Intel Computex 2024 keynote: Intel Lunar Lake announcement as it happened
Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger lays out his plans for Intel-powered AI PCs
Intel's Computex 2024 keynote is almost upon us as the company's CEO, Pat Gelsinger, takes the stage to lay out Intel's plans for 2024 and beyond.
This will almost certainly include its plans for AI PCs, especially Microsoft Copilot+ PCs, given that Qualcomm and AMD have already had their keynotes where new mobile AI-capable processors took centerstage.
That of course means Lunar Lake, which is Intel's next-gen mobile processor series of chips. We might also get some Arrow Lake talk, which would be the first desktop processors to feature Intel's new multi-module design for its chips, first introduced with Intel Meteor Lake.
There's also definitely going to be some data center talk with Intel Xeon, but whatever Intel announces, I'll be bringing it to you live with my analysis of what it all means. So stay tuned!
How to watch the Intel Computex 2024 Keynote
You can follow along with Intel's keynote with the embedded livestream above.
Hey Folks! This is John, TechRadar's components editor, and we're about to start with Intel's keynote address from Taipei, Taiwan. Expect a lot of AI PC talk from Intel's CEO Pat Gelsinger, and much more besides.
We're about to be underway in about 4 minutes. Now's a good time to grab a drink and a snack and settle in if you haven't already.
So things are kicking off with a performance from the percussion group Ten Drum.
Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger is about to take the stage.
So that video of Intel founder Gordon Moore was generated by AI, with permission from Moore's family. Which is fine, but I have to admit, I don't like the idea of 'resurrecting' the dead in this manner.
The AI Era is here, Gelsinger says, comparing it to the first days of the internet. He's almost certainly right.
Chips are the heart of the global economy. Might not be such a great idea to have nearly all of them all being produced in a single country.
Shout out to Netscape.
OK, getting data center talk out of the way. 130 million Xeon chips powering data centers.
Huh, Intel Xeon 6 with e-cores.
That's actually really good. Yes, move everything to e-cores please. I'm glad that the focus here is on efficiency.
LOL, a dig in at the guy's workout routine. I mean, dude is in shape, so I guess he's earned it.
The difference between these two server racks is substantial when it comes to video. 4.2x performance gain on Xeon 6. Time to upgrade data centers off these older Intel Xeon chips. I agree. 80K MWh power savings with an upgrade to new Xeon 6 chips. I guess Intel read my oped.
Like I was yesteday at AMD's keynote, I appreciate their focus on energy efficiency. There's always the problem of induced demand, so these more efficient chips may just mean we use three times as many, so we end up spending the same amount of power (the same way adding more lanes to a highway doesn't help traffic, since it just incentivizes more drivers to drive rather than take mass transit).
Multimodal RAG LLM analysizing an X-ray can help medical professionals interpret results for diagnoses. OK, so the 'accidental' reveal of this chatbot is a clever bit of presentation. I've watched Gelsinger do a few keynotes by now, and honestly, he's better at this than anyone else in the industry. The content might not be the most riveting for most people, but he's an excellent presenter.
Inventec President Jack Tsai joins Gelsinger on the stage.
I have to admit, I'm glad they're getting the data center stuff out of the way first. Interesting how AMD ended on data center and front loaded its client Ryzen announcements.
UALink, the high-speed open interface standard for data centers that Dr. Lisa Su of AMD talked about yesterday, includes Intel, but noticeably doesn't include Nvidia.
Intel and Samsung bringing AI to edge devices.
OK, here we go, talking about AI PCs now.
Intel Lunar Lake PCs on display.
Intel Lunar Lake is official.
Lion Cove performance cores, Skymont efficiency cores, Xe 2 (AKA Battlemage) architecture, and new NPU cores. Why he's calling it 'zhee-two' is beyond me. Everyone at Intel has been calling it 'echs-ee-two', but when you're the CEO, you can do whatever you want.
I'll have a lot to say about the SoC power efficiency. I haven't been able to test any of it, but I've talked to a lot of Intel folks last week about Lunar Lake, and if the architecture changes Intel has made work as intended, we might be getting x86 performance with Arm-competitive energy efficiency. This chip has been entirely re-engineered, so a lot of the issues that devastated battery life from Alder Lake to Raptor Lake Refresh have been jettisoned.
Snapdragon X Elite and X Plus chips are potential game changers, but the entire computing world has been built around Intel's x86 chips for decades. The entire ecosystem takes x86 as the default, so there's no comparing Arm's compatibility to what is already baked into the cake for Intel's Lunar Lake.
Arrow Lake coming to desktops in late 2024, Panther Lake coming in 2025.
Acer CEO is onstage with Gelsinger now. The move from Search to Ask. Nice way to sum up what the industry wants for AI.
New Lunar Lake laptops are coming, but there's no release date yet. Everything Intel folks have told me is we can expect these laptops to make it to market in time for holiday 2024, so probably after Labor Day in September 2024.
Until the periodic table is exhausted, Moore's Law is alive and well. Ok, that's a very interesting statement.
Are we talking about something other than silicon powering a computer?
OK, that's a wrap for Intel's keynote. Now that Lunar Lake is official, I'll have a lot more to say about it this week, but for now, I'm going to head on out to the show floor. Take care folks.
