229TOPS! Intel enters AI cockpit market: Nvidia/Qualcomm/Horizon Robotics and others face strong competitors!

On the afternoon of August 8, Intel held the "Intel AI Cockpit and In-vehicle Discrete Graphics Card Launch Conference" in Shenzhen, and launched its first Ruixuan™ in-vehicle discrete graphics card - Arc A760. With a powerful computing power of up to 229TOPS , it will help automakers enter the forefront of technology and bring the ultimate generative AI experience to the smart cockpit .

Onboard independent graphics card Arc A760: 229TOPS

According to reports, Intel Arc A760 is an automotive-grade independent graphics card (supporting -40℃～105℃), with 28 Xe cores, 28 ray tracing units and up to 448 AI-oriented XMX/vector engines. It also integrates 16GB video memory and supports PCle 4.0×16 interface. This independent GPU can provide up to 14 single-precision teraflops of floating-point operations, with an accelerated clock frequency of about 1953MHz, slightly lower than the 2.05 GHz of Arc A750. In terms of AI performance, thanks to the powerful Xe core and XMX engine, Arc A760 can provide up to 229TOPS of AI computing power , mainly for AI reasoning.

In comparison, the AI ​​computing power of Qualcomm's most powerful smart cockpit chip, Snapdragon 8295, is only 30TOPS; NVIDIA 's DRIVE Orin has an AI computing power of 254TOPS (although the computing power of the new generation of DRIVE Thor is as high as 1000TOPS, it will not be available until next year); the strongest Horizon Journey 6 series, the Journey 6P, has a computing power of 560TOPS (but it is composed of 4 128TOPS BPUs and is mainly aimed at intelligent driving); the AI ​​computing power of the C1200 series newly launched by Black Sesame Intelligence is also less than 100TOPS.

Obviously, from the perspective of AI computing power, Intel Arc A760 is undoubtedly a high-end product in the current smart cockpit market, and its AI performance is comparable to NVIDIA DRIVE Orin. Compared with SoCs such as Snapdragon 8295, Horizon Journey 6 series, and Black Sesame Smart C1200, Intel Arc A760 not only has stronger computing power and can more flexibly cope with various AI algorithm models, but also has powerful graphics processing capabilities. With the powerful Xe graphics core, it can support decoding and encoding of multiple video formats including HEVC, VP9 and AV1, and coupled with chip-level enhanced hardware virtualization functions, Arc A760 can support 8 independent 4K displays at the same time and handle different tasks at the same time, fully meeting the needs of the in-vehicle infotainment system in the car , and helping software-defined vehicles (SDV).

According to Intel, Arc A760 can support running large language models locally, as well as running AAA-level large games and various AI PC applications . It also supports 3D rendering to enhance the user interface and supports up to six camera inputs.

With the continuous development of generative AI technology represented by ChatGPT since 2023 , the capabilities of generative AI have become increasingly powerful and are rapidly entering the terminal side such as smartphones , PCs, and cars for empowerment. In the view of Gao Yu, general manager of technology for Intel China, compared with the traditional AI experience of smart cockpits, the deployment of generative AI in car cockpits can bring five major advantages: no need to rely on the network, immediate response, lower end-to-end cost, privacy protection, and high personalization.

With the powerful AI computing support of Intel Arc A760, it can enable a full-scenario generative AI smart cockpit experience, such as AI virtual co-pilot, AI travel companion, AI business secretary, AI creative assistant, AI health butler and other five application scenarios, including 15 related AI key capabilities.

According to Gao Yu, Intel Arc A760 can support large models with more than 14 billion parameters running in the cockpit, which is enough to support most large models on the edge. When running a large model on the edge with about 6 billion parameters, the delay of the first token generation is only 58ms, and up to 188 tokens can be generated per second, which is enough to quickly respond to various user needs.

In terms of power consumption, the Arc A760 consumes 225 watts under full load. Although this power consumption is relatively high, it is not a problem for automotive applications.

According to reports, Arc A760 will be mass-produced in 2025, which will inject strong impetus into the development of AI cars and accelerate the advancement of automotive technology, unlocking a new AI cockpit experience for automakers and users, and opening a new era of personalized customization and intelligent interaction in car cockpits. However, Intel has not announced which automakers will use this independent GPU.

