Intel's ArrowLakeRefresh to Upgrade NPU Chip and Implications

TapTechNews July 5th news. Currently, the only desktop processor with an integrated NPU is AMD's Ryzen 8000G HawkPoint series chips for the AM5 platform.

Available information indicates that Intel's upcoming ArrowLake-S and HX series processors don't have any dedicated NPU hardware. The NPU will be limited to some ArrowLake-H/U and LunarLake chips, such as Core Ultra 200V, whose AI computing power can reach 48 TOPS, close to the 50 TOPS performance of AMD Strix APU.

@jaykihn0 revealed that Intel ArrowLakeRefresh will upgrade the NPU chip, which also leads to an increase in the area of the SoC part where the NPU is located.

According to his statement, the length of the SoC chip in ArrowLakeRefresh will be 2.8mm longer than the existing ArrowLake, but the package size remains the same (that is, the same as ArrowLake).

Since the size hasn't changed, the compatibility of this series of processors with the new generation of motherboards (TapTechNews note: The LGA1851 on the desktop belongs to the 800 series motherboards) will depend on whether the motherboard manufacturer enables the fast voltage mode (FVM) on the VccSA rail.