Microsoft’s “Copilot+” AI PC requirements are embarrassing for Intel and AMD

Microsoft demands an NPU capable of at least 40 trillion operations per second.

Microsoft’s “Copilot+” AI PC requirements are embarrassing for Intel and AMD

Enlarge (credit: Microsoft)

Microsoft is using its new Surface launch and this week’s Build developer conference as a platform to launch its new “Copilot+" PC initiative, which comes with specific hardware requirements that systems will need to meet to be eligible. Copilot+ PCs will be able to handle some AI-accelerated workloads like chatbots and image generation locally instead of relying on the cloud, but new hardware will generally be required to run these workloads quickly and power efficiently.

At a minimum, systems will need 16GB of RAM and 256GB of storage, to accommodate both the memory requirements and the on-disk storage requirements needed for things like large language models (LLMs; even so-called “small language models” like Microsoft’s Phi-3, still use several billion parameters). Microsoft says that all of the Snapdragon X Plus and Elite-powered PCs being announced today will come with the Copilot+ features pre-installed, and that they'll begin shipping on June 18th.

But the biggest new requirement, and the blocker for virtually every Windows PC in use today, will be for an integrated neural processing unit, or NPU. Microsoft requires an NPU with performance rated at 40 trillion operations per second (TOPS), a high-level performance figure that Microsoft, Qualcomm, Apple, and others use for NPU performance comparisons. Right now, that requirement can only be met by a single chip in the Windows PC ecosystem, one that isn't even quite available yet: Qualcomm's Snapdragon X Elite and X Plus, launching in the new Surface and a number of PCs from the likes of Dell, Lenovo, HP, Asus, Acer, and other major PC OEMs in the next couple of months. All of those chips have NPUs capable of 45 TOPS, just a shade more than Microsoft's minimum requirement.

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Microsoft says “Prism” translation layer does for Arm PCs what Rosetta did for Macs

Prism layer is one of several under-the-hood overhauls in Windows 11 24H2.

A PC running Windows 11.

Enlarge / A PC running Windows 11. (credit: Microsoft)

Microsoft is going all-in on Arm-powered Windows PCs today with the introduction of a Snapdragon X Elite-powered Surface Pro convertible and Surface Laptop, and there are inevitable comparisons to draw with another big company that recently shifted from Intel’s processors to Arm-based designs: Apple.

A huge part of the Apple Silicon transition’s success was Rosetta 2, a translation layer that makes it relatively seamless to run most Intel Mac apps on an Apple Silicon Mac with no extra effort required from the user or the app’s developer. Windows 11 has similar translation capabilities, and with the Windows 11 24H2 update, that app translation technology is getting a name: Prism.

Microsoft says that Prism isn’t just a new name for the same old translation technology. Translated apps should run between 10 and 20 percent faster on the same Arm hardware after installing the Windows 11 24H2 update, offering some trickle-down benefits that users of the handful of Arm-based Windows 11 PCs should notice even if they don’t shell out for new hardware. The company says that Prism's performance should be similar to Rosetta's, though obviously this depends on the speed of the hardware you're running it on.

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Intel’s Lunar Lake chips coming to Windows Copilot+ PCs in Q3, 2024

The first PCs to support Microsoft’s new Copilot+ experience may all be powered by Qualcomm’s Snapdragon X series processors. But Microsoft announced that it’s also partnering with Intel and AMD. And now we know when to expect some o…

The first PCs to support Microsoft’s new Copilot+ experience may all be powered by Qualcomm’s Snapdragon X series processors. But Microsoft announced that it’s also partnering with Intel and AMD. And now we know when to expect some of the first Intel-powered Copilot+ PCs. Intel says it will release its Lunar Lake processor lineup during […]

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Neuralink to implant 2nd human with brain chip as 85% of threads retract in 1st

Algorithm tweaks made up for the loss, and Neuralink thinks it has fix for next patient.

A person's hand holidng a brain implant device that is about the size of a coin.

Enlarge / A Neuralink implant. (credit: Neuralink)

Only about 15 percent of the electrode-bearing threads implanted in the brain of Neuralink's first human brain-chip patient continue to work properly, according to a report from The Wall Street Journal. The remaining 85 percent of the threads became displaced, and many of the threads that were left receiving little to no signals have been shut off.

In a May 8 blog post, Neuralink had disclosed that "a number" of the chip's 64 thinner-than-hair threads had retracted. Each thread carries multiple electrodes, totaling 1,024 across the threads, which are surgically implanted near neurons of interest to record signals that can be decoded into intended actions.