Build an independent computing and scalable automotive platform

As early as this year's CES, Intel launched the first generation of Intel software-defined vehicle SoC series, which is actually an automotive-grade cabin-driver integrated chip. In the view of Xinzhixun, this chip seems to be benchmarked against Qualcomm Snapdragon 8155.

Specifically, this car SoC seems to be based on the Core Ultra U, with a 12-core design, including two performance P cores, eight efficiency E cores, and two low-power cores (LP cores). It also integrates an Xe core inside, supports four independent displays, and supports up to 8K resolution.

The SOC also integrates an NPU core with a computing power of about 8TOPS, as well as WiFi, Bluetooth , and other functions, as well as various I/O interfaces .

Jack Weast said that the chip combines Intel's rich technical experience in the fields of AI PC and data center , not only providing the power management and performance scalability required by automakers, but also realizing differentiated artificial intelligence functions to adapt to different workloads and operating environments. The product will be shipped in large quantities before the end of 2024. In addition, the chip supports the "Chiplet" standard of UCIe, and manufacturers can flexibly expand chip functions as needed, and can connect other IPs to Intel's products, thereby supporting different chips to access the same host.

As Xinzhixun said before, Intel's automotive SoC should be benchmarked against Qualcomm's Snapdragon 8155. However, with the launch of Qualcomm Snapdragon 8295, Snapdragon 8155 has been decentralized. Therefore, Intel's automotive SoC is mainly aimed at entry-level and mid-range models.

With the release of Intel's in-vehicle discrete graphics card Arc A760, high-end models can also meet the growing demand for computing power in increasingly complex car cockpits by deploying Intel's in-vehicle discrete graphics cards, and use the powerful computing power it brings to obtain more advanced functions. Since the relevant software is fully compatible with integrated graphics cards and discrete graphics cards, this solution will also greatly simplify the development process of automobile manufacturers and improve development efficiency.

By integrating with the AI-enhanced software-defined (SDV) in-vehicle SoC series and in-vehicle discrete graphics cards, Intel will provide automakers with an open, flexible and highly scalable platform solution that will bring better and higher-level immersive experiences to vehicles.

Intel said its AI cockpit experience demonstrates a future vision: in-vehicle AI technology establishes intuitive and personalized interactions between drivers, passengers and vehicles, which will not only promote the realization of personalized driving experience, but also optimize driving-related operations.

Jack Weast, Intel Fellow, Intel Vice President, and General Manager of the Automotive Division, said: "Intel's strategy is to introduce AI into all types of devices. We are very happy to introduce Intel's expertise in AI and a large open AI ecosystem to the automotive industry . At present, China's new energy vehicle industry is in a period of rapid development and is at the forefront of the world in the exploration and application of advanced technologies. Intel is honored to work with Chinese customers and partners to promote the implementation of our next-generation solutions in this land of innovation."

Huge ecological support

In terms of AI cockpit ecology, thanks to Intel's previously launched AI PC acceleration program, Intel has worked closely with more than 100 ISV partners to bring together more than 500 features and AI applications , which can quickly enter the automotive ecology. By working with these partners, Intel can provide automakers with an unparalleled ecosystem to create an extraordinary cockpit experience.

For example, after installing Intel's software-defined vehicle SoC, automakers can continue to introduce Intel's vehicle-mounted discrete graphics cards to manage larger computing workloads and use a unified instruction set to expand AI capabilities, thereby significantly simplifying the development process.

At the event, ThunderSoft also demonstrated its next-generation cockpit UI through its Dishui OS cockpit, which supports 7 high-definition screens for 3D image rendering, 6 in-vehicle cameras and interactive functions. The new UI introduces highly demanding 3A game masterpieces into the in-vehicle environment, while also being able to run AI PC's rich applications to achieve intelligent mobile office.

According to Core Intelligence, ThunderSoft's Dishui OS cockpit is a solution based on the combination of Intel's AI-enhanced software-defined vehicle (SDV) SoC series and Intel's in-vehicle discrete graphics card Arc A760. It is expected that some Chery models may be equipped with it in the future.