Intel's Lunar Lake chips with support for Copilot+ experiences coming in Q3

PCs powered by Intel Lunar Lake chips will receive AI features exclusive to Copilot+ platform through software updates, unlike Qualcomm Snapdragon chip-powered PCs that will offer them out-of-the-box

Intel has scheduled the launch of Lunar Lake processors for AI PCs for Q3. The US-based semiconductor maker announced that the first wave of PCs powered by Lunar Lake processors will see over 80 new laptops from more than 20 PC makers. Additionally, Intel confirmed the Lunar Lake chips will support Microsoft's Copilot+ AI experience.

For context, the Copilot+ PCs experiences are currently exclusive to chips based on Arm architecture. These experiences include artificial intelligence powered features such as Recall, AI image generator for Paint, and more.

Intel in a press note said that Copilot+ experience will be available on PCs powered by its upcoming Lunar Lake chips, which are based on the x86 architecture. However, Lunar Lake chips-powered PCs will receive Copilot+ experiences through a software update, unlike Qualcomm Snapdragon chip-powered PCs that will offer them out-of-the-box.

 

“With breakthrough power efficiency, the trusted compatibility of x86 architecture and the industry’s deepest catalogue of software enablement across the CPU, GPU and NPU, we will deliver the most competitive joint client hardware and software offering in our history with Lunar Lake and Copilot+,” said Michelle Johnston Holthaus, Intel executive vice president and general manager of the Client Computing Group.

Intel said that the Lunar Lake processors will offer more than thrice the AI performance compared to the current generation Meteor Lake chips. This will be enabled by the new neural processing unit (NPU) on the chips that is responsible for handling AI workloads. Intel said that the new NPU within the Lunar Lake chips will be capable of carrying out more than 40 trillion operations per second (TOPS), which is comparable to the NPU on the new Arm chips by Qualcomm that are said to offer up to 45 TOPS.

Although Intel’s primary focus is on AI, its upcoming Lunar Lake chips will also get a graphic processing unit (GPU) capable of handling over 60 TOPS, which would improve gaming and content creating experience on the devices powered by these chips.