Intel Unveils AI PC Toolkit, Accelerating the Future of Computing
Intel recently forecasted that by 2025, over a billion AI PCs will be in circulation globally, signifying that the application experience of artificial intelligence will become ubiquitous. Furthermore, Intel announced the initiation of the AI PC Acceleration Program on October 19th this year to expedite the entrance of more AI PC devices into the market and support the development of additional artificial intelligence application services. This announcement also includes a collaboration with ASUS on the development of AI PC toolkits, enabling a greater number of hardware designers and manufacturers to create an increased array of AI PC devices.
In Intel’s vision, AI PCs will be able to reduce power consumption through OLED displays, extend the overall battery life of the device, and incorporate video cameras that support a variety of artificial intelligence application services. These include capabilities for recognizing faces, hand gestures, or body postures, tracking the gaze of the user’s eyes with the camera, and determining the current state of the user. Memory and storage components will be optimized for artificial intelligence computations.
Other design features include the adoption of touch screens, support for TDM security chips, and the use of universal USB-C ports. The processors will be equipped with the Intel Core Ultra specification, essentially representing the next generation of Evo laptop design.
Intel emphasizes that in the design of AI PCs, the approach will move beyond the traditional cooperation model with software companies, ODMs, and OEMs, integrating more independent software vendors and hardware suppliers. This will allow AI PCs to achieve higher artificial intelligence computing performance under a deeper integration of software, hardware, and AI technology, thereby creating a novel user experience.
For example, Microsoft’s current definition for AI PC devices includes processors with CPU, GPU, and NPU designs, integrated with Microsoft’s Copilot artificial intelligence service and hardware that adds a dedicated Copilot call button, enabling users to quickly access Copilot services.
In Intel’s strategy, the company will collaborate with over 100 independent software vendors to integrate more than 300 artificial intelligence application services and numerous large natural language models, deepening partnerships with these software vendors to promote the development of additional artificial intelligence application services.
The AI PC Acceleration Program, set to officially begin on October 19th this year, will work closely with developers and provide the necessary artificial intelligence tools and framework resources to accelerate the development of AI apps for AI PC devices. Developers will also receive tools for device development designed with the Intel Core Ultra processor.
These framework resources include Intel’s OpenVINO, the open-source ONNX Runtime, Microsoft DirectML, and Web NN designed based on W3C web standards. Development tools will encompass artificial intelligence deployment tools and design processes, as well as demonstration code content and usage examples that enhance design efficiency, providing AI models optimized for Intel CPUs, GPUs, and NPUs (or XPUs).
Regarding device development tools, Intel has announced a collaboration with ASUS to launch the NUC Pro 14, featuring the Core Ultra processor, up to 96GB of memory, four USB 3.2 ports, and two Thunderbolt 4 ports. It supports a software stack including Visual C, Cmake, Python, OpenCV, Git, VS Code, OpenVINO, and Chrome Canary.
AI PCs designed through this program will undergo validation in Intel’s laboratories located in Taiwan, China, and the United States, with immediate access to technical resources provided by Intel. This will enable independent hardware suppliers to promote their technology to various OEMs, thereby increasing their technology application rate through the expanding Intel AI PC market.
