (LP E core)' which emphasizes processing efficiency even more.

This Meteor Lake architecture is made possible by Foveros packaging developed by Intel.

Furthermore, the Core Ultra series announced this time uses Intel 4 nodes.

Intel's new process node 'Intel 4' improves performance by 21.5% with the same power as conventional products & achieves the same performance with 40% less power - GIGAZINE

Intel claims that the Core Ultra series improves power efficiency by reducing the number of nodes and installing an NPU, and that notebook PCs will have better battery life. The Core Ultra 7 165H uses 25% less power than the previous generation Core i7-1370P.

Intel compared the Ultra 7 165H to the previous generation Core i7-1370P, AMD's Ryzen 7 7840U, and Qualcomm 8cx Gen 3, and the Core Ultra 7 165H outperformed the Ryzen 7 7840U in tests based on SPECrate*2017_int_base(n-copy). It claims to have 11% better performance compared to the Core i7-1370P and 9% better performance than the Core i7-1370P.

Regarding graphics, the Core Ultra H series is based on Intel Arc, and the Core Ultra U series is Intel graphics. Intel claims that the Core Ultra 7 165H has up to 2x faster graphics performance than the 13th generation Core i7-1370P.

Also, a feature of the Core Ultra series is that it is equipped with an NPU, and it has a computing power of up to 35 TOPS with the CPU, GPU, and NPU. Intel claimed that the Core Ultra series can run Meta's large-scale language model LLama2-7B locally.

The Core Ultra series will be installed in notebook PCs from Asus, MSI, Samsung, and Lenovo and will be introduced to the market. However, the top model Intel Core Ultra 9 will be released a little later, in March 2024.

In addition, Intel also announced that it will launch Gaudi3, a generation AI accelerator that will compete with NVIDIA's H100 and AMD's MI300X, in 2024. Gaudi3 is the third generation processor from Habana Labs, a top AI manufacturer acquired by Intel in December 2019, and is said to have four times the FP16 processing performance compared to the previous generation Gaudi2 .