Intel is potentially looking to enhance its Arrow Lake Refresh CPUs for desktop and laptop platforms by incorporating an improved NPU, or Neural Processing Unit. This upgrade would likely come at an additional cost. Currently, the upcoming high-end Arrow Lake CPUs, such as the “S” desktop and “HX” laptop line, are set to launch without integrated dedicated NPU hardware. NPUs will be limited to Intel’s Lake Arrow-H/U and Lunar Lake Potato Chips with Core Ultra 200V chips offering up to 48 TOPs of performance. These new NPUs will be in the form of a unit called NPU4.
AMD currently stands as the only chipmaker offering a desktop chip with a dedicated NPU in the form of Ryzen 8000G “Hawk Point” Chips for the AM5 platform. However, Intel could be looking to change that soon by incorporating a dedicated NPU within its own line of chips for high-end desktops and laptops under the Arrow Lake-S and Arrow Lake-HX platforms.
Reports suggest that Intel might be planning a refresh of its Arrow Lake CPUs to include an NPU within the SOC module. It is expected that the die size of the Arrow Lake CPUs will increase by 2.8 mm with the addition of the NPU. The dedicated NPU will be present in the Arrow Lake-S and Arrow Lake-HX refresh CPUs, with the die size increasing but the package size remaining the same. Motherboard compatibility will depend on whether Fast Voltage Mode (FVM) is enabled on the VccSA rail, which will be up to board vendors to implement.
It will be intriguing to see how Intel’s NPU-powered desktop and laptop chips perform. While it is still early to discuss an Arrow Lake refresh as the first-generation Arrow Lake CPUs have yet to launch, it seems that Intel may be considering a refresh with Panther Lake in 2025 to follow. The hype surrounding the “PC AI” segment suggests that motherboard vendors may seek to capitalize on incorporating support for NPUs in their products.
Overall, the potential inclusion of an improved NPU in Intel’s Arrow Lake Refresh CPUs signifies a move towards enhancing performance and capabilities in high-end desktop and laptop platforms. Users can look forward to advancements in AI processing and overall computing efficiency with this upgrade.
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https://wccftech.com/intel-arrow-lake-refresh-cpu-might-feature-upgraded-npu-leading-to-larger-die-size/
