It’s going to be an exciting year for computing as major chipset manufacturers are ushering a new era of AI-powered CPUs. Qualcomm is reinventing ARM for Windows with the Snapdragon X Elite, while AMD just announced its Ryzen 9000 desktop chips as well as the Ryzen AI 300 mobile CPUs for laptops and similar portable devices.
Team Blue on the other hand, also has something to be excited about. Intel gave us an in-depth look at its upcoming Lunar Lake mobile platform at its Tech Tour in Taiwan, just days before Computex 2024. As the demands on laptops increase with the proliferation of remote work, gaming, and artificial intelligence (AI) applications, Intel believes that its new Lunar Lake chips will offer a significant leap forward in mobile computing.
What is Lunar Lake?
Lunar Lake is Intel’s codename for its upcoming next-generation mobile processors, set to launch in the third quarter of 2024. These chips have been specifically designed to offer improved power efficiency and performance for mobile devices. Intel is leveraging a mixed manufacturing approach, with TSMC handling part of the fabrication while Intel manages assembly, testing, and packaging, including utilizing its Foveros 3D stacking technology.
Follow up to Intel’s Meteor Lake processors, which were Intel’s first to feature a built-in neural processing unit, Lunar Lake is expected to further enhance AI capabilities, integrated graphics performance, memory bandwidth, and overall system efficiency.
The introduction of Lunar Lake comes on the heels of Intel’s “AI PC” initiative, which gained some traction with Meteor Lake. Intel claims it has already shipped 8 million Core Ultra parts, integrated into over 230 designs among ecosystem partners, surpassing the combined shipments of AI PCs by its competitors.
Intel is hoping to continue this momentum with Lunar Lake, which is going to feature a new GPU, a new NPU, and redesigned Performance-cores (P-cores) and Efficient-cores (E-cores) aimed at extending battery life and improving system performance.
Improved performance and efficiency
Lunar Lake introduces a new microarchitecture that promises unparalleled performance and efficiency. These chips are designed with a dual-tile architecture connected through Intel’s Foveros packaging technology. The Compute Tile houses next-generation E-cores and P-cores, which together offer new microarchitecture enhancements and x86 efficiency. This architecture not only boosts computing power but is also said to significantly improve energy efficiency, ensuring that your laptop performs better and consumes less power.
The integration of the new Xe2 GPU is noteworthy as it offers a significant increase in graphics performance. With over 80 percent more gaming performance and five times the AI throughput of its predecessor, the Xe2 GPU delivers more than 60 tera-operations per second (TOPS). While the results may not be ground breaking, one can expect smoother gaming, faster AI computations, and an overall enhanced visual experience compared to Meteor Lake. Apart from gaming, the enhancements should also cater to creative professionals who care about faster render and workaround times.
Advanced AI capabilities
One of the standout features of Lunar Lake is its advanced AI capabilities, which are becoming increasingly important in modern computing. The NPU 4 (Neural Processing Unit) in Lunar Lake is claimed to significantly boost AI performance, supporting up to 48 TOPS, which is a substantial increase from the previous generation. This improvement means that AI computations are faster and more efficient, allowing for a variety of applications from advanced machine learning models to real-time data processing.
The AI capabilities extend beyond raw performance. Lunar Lake’s AI optimisations include better clock speeds, multiple architectural improvements, and advanced AI-based techniques to reduce power consumption by up to 20 percent. This makes the platform ideal for AI-driven applications such as voice recognition, image processing, and predictive analytics.
Superior connectivity
Lunar Lake is the first Intel platform to integrate Wi-Fi 7 and offers up to five times faster speeds and up to 60 percent lower latency. Additionally, it enhances wireless collaboration and provides seamless multi-device control. This integration also supports immersive AR/VR experiences and offers high-speed wired peripherals, ensuring that your connectivity needs are met, whether you’re streaming high-definition content, participating in video conferences, or using multiple devices simultaneously.
Bluetooth capabilities have also been upgraded, with Bluetooth over PCIe reducing boot and wake-up times by about 55 percent. Additionally, the platform includes Intel Unison, which supports extended screens, universal control, and concurrent connection abilities for tablets. This connectivity suite ensures that you can share files swiftly, use your laptop as a hotspot, and experience multi-device interactions across any operating system.
Enhanced security features
Security is a critical consideration for any modern laptop user, and Intel’s Lunar Lake chips are claimed to deliver protection across hardware, firmware, and software. The platform’s security capabilities can be grouped into three key areas: advanced threat protection, application and data protection, and below-the-OS security.
Advanced threat protections leverage Intel Threat Detection Technology, an AI-based silicon security in deployment, to stop ransomware and crypto-jacking attacks through GPU-accelerated memory scanning and CPU-based telemetry with machine learning. Application and data protections include Intel VT-redirect, which protects kernel memory by preventing adversarial writes to kernel page tables. Below-the-OS security provides hardware-level protections against firmware attacks, with the Intel Partner Security Engine (IPSE) offering secure, isolated operation for partners’ applications
Future-proof technology
Investing in a new laptop is not just about meeting today’s needs but also about future-proofing your device for upcoming advancements. Lunar Lake will be offering support for the latest industry standards in media and display, such as HDMI 2.1, DisplayPort 2.1, and eDP 1.5 for laptop displays, ensuring that your laptop is compatible with future peripherals and displays.
Thunderbolt 4 integration has also been improved with up to 25 percent higher bandwidth with Thunderbolt 5 SSDs, supporting up to three 4K/60Hz monitors and delivering ultra-low latency for high-speed data transfers. This means that whether you are connecting multiple high-resolution displays or transferring large files, Lunar Lake-equipped laptops should be able to handle them with ease.
Closing thoughts
Intel’s Lunar Lake seems to offer a compelling combination of performance, efficiency, AI capabilities, connectivity, and security. In my opinion it is what Meteor Lake should have been in the first place. From what Intel has shared, their next-gen mobile chips should live up to the expectations and deliver what the company was originally aiming for, to successfully ride the wave of AI PCs.
The company is expected to share further information around the final SKUs in the coming months while products powered by Lunar Lake are expected to arrive by Q3 of 2024. Realistically, we can expect new notebooks with the next-gen chips right in time for the festive season. Intel has already confirmed over 80 designs from 20 manufacturers with more products expected to launch in the coming year.
Another important area where we might see Lunar Lake in action is handheld gaming devices. Notably, a majority of handheld gaming consoles run on AMD-powered chipsets including the ASUS ROG Ally, Steam Deck and even the upcoming Zotac Zone.
Apart from lesser known brands, MSI was the only popular name that launched a Meteor Lake-based handheld called the Claw last year. They did give us a teaser at Computex confirming that a successor is in the works and will be powered by Intel’s next-gen Lunar Lake mobile CPU. If Intel delivers on its promise of improved performance and efficiency, we could see the company finally making an impact in the category.
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