Gihon emphasized that the new processor offers exceptional performance while maintaining low power consumption and high energy efficiency. Lunar Lake includes significant improvements in the performance of the cores and graphics accelerators, alongside a combination of particularly powerful accelerators designed for artificial intelligence. This combination provides advanced hardware capabilities for the operating system and the software world, and may completely change the way we perceive and use mobile computers.
According to Intel, the real power of Lunar Lake is manifested in two areas. First, by doubling the computing power in low power envelopes, compared to the previous generation. Second, by taking a step forward in its capabilities in the field of artificial intelligence through a new neural network accelerator (NPU), capable of performing up to 48 trillion operations per second and a graphics accelerator (GPU) model Xe2 which adds another 67 TOPS. In total, Lunar Lake offers up to 120 TOPS – far more than any other competitor today.
Also in the fields of graphics, connectivity and security, Lunar Lake demonstrates advanced capabilities. From a 1.5-fold jump in gaming performance and support for Ray Tracing, through support for WiFi 7 at 5.8 Gbps and Bluetooth 5.4, to a dedicated security chip and advanced technologies such as Threat Detection and VT-Redirect for improved protection against threats.
“Lunar Lake delivers faster core performance than ARM and redefines the efficiency bar in PCs,” Michelle Johnston Holthouse, director of Intel’s global computing group, said at the event in Taiwan.
An important point is the contribution of Intel’s Israeli development teams to the achievements of the new chip. Zohar Zab, vice president of the computing division and project manager emphasized: “Our development teams in Israel played a central and decisive role in bringing Lunar Lake from the vision to reality. They were involved in every step of the way – from defining the vision and architecture of the product, through the development of the main processor core which is the beating heart of Lunar Lake, and until the integration of all the many components into one well-coordinated and integrated system.
In addition, the Israeli teams were behind the development of many critical technologies that make Lunar Lake a groundbreaking product, including advanced wireless communication modules such as WiFi 7 and Bluetooth 5.4, an extremely fast Thunderbolt 4 interface, advanced security components, and a sophisticated image processing system for the camera.
It is a complex and wide-ranging project that hundreds of talented engineers worked tirelessly on for nearly three years. Now, when this revolutionary processor is about to reach the hands of consumers, we can look back with pride on this tremendous achievement and recognize the significant role that the engineers from Intel Israel played in making it happen,” said Tsab.
Personal computers with Lunar Lake are expected to be available towards the end of 2024, in cooperation with leading manufacturers such as Dell, Lenovo, ASUS and HP. With predictions that AI computers will account for nearly 60% of new computers by 2027, Intel is in a great position to lead the revolution with a solution that sets a new benchmark for performance and efficiency.
While competitors are still preparing to enter the AI computing market, Intel is already there, delivering more AI processors in the first quarter of 2024 than all competitors combined. With more than 40 million Core Ultra processors expected to be deployed this year, and support for more than 80 different AI computer designs from 20 leading computer companies.
Yaron Alankari, vice president and director of SOC development at Lunar Lake, presented the new processor at an event in Taiwan, “The project presents a revolutionary micro-architecture, with a single chip that integrates a variety of critical components required for advanced computing performance. It includes a new 8-core hybrid configuration , a combination of strong performance cores and energy-efficient cores that allow prolonged use without compromising on battery life.”
Pawan Dabulori, corporate vice president at Microsoft, welcomed the partnership with Intel: “Together we have collaborated to raise the bar of performance, efficiency and innovation for our mutual customers. We are very excited about Lunar Lake powering the upcoming Copilot Plus computers.”