Intel is empowering the future of PCs to be smarter through hardware and software

When the driverless car is speeding on the road, it uses computer vision, on-board terminals, low-latency wireless networks, powerful cloud computing servers and other media to automatically avoid obstacles, pedestrians and traffic, and even overtake like a human. All of this makes us feel too magical. Because a cold car seems to have human thinking and human perception...

The industry strives to give objects new interactive experiences through computer vision and sensing, making objects smarter and more humane, and making the interactive experience between objects and people more natural and intimate. However, in the past few years, during these intelligent processes, people seem to have forgotten to change computers, making them more intelligent, perceptive, and even capable of natural human-computer interaction.

Fortunately, Intel noticed this and started to make PCs smarter through hardware and software...

The era of violently stacking cores and pulling out the main frequency is over

For a long time in the past, people were used to equating PC experience improvement with hardware performance improvement, especially processor performance. After SSDs became popular and replaced mechanical hard disks, people realized that processor performance is no longer the bottleneck of PC experience. When processors and SSDs have reached extremely high performance today and in the future, where should we focus on improving PC experience?

Indeed, facing the emergence of new applications such as 8K video, VR panoramic video, and increasingly high-definition 3D modeling, processor performance is far from reaching its limit. Under the requirements of ultra-high-load task applications, people's demand for processor performance seems to be endless.

Future application changes will be more complex, and hardware performance will no longer be the only indicator of experience

However, are the improvements in PC experience only achieved through “traditional” channels such as increasing processor cores/clocking, reducing latency with solid-state drives, and increasing memory? The answer is certainly not just that. Because Intel has already given a good answer through the 10th generation of Intel Core.

With the 10th-generation Core Ice Lake platform, Intel has officially opened a new generation of artificial intelligence PCs. The DL Boost (deep learning acceleration) technology rooted in the processor and the more than 1 trillion floating-point computing capabilities brought by the powerful GPU have enabled the platform with a power consumption of only 15W to improve AI performance by 2.5 times compared to the previous generation platform, and lead similar products by 8 times in the AIXPRT inference benchmark test of thin and light platforms.

By leveraging AI technology, applications based on the Intel platform provide users with a more efficient and smoother experience. This is not a performance or experience improvement achieved through “traditional means”; it is a “new recipe” that Intel has come up with for the future development of PC hardware.

Powerful software ecosystem dedicated to optimizing experience

In fact, the use of PC hardware ultimately comes down to software, or is reflected through software. People who have compared AMD and Intel hardware platforms will find that applications such as Adobe and games often have higher efficiency and more stable performance on Intel platforms. This is not something that can be known by running a few points through test software such as CINENEBCH and PCMark, but it is discovered by many users in actual use.

Intel AI Acceleration and Optimization in Software Applications

Why? Or why do different platforms have similar running scores, but different actual experiences?

Intel has 15,000 software engineers worldwide. Yes, as a semiconductor chip company and data company, Intel has tens of thousands of software engineers. They are the secret to making Intel platforms more user-friendly.

Every year, Intel works closely with leading software vendors around the world to achieve deep optimization of software on Intel hardware platforms. These optimizations can help these software achieve higher efficiency and more stable performance on Intel hardware platforms. This is why sometimes the scores of different platforms are similar, but when it comes to using software, the Intel platform is often smoother and has fewer bugs.

Therefore, we traditionally believe that PC experience optimization only requires good hardware performance. But in fact, this is far from enough. Only companies like Intel, which have both strong hardware and software teams, can fully achieve perfect adaptation between software and hardware, thereby improving the experience of the entire platform.

AI unlocks unlimited possibilities

However, is this the only way that artificial intelligence technology and software optimization can be used? Of course not!

While we are still wondering what AI can bring to PCs, Intel has already given a perfect answer:

What new experiences can AI bring to PC?

Intel has fully accelerated the widespread application of AI functions through its leading underlying technology advantages - automatically selecting subjects and objects in photo editors, detecting "deep fake" videos, doubling the pixels of images and videos, and programming animation systems in games. AI applications have all been realized, setting off a wave of PC innovation full of opportunities. Of course, these are just the tip of the iceberg of AI On PC applications.

In the commercial field, AI can help PCs achieve better predictive analysis. Such predictions can help business users reasonably plan what to do next after a crisis occurs. At the same time, AI can also help the company's IT department better collect data and understand what equipment employees in different positions need, thereby making it easier to implement classified deployment.

In fact, AI combined with PC will bring more unexpected possibilities to PC experience. At present, Intel has initially brought new experiences based on AI technology to the new generation of PCs within the scope of the Athena Project by virtue of its own technological accumulation in the field of AI and the construction of a complete ecosystem in the field of software. In the future, as OEM manufacturers deepen their understanding of AI functions, more experiences that can change human-computer interaction and make PCs smarter/intelligent will promote new changes.

Conclusion

Intel has been continuously working in the PC industry for more than 40 years. With its profound industry heritage, in-depth understanding and insight into the industry, and forward-looking strategic thinking, it continues to lead industry partners in all-round innovation and exploration, guide the direction of industry development and formulate product standards, and lead the PC industry to develop continuously and healthily.

In the PC industry, empowering the future PC experience through AI is Intel's forward-looking and exclusive innovative idea, and it is also the next opportunity for Intel to transform the PC industry. With the help of AI, PCs can more fully unleash the potential of data, thereby completely changing the human-computer interaction experience and ushering in a new era of PC experience evolution.