UA-20935187-3

The wave of artificial intelligence is from the cloud to the edge. Understand what AI PC is at once

The wave of artificial intelligence is from the cloud to the edge. Understand what AI PC is at once
Technews Technology News
May 26, 2024
Author Central News Agency
 
 
At the early morning of May 21, Taipei time, Microsoft's annual developer conference Microsoft Build 2024 was held in Seattle, USA. Microsoft announced at the conference that it would join forces with three major chip manufacturers and six major computer manufacturers to form the "Copilot+ PC" ecosystem.
 
 
Overnight, from Acer, ASUS, Dell, to Qualcomm, Intel, they all held new product launches or released press releases to announce the latest progress of AI PC listing. AI PC has become the hottest search keyword, especially the Taipei International Computer Show (COMPUTEX) in June is coming, which will heat up this wave of AI PC to the highest point.
What exactly is AI PC, why do we need AI PC, and how big is the market size? Central News Agency has compiled the opinions of experts to help readers understand AI PC in one article.
 
 
What is AI PC and how is it different from traditional computers?
 
AI PC, as the name suggests, is a personal computer that can perform AI calculations. Traditional computer calculations are centered on the CPU (central processing unit). The CPU has a small number of cores, but each core has a complex structure and is suitable for complex control and calculations.
 
 
But the new generative AI is like teaching a child to recognize a cat or a dog. The problem is not complicated, but it involves the calculation and processing of a large amount of data for "training" and "inference". At this time, the NPU (neural network unit) is more suitable than the CPU. Because NPU has the opposite characteristics to CPU, it has a large number of cores, but each core has a simple structure, which is suitable for a large number of repetitive general operations, which is commonly known as parallel operations.
 
 
There are many different definitions of AI PC at present. Huang Xin, a senior industry analyst at the Institute for Information Industry (MIC), believes that the most critical element of AI PC is that it must have NPU, which can execute generative AI applications locally.
 
 
Microsoft has also proposed the latest definition that computer models that can support its Copilot AI function must have a computing power of at least 40 TOPS (the unit of NPU, 1TOPS means that the processor can perform 1 trillion operations per second). If the Copilot model is used offline, the computing power must be more than 45 TOPS. In addition, the memory capacity must be at least 16GB, the storage capacity must be at least 256GB, and there are related requirements for battery life.
 
 
Why do we need AI PC?
 
In recent years, the generative AI wave set off by ChatGPT has swept the world. It is optimistic that various AI applications will have endless development prospects in the future. Major CSPs (cloud service providers) or enterprises have invested heavily in the construction of AI infrastructure, driving the AI ​​server market to be extremely hot.
 
 
However, MediaTek General Manager and COO Chen Guanzhou observed that most of the LLMs (large language models) are currently trained in the cloud. He believes that this wave of AI will gradually move from the cloud to edge devices, driving the AI ​​PC and AI mobile phone markets to take off.
 
 
Chen Guanzhou's four main reasons include that edge computing, including AI PC, is cheaper; secondly, if all computing is placed in the cloud, the network transmission volume will be quite large; and the power consumed by the huge cloud computing power may cause the entire power grid to collapse; the fourth is security and privacy. Finally, everyone may still hope that data or computing can be placed next to them, which is more reassuring.
 
 
When will the AI ​​PC market take off?
 
ASUS Co-CEO Hu Shubin believes that 2024 is the "first year of AI PC." As chip giants such as Qualcomm, Intel, and AMD will successively launch computer processors with AI computing functions in the second half of the year, and Microsoft's Copilot artificial intelligence application platform will be deployed in the PC market, various applications will be released, which will bring new experiences to users and stimulate the PC market to start a new growth cycle that will last for several years.
 
 
However, Hu Shubin also reminded that the AI ​​PC market will not explode immediately, because for AI to be popularized, hardware, software and various application services must cooperate with each other. It will take a period of learning and excitement for operators and consumers to know where to use AI and improve equipment iteration.
 
 
Ho-Shuo Chairman Tong Zixian compared AI to a product, saying that AI is not a product, but an important element of the natural environment after technology has progressed to a certain stage, just like the Internet 20 years ago. Now people no longer emphasize that my computer has an Internet connection, because it is as natural as breathing air. He believes that in the long run, all computers will be AI PCs in the future.
 
 
How big is the AI ​​PC market?
 
MIC estimates that a large number of new AI PC products will enter the market in the second half of this year. It is estimated that the penetration rate of AI PC in the global PC market will be about 15.7% in 2024, double to 33% in 2025, increase to 48.4% in 2026, and grow to 65.9% in 2027, which means that 2 out of every 3 new computers will be AI PCs.
 
 
Microsoft, which has just announced the establishment of the "Copilot+ PC" ecosystem, is preparing to delegate more Copilot AI application services to the PC side. Microsoft has already announced that it aims to sell 50 million AI PCs in the next year.
 
 
At the same time, Intel also announced that it will launch the latest processor code-named Lunar Lake in the third quarter of 2024. The AI ​​performance can reach more than 3 times that of the previous generation of processors, exceeding 40 TOPS, and the goal is to ship more than 40 million AI PC processors this year.
 
 
 
 
[Disclaimer]
The content of this article only represents the author's personal views and has nothing to do with Creating.
The content, text description and originality have not been verified by this site. This site does not make any guarantee or commitment to this article and all or part of its content, authenticity, completeness, timeliness, and is for readers' reference only. Please verify the relevant content yourself.
 
 
Creating Nano Technologies, Inc.
59 Alley 21 Lane 279, Chung Cheng Road, Yung Kang City, Tainan, TAIWAN
TEL:886-6-2323927 FAX:886-6-2013306 URL: http://www.creating-nanotech.com
BACK TO LIST

This site uses cookies to improve your browsing experience. we'll assume you're OK to continue. If you want to read more about this, please click Use & Disclaimer , thank you.

I Agree