Intel’s next line of desktop processors might not be as groundbreaking as some hoped, but the mobile series is another story. At this year’s Hot Chips conference at Stanford, Intel executives dropped some exciting news: their forthcoming 14th-gen Meteor Lake chips are going to be turbocharged by AI technology. The aim? To give your laptop battery a longer, more efficient life.
They’re calling this the “Intel Energy Efficiency Architecture,” and it’s going to be a game changer in how laptops manage power. We all know the feeling of urgency when we’re waiting for our computer to respond. Efraim Rotem, from Intel’s Design Engineering Group, gets it. He said the company wants computers that are responsive, that act immediately when we need them to. But normally, boosting that performance sucks up more power. It’s a catch-22 situation: you can either have a fast computer or a long-lasting battery, but not both.
Until now, that is. Traditional approaches have used a concept known as Dynamic Voltage and Frequency Scaling (DVFS) to manage power. Basically, your computer cranks up the power when you’re doing something intensive, and dials it down when you’re not. But deciding when to do this—and how much power to use—is tricky. That’s where Intel’s AI algorithm comes into play.
What sets this algorithm apart is that it learns autonomously, understanding user behavior to an unprecedented level of detail. Let’s say you’re surfing the web. The algorithm can predict how you open a webpage, scroll through, and then either close it or move on to another task. That predictive ability isn’t just about speed, either. According to Rotem, these Meteor Lake processors could ramp up their responsiveness by up to 35%, measured by how quickly they switch to a high-power state when needed.
But wait, there’s more. Just as important is knowing when to switch into low-power mode. Here, Intel’s algorithm excels again, potentially reducing your computer’s energy consumption by up to 15% compared to older models. Rotem was keen to differentiate between “energy”—that’s the work your laptop does divided by the power it uses to do that work—and overall power consumption. In layman’s terms? Your laptop will do more with less, giving you more time away from the charger.
We still don’t have a confirmed launch date for these Meteor Lake chips, but rumors suggest they could hit the market by October 2023. However, keep an eye out for Intel’s Innovation conference in San Jose this September, where we might get more detailed information on these revolutionary laptop CPUs. So, the future for laptop users looks bright—and a whole lot more efficient.
