Enthused the headline in the Financial Times last week. The subtitle heralded a forthcoming contest between major chip designers to convince computer

Demystifying NPUs: Questions & Answers - by Babbage

submited by

Style Pass

2024-06-10 11:00:07

Enthused the headline in the Financial Times last week. The subtitle heralded a forthcoming contest between major chip designers to convince computer makers to adopt their designs in these ‘AI PCs’.

And alongside the ‘AI PC’, the Neural Processing Units (or NPUs) that are a key component in these computers, are getting lots of coverage. Intel has just announced its ‘Lunar Lake’ processors that includes an upgraded NPU. Outside of the ‘PC’ world, Apple announced an upgraded NPU a few weeks ago in the M4 Chip that powers the latest iPad Pro, with more expected at WWDC this week.

However, the overwhelming impression I get from discussions of AI PCs and NPUs is one of confusion. So this post aims to remove some of the mystery through a series of questions and answers. It’s more of a ‘shallow paddle’ than a ‘deep dive’ but provides essential background for future discussion of NPUs.

I have to admit to being a little bit of an AI sceptic. It’s hard, though, not to be quite excited at the prospect of a new and powerful hardware addition to our computers.