Intel has finally released its much-trailed Core Ultra chips – codenamed Meteor Lake – in its bid to power “AI PCs”. That is, laptops and desktops with silicon that incorporates not merely a CPU and GPU, but a neural processing unit (NPU) as well.
While question marks still hang over the usefulness of AI PCs (read Barry Collins’ take on p29), there’s a good chance a laptop you buy in 2024 will include one. The Core Ultra is now Intel’s mainstream notebook chip, ranging from the Ultra 5 125U to the Ultra 9 185H.
■ New era, new node
The processors are the first consumer chips built on the company’s Intel 4 process node, using its Foveros 3D hybrid architecture.
