Intel today launched its most efficient family of x86 processors ever, the Intel® Core™ Ultra 200V series processors. They deliver exceptional performance, breakthrough x86 power efficiency, a massive leap in graphics performance, no-compromise application compatibility, enhanced security and unmatched AI compute. The technology will power the industry’s most complete and capable AI PCs with more than 80 consumer designs from more than 20 of the world’s top manufacturing partners, including Acer, ASUS, Dell Technologies, HP, Lenovo, LG, MSI and Samsung. Pre-orders begin today with systems available globally on-shelf and online at over 30 global retailers starting Sept. 24. All designs featuring Intel Core Ultra 200V series processors and running the latest version of Windows are eligible to receive Copilot+ PC features as a free update starting in November.

Today’s consumers are increasingly creating, connecting, playing and learning on the go. They need a system that offers exceptional performance, long-lasting battery life, no-compromise application compatibility and enhanced security – and one that can take advantage of AI hardware thanks to broad software enablement.

Intel Core Ultra 200V series processors were designed with all of that in mind, delivering low-power leadership for AI PCs with up to 50% lower package power1 and up to 120 total platform TOPS (tera operations per second) across central processing unit (CPU), graphic processing unit (GPU) and neural processing unit (NPU) to deliver the most compatible and performant AI experiences across models and engines. The fourth-generation NPU is up to 4x more powerful than the previous generation and is ideal for running sustained AI workloads while remaining energy-efficient. Industry-leading platform TOPS are activated in more than 300 AI-accelerated features enabled by Intel’s work with over 100 integrated software vendors (ISVs) and developers as part of its AI PC Acceleration Program.

The new processors deliver efficient and exceptional core performance through fine-tuned power management, completely rearchitected Performance-cores (P-core) optimized for performance per power per area. And Intel’s most powerful Efficient-cores (E-cores) to date are now able to contain more workloads, ensuring cool and quiet performance.

Intel Core Ultra 200V series processors mark the debut of Intel’s new Xe2 graphics microarchitecture that delivers a significant leap in mobile graphics performance with 30% average performance uplift2. The built-in Intel® Arc™ GPU includes as many as eight new 2nd Gen Xe-cores, eight enhanced ray tracing units, support for up to three 4k monitors, and new built-in Intel® Xe Matrix Extensions (Intel® XMX) AI engines with up to 67 TOPS to power creative applications and boost gaming performance thanks to enhanced XeSS kernels.

A great AI PC first and foremost has to be a great PC. Intel Core Ultra 200V series processors are a productivity powerhouse with up to 3x the performance per thread2 and up to 80% peak performance uplift2, and up to 20 hours of battery life in productivity use cases1. These great PCs represent the next evolution of the AI PC. Through partnerships with leading ISVs, broad ecosystem support and more than 500 optimized AI models, PCs powered by the newest Intel Core Ultra processors empower users to take full advantage of what AI can offer. With multiple performant AI engines, the new processors deliver:

• Content Creation:
  • Work faster by automatically detecting video scene changes for easier and faster video editing.
  • Expand your creativity by generating stunning vector and raster art through text prompts.
• Security:
  • Verify if online videos have been altered with local AI deep-fake detection.
  • Protect personal data stored on your PC by AI scanning, identifying and securing sensitive files from malicious apps and users.
• Productivity:
  • Save time by recording a video presentation once and eliminate retakes by generating new audio and video with new dialogue.
• Gaming:
  • Boost frames-per-second performance and improve gaming experiences by using AI to generate high-quality upscaled images.

About Intel® Evo™ Edition Powered by latest Intel Core Ultra Processors: Most designs with Intel Core Ultra 200V series processors will be Intel Evo Edition laptops, co-engineered in close partnership with Intel’s partners and undergoing rigorous testing to deliver the best overall AI PC experience. By combining key platform technologies with system optimizations, these laptops are engineered to help reduce lag, minimize distractions and decrease dependency on battery chargers – ensuring exceptional experiences from anywhere. New this year, Intel Evo designs must meet enhanced metrics for cooler and quieter performance.

Features include:

• Cooler, quieter performance and responsiveness in ultra-thin designs.
• Long real-world battery life.
• Built-in security that helps prevent malware attacks and minimizes vulnerabilities.
• Built-in Intel Arc graphics for accelerated creation and smoother game play, even while on the go.
• Lightning-fast connectivity with Intel® Wi-Fi 7 (5 Gig).
• Ability to connect PC to multiple monitors, transfer files and charge PC with Thunderbolt Share3.
• Instant wake and fast charging.
• The highest sustainability standards with EPEAT Gold certification.

What’s Next: Consumer devices powered by Intel Core Ultra 200V series processors are available for pre-order starting today, with commercial devices built on the Intel vPro® platform coming early next year.