Neuralink was quick to note that it was able to adjust the algorithm used for decoding those neuronal signals to compensate for the lost electrode data. The adjustments were effective enough to regain and then exceed performance on at least one metric—the bits-per-second (BPS) rate used to measure how quickly and accurately a patient with an implant can control a computer cursor.

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BLM ends future coal mining on Powder River Basin federal lands

The move compounds pressure on coal communities to diversify their economies.

A 133-car coal train moves slowly as it's loaded at the Buckskin Coal Mine in 2006 in Gillette, Wyoming.

Enlarge / A 133-car coal train moves slowly as it's loaded at the Buckskin Coal Mine in 2006 in Gillette, Wyoming. (credit: Robert Nickelsberg/Getty Images)

This article originally appeared on Inside Climate News, a nonprofit, independent news organization that covers climate, energy, and the environment. It is republished with permission. Sign up for their newsletter here

The Bureau of Land Management announced Thursday that it would no longer make federally managed lands in Wyoming’s Powder River Basin available for new coal mining leases, drawing condemnation from the fossil fuel industry in the region that produces the most coal in the country, but delivering a boon to the nation’s clean energy transition.

The Powder River Basin, a geological formation that covers much of northeast Wyoming and a portion of southeast Montana, has been the nation’s largest source of coal for decades, with production there peaking in 2008. Since then, demand for coal has plummeted, largely due to the rise of natural gas and renewable energy. Taking federal coal off the table in the basin could all but put an expiration date on the nation’s thermal coal industry.

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Samsung introduces Galaxy Book4 Edge 14 and 16 inch laptops with Snapdragon X

Samsung’s new Galaxy Book4 Edge line of laptops are premium thin and light notebooks with 3K AMOLED displays and Qualcomm Snapdragon X processors. The new Galaxy Book4 Edge comes with a choice of 14 or 16 inch display options. The smaller model …

Samsung’s new Galaxy Book4 Edge line of laptops are premium thin and light notebooks with 3K AMOLED displays and Qualcomm Snapdragon X processors. The new Galaxy Book4 Edge comes with a choice of 14 or 16 inch display options. The smaller model ships standard with a 12-core Qualcomm Snapdragon X Elite X1E-80-100 processor, while the larger version […]

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HP OmniBook X 14 inch and EliteBook Ultra G1q laptops with Snapdragon X Elite coming in June

HP says its new AI PCs with Qualcomm Snapdragon X chips are a whole “new class of next-generation AI PCs.” So the company developed a new AI Helix logo to slap on computers with high-performance NPUs for on-device AI processing. And the co…

HP says its new AI PCs with Qualcomm Snapdragon X chips are a whole “new class of next-generation AI PCs.” So the company developed a new AI Helix logo to slap on computers with high-performance NPUs for on-device AI processing. And the company has also stepped outside of the naming scheme it’s been using in […]

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Acer Swift 14 with Snapdragon X coming in July for $1100 and up

The new Acer Swift 14 AI (SF14-11) is Acer’s first laptop sporting a Qualcomm Snapdragon X processor for all-day battery life, competitive CPU and graphics performance, and an integrated NPU capable of 45 TOPS of AI performance. Acer says the th…

The new Acer Swift 14 AI (SF14-11) is Acer’s first laptop sporting a Qualcomm Snapdragon X processor for all-day battery life, competitive CPU and graphics performance, and an integrated NPU capable of 45 TOPS of AI performance. Acer says the thin and light Windows 11 laptop will be available in several configurations, including models with Snapdragon […]

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Dell Inspiron 14 Plus with Snapdragon X Plus is up for pre-order for $1099 and up

Dell’s Inspiron-branded laptops tend to be budget or mid-range devices that offer decent bang for the buck when it comes to the processor, memory, and storage, but which lack some of the premium materials or thin and light designs you’ll f…

Dell’s Inspiron-branded laptops tend to be budget or mid-range devices that offer decent bang for the buck when it comes to the processor, memory, and storage, but which lack some of the premium materials or thin and light designs you’ll find in the company’s higher-priced XPS notebooks. The Dell Inspiron 14 Plus is sort of a […]

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Dell XPS 13 with Snapdragon X Elite is available for pre-order for $1299 and up

The Dell XPS 13 laptop is a premium thin and light notebook that’s been around for more than a decade. This year Dell updated the XPS 13 with a major redesign that’s controversial, to say the least. But it looks like the company is stickin…

The Dell XPS 13 laptop is a premium thin and light notebook that’s been around for more than a decade. This year Dell updated the XPS 13 with a major redesign that’s controversial, to say the least. But it looks like the company is sticking with the new design, because the company’s first XPS 13 […]

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