Microsoft may have concentrated its big Copilot+ PC launch today with the Qualcomm Snapdragon X Series of chips inside a number of upcoming notebooks. However, Intel still wants PC buyers to know it will be a part of the new Copilot+ PC lineup as well. It will just take a bit longer.
While the first Copilot+ PCs with the Snapdragon X chips will start shipping in June, Intel"s press release says that its Lunar Lake processors for notebooks and with its own AI chip will begin shipping sometime in the third quarter of 2024 " in time for the holiday season." Intel added that Lunar Lake processors will be inside over 80 different Windows laptops from about 20 PC makers.
Intel added:
Lunar Lake is expected to be a groundbreaking mobile processor for AI PCs with more than 3 times the AI performance compared with the previous generation. With more than 40 NPU tera operations per second (TOPS), Intel’s next generation processors will provide the capabilities necessary for Copilot+ experiences coming to market. In addition to the higher performing NPU, Lunar Lake will also be equipped with over 60 GPU TOPS delivering more than 100 platform TOPS.
When the first Lunar Lake processors are available inside new laptops later this year, an update to enable Copilot+ PC features, including the Recall function, will be released so they can work on those notebooks. Ultimate, Intel says that it will ship around 40 million AI PC processors this year.
While Intel may be second out of the gate when it comes to Copilot+ PC chips, the current high prices of the Snapdragon X notebooks could keep demand for them down. It will be interesting to see how Lunar Lake and Snapdragon X match up in benchmarks.
AMD is also working on new notebook chips with AI-based neural processors under the Strix brand name, but so far, there"s not much known about these chips.