The laptop improvement people ask for the most – you can probably guess – is better battery life. Nobody enjoys hunting for power outlets in airports. 

But battery life isn’t the only factor compelling consumers to upgrade. The first thing that drives them to replace an older system is speed.  

It’s counterintuitive, but the key to better battery life is more speed.  

That’s the finding of the team behind the Intel® Core™ Ultra 200V series processors (code-named Lunar Lake). They came together “all for one target,” says Arik Gihon, Intel senior principal engineer of SoC Architecture. “We had new competition showing good performance – roughly equal to what we have – but with much lower power.” 

‘We Needed Something Special’ 

To fight back, he says, “We needed something special.” That meant “loosening up the constraints” of building a product that could be adapted across a wider set of the PC market and focusing on thin-and-light laptops and more tablet-like fanless devices. 

“The story was efficiency,” Gihon explains, “and we literally turned over every rock.” 

The result is Core Ultra 200V. It’s a processor to power AI PC laptops that draws as much as 40% less power than its predecessor, which itself was a radical re-architecture focused on efficiency. The new Core Ultra delivers several more hours of battery life — and, critically, similarly large gains in performance, graphics and AI. 

In terms of “every rock,” Lunar Lake’s long list of improvements can be roughly split into two mandates: 

• Only turn on the smallest bits of the chip that are needed at any given time. 
• Get work done and turn stuff off as quickly as possible. 

In other words: Stay asleep when you can, wake instantly, complete the work with the best tool available and quickly return to sleep. 

Sleep, Wake, Work, Fast 

What dictates sleep, however, has evolved. “PC users work with quite a lot of applications running in the background and the foreground,” Gihon says, so it’s not display activity but rather the mix of applications running that shapes the processor’s response.  

One way Gihon and team found power savings was to get more applications running on the Efficient-cores, or E-cores. “The thing that allowed us to use the E-core more than the previous generation – on most of the applications – is that we actually improved its performance, not its efficiency.” 

Intel Fellow Rajshree Chabukswar explains that the operating system decides which cores to use when. But it gets “hints” from Intel® Thread Director, which acts a bit like the X-Men character Quicksilver, who moves so fast he can rescue dozens of people from an exploding building.  

She calls Thread Director a “communication channel” between the chip and the operating system – it mediates between the demands of running applications and the capabilities of the E-cores and Performance-cores (P-cores) and suggests the best way forward. 

“Thanks to Thread Director updates, along with enhanced power management decisions, we can monitor all of this at a milliseconds level. And we can change based on the type of work that we are running – do I need to burst up my frequency or do I need to be conservative? That gave us a lot of benefit.” 

When Intel first introduced hybrid chips with two kinds of cores, the priority was performance. A chip first ran its P-cores, and then E-cores provided additional hands when needed. For the Core Ultra platforms, however, the priority is efficiency. 

Saving Electrons with Faster E-cores, Refined Power Management 

“When Lunar Lake runs on battery, we use Windows hetero-scheduling, which means we start from the Efficient-cores and move up,” Chabukswar says. “We have a new feature called OS containment where we try to keep the work on E-cores as much as possible.” 

When heavier loads demand it, work can be quickly handed over to the beefier P-cores, which shut right back down when finished. 

To minimize wasted power through varied hand-offs and as parts turn on and off, Lunar Lake also received what Gihon calls a “luxury of power delivery.” That included using additional companion power management chips, or PMICs, to “deliver just the voltage each block needs” and more refinement to allow different blocks to power up and down independently. 

Introducing this new power management scheme “was a big risk,” he adds, since it required breaking the previous working model. “That was a huge challenge – but since we wanted it so much, we were able to overcome it.” 

Dozens of other small optimizations also pile up the savings. For example, Lunar Lake includes additional memory on the chip to reduce trips back and forth to DRAM, which saves power. And that DRAM is mounted directly on the same package – which also saves power.  

From a Design Standpoint, ‘One of the Biggest Projects’ 

On top of all of that – not to mention an up-to 50% leap in graphics performance – “we have tons of horsepower for AI,” adds Gihon. Core Ultra 200V series processors are ready to speed up the several hundred features and AI models already available or the next on-device AI developers will dream up. 

 “It’s one of the biggest projects we ever did in terms of architecture shift,” Gihon says. “When we look at the competition, and we look at where we are, we are pretty satisfied.” 

But Gihon and team aren’t resting. Another satisfaction they achieved was the speed of their own work – the project commenced faster than forecast and the team had extra time to analyze how its design manifested in real silicon. Team members used that time to make further improvements and apply new lessons to Lunar Lake’s successors, projects currently in flight.  

“Usually, you get the silicon and reach PRQ (the product’s release) at the stages in which you don’t have too much time for architectural studies,” he notes. The extra time afforded additional study and exploration. “We already plan to do some big things based on what we have learned.” 

 May the days of hunting for outlets reach their own satisfying end.