Intel Corp. is attempting to accelerate artificial intelligence with the debut of its new Intel vPro platform, which integrate Intel Arc graphics processing units and Intel Core 14th Gen central processing units in a single package.

The new chips, announced at MWC 2024 today, are designed to support enhanced AI experiences on personal computers, and are expected to deliver big benefits to companies of all sizes, as well as the education sector.

The Intel Arc GPUs and the Intel Core 14th Gen CPUs are new entirely new products that will be made available later in the year. The company said the Intel Core combines both types of chip, splitting processing tasks across the CPU, GPU and a new neural processing unit to support much faster and more powerful AI workloads.

Intel says the Arc GPU delivers twice the graphics performance of its previous-generation GPU, enabling new capabilities such as AI and ray tracing. Moreover, there’s a new, dedicated graphics driver on board aimed at enhancing performance optimization for creative, design and engineering software.

Meanwhile, the latest Intel Core 14th Gen CPUs will be introduced in a wave of new desktops and entry-level workstations later this year. They feature a “performance hybrid architecture” that can maximize compute headroom in support of more advanced applications and multitasking. The built-in Thread Director and Dynamic Tuning Technology will ensure the new CPUs can manage tasks and clock frequencies more efficiently to optimize performance and energy efficiency.

By combining these two new platforms in the Intel vPro platform, Intel says it’s now able to deliver a productive, secure, manageable and stable foundation for processing AI tasks on the device.

We’re officially entering the era of the “AI PC,” the company said, a milestone that will fundamentally change the way organizations use their PCs. In line with this, Intel has announced a new AI PC Acceleration Program that will see more than 300 AI-accelerated features optimized to run on PCs powered by the Intel vPro platform.

The advantages of AI PCs include significant productivity gains of up to 47% in terms of Office applications, compared with a three-year old PC, Intel said. There will be security benefits too, as the Intel vPro platform takes advantage of the new NPU to turbocharge anomaly detection and authenticate system firmware using the onboard Silicon Security Engine functionality.

To improve manageability, there’s another new feature called Intel Device Discovery built into the chips that enables cloud-based tools to receive the information required to take appropriate actions on any PC. Meanwhile, Intel Device Health with Vmware Inc. and Eclypsium Inc. will give system administrators more visibility into software patching, enabling them to better manage fleets of devices.

Finally, Intel said, its Stable IT Program will help organizations to simplify new installations of Windows 10 and Windows 11 on multiple company devices and keep them up to date.

The company said the Intel vPro platform will power more than 100 new notebook, 2-in-1 desktop and entry-level workstation models from partners that include Acer Inc., ASUSTeK Computer Inc., Dell Technologies Inc., Fujitsu Ltd., HP Inc., Lenovo Group Ltd., Dynabook Americas Inc., Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd., LG Electronics Ltd., Microsoft Corp., NEC Corp., Panasonic Holdings Corp. and VAIO Corp.

“With the combination of Copilot and Intel Core Ultra silicon, we’re bringing improved efficiency, better graphics and new AI experiences in productivity and creativity at scale with the AI PC,” said James Howell, general manager of Windows at Microsoft.

Images: Intel