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All future Surface devices may ship with a Neural Processing Unit (NPU)

Rumors say that Microsoft is about to integrate a neural processor (Neural Processing Unit, NPU) into all future Surface devices. This component will significantly speed up calculations related to artificial intelligence and machine learning.

Surface devices may ship with NPU

Microsoft is increasing usage of artificial intelligence (AI) in their hardware products. The company is incorporating AI into their devices to enhance the user experience, automate tasks, and improve overall performance.

Currently, the Neural Processing Unit (NPU) is only found in Qualcomm's desktop processors, and the Surface Pro 9 is the first device in the line to feature this AI accelerator. Intel and AMD are also working on integrating NPUs into their products.

The Athena NPU

In other news, Microsoft is developing its own Athena processor to accelerate artificial intelligence tasks. The project exists since 2019. The company expects that this development will help save money and eliminate dependence on NVIDIA solutions.

Now some Microsoft and OpenAI employees have already received chips codenamed Athena to test large language models such as GPT-4. As you may remember, it is the language model that underlies the recently launched Bing chatbot.

Analysts estimate that around 30,000 NVIDIA GPUs are required to meet the demand for a service like ChatGPT. Given that the cost of the A1000 graphics adapter ranges from 10 to 15 thousand dollars, running a conditional ChatGPT will cost about $300 million.

Sources: Community/Thurrott

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Author: Sergey Tkachenko

Sergey Tkachenko is a software developer who started Winaero back in 2011. On this blog, Sergey is writing about everything connected to Microsoft, Windows and popular software. Follow him on Telegram, Twitter, and YouTube.

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