Latest news with #ArcGPU
Time of India
3 days ago
- Automotive
- Time of India
Another cut for Intel; Chipmaker announces closure of this business unit; to layoff ‘most' of the staff
Intel is shutting down its automotive chip division and laying off the majority of employees in the section, reports The Oregonian. As per the report, the company has sent an internal memo to its employees, informing them about the decision. Tired of too many ads? go ad free now 'Intel plans to wind down the Intel architecture automotive business,' the company told employees, adding that the move is part of a larger plan to focus on its 'core client and data center portfolio.' In a statement to the publication, Intel said 'As we have said previously, we are refocusing on our core client and data center portfolio to strengthen our product offerings and meet the needs of our customers'. 'As part of this work, we have decided to wind down the automotive business within our client computing group,' the company added. 'We are committed to ensuring a smooth transition for our customers.' Intel's auto chip business powered over 50 million vehicles Intel has invested heavily in automotive semiconductors over the years. Its chips have been used in infotainment systems, instrument clusters, and other vehicle functions in more than 50 million cars. In 2024, the company introduced AI-enabled chips designed to enhance in-car navigation and voice assistants. It also announced plans to bring its Arc GPU to vehicles. Despite these developments, Intel now appears to be exiting the segment. The shift comes as part of CEO Lip-Bu Tan's broader restructuring efforts, aimed at streamlining operations and cutting costs. Layoffs at Intel The closure of the automotive unit follows news of broader layoffs across Intel. The company recently issued a WARN notice in California, indicating that 107 employees at its Santa Clara headquarters will lose their jobs. Tired of too many ads? go ad free now 'As we announced earlier this year, we are taking steps to become a leaner, faster and more efficient company. Removing organizational complexity and empowering our engineers will enable us to better serve the needs of our customers and strengthen our execution,' an Intel spokesperson told CRN. Additional job cuts are expected in Intel's foundry division as well. In April, Tan told employees that Intel would have to 'reduce the size' of its workforce in the second quarter of 2025 to improve operational efficiency. The chipmaker is targeting $500 million in cost reductions this year, with more cuts planned for 2026.
Yahoo
09-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Intel isn't working on discrete GPUs for laptops: Here's why.
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. Intel's Arc GPU platform has finally taken off on desktop, at least in the budget and mid-range markets. With the launch of the Arc Pro B50 and B60 workstation graphics cards at Computex last week, Intel's second generation of Arc GPUs is has officially arrived. But there's one massive market that still isn't served by the Arc platform. And that's laptops. Sure, Intel has brought its B-series GPUs (codename: "Battlemage") to its integrated graphics tiles on the Core Ultra 200 series chipsets, but integrated GPUs can only take you so far when gaming, rendering designs in 3D, or parsing massive data sets. So, why are there no Arc GPUs for laptops up for individual sale? Intel is positioning those Intel Core Ultra 200H systems with integrated Arc 130-140T graphics units as "thin-and-light workstations" — essentially, entry-level workstations. Intel's Roger Chandler told Laptop Mag at Computex, "probably a good 60% of the market are mobile workstations." So, these entry-level workstations with integrated graphics are a huge focus for Intel. "There's the [Core Ultra 200H] class platform for the thin and light [workstation], and that's where you have the really bigger built-in graphics, where we're seeing some surprise [from customers]. "It surprised a lot of people how [good] the performance is. It's literally more performance than a lot of [entry-level] discrete graphics." OK — but how does Intel's integrated GPU really stack up against the iGPU competition? Intel has stiff competition on the integrated graphics front. AMD's Ryzen AI 300 series also has a powerful integrated graphics tile, but as far as raw computing power goes, Intel's integrated Arc chips on the Intel Core Ultra 200H and Intel Core Ultra 200V chipsets outperform AMD's Ryzen AI 9 HX 370. However, AMD regains its performance lead with the Ryzen AI Max platform, which can use up to 97GB of system memory as VRAM. (AMD's Strix Halo is in a class of its own as far as x86 architecture goes.) For traditional integrated GPUs, Intel isn't wrong to consider its Core Ultra 200H systems as capable of some workstation tasks and gaming, particularly if you're not doing a lot of heavy lifting. Gaming on medium settings at 1080p is entirely feasible, but it isn't the performance we expect from a gaming laptop. On their own, Core Ultra 200H systems result in something of an entry-level device. Intel and its manufacturing partners still leverage the Core Ultra 200HX CPU alongside discrete Nvidia GPUs for high-end mobile workstations and gaming rigs. But Intel's Chandler tells Laptop Mag that the company isn't seeing entry-level workstations doing the demanding work of traditional workstations anyway. He says users are using them for better productivity. "When I have a mobile workstation, I never have to close anything." Intel's Roger Chandler at Computex 2025 Chandler explains it this way: "I use a mobile workstation for my daily driver now, and it's like I'm not using [3D design software application] SolidWorks all day. "But I'm one of those people who is a tab hoarder. I'll keep 78 tabs open on Chrome, and I've got 14 spreadsheets, and it's like, it started bogging down my old system. "When I have a mobile workstation, I never have to close anything." Chandler also says AI will improve performance as well. "[AI] takes some of the sharp edges off some of these difficult workloads, which means they're more accessible." All of which is to say, you can get away with just an integrated GPU instead of a more powerful discrete graphics card for a lot of tasks that were considered "workstation-class" just a few years ago. "Workstations are this whole category of product that is kind of entering this Renaissance," Chandler says. While it's too late in the Intel Arc B-series to expect a mobile variant, we expect Intel to launch its C-series graphics cards (codenamed "Celestial") later this year or early next year. But there is still hope for future generations of Arc GPUs to hit the mobile side. When asked during a press briefing about why Intel hadn't expanded the full Arc discrete GPU platform to laptops yet, Intel rep Qi Lin responded, "that's something we need to continue to work on." There are already rumors that Nvidia's next generation of graphics cards won't be optimized for gaming, as the company pivots harder toward AI and data center applications of its GPUs. While that's just speculation, the rocky launch of the RTX 50-series does lend some credence to the idea that there will be fewer and fewer Nvidia GeForce cards available in future generations. Which leaves the laptop GPU market wide open. After all, for the last several years, basically every gaming laptop and mobile workstation has featured a discrete Nvidia GPU. AMD hasn't produced a mobile discrete GPU since the Radeon RX 7000 series in early 2023. While AMD could be working on a Radeon 9000 series GPU for laptops, we haven't heard even the glimmer of a rumor around a new laptop GPU from Team Red. So if Intel can expand the Arc discrete graphics platform to laptops in the next few years, we could see a major upset in the laptop market. But only time will tell. I spent a week with the HP ZBook Fury 18 G1i, and this mobile workstation obliterated my expectations. Big cat sighting: Intel shows off Panther Lake at Computex Dell's new laptop ditches the GPU for a discrete NPU — here's why that's a big deal
Yahoo
11-05-2025
- Yahoo
Intel stealthily pulls the plug on Deep Link less than 5 years after launch
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. Intel has discontinued support for its Deep Link suite of technologies, as confirmed by a representative on GitHub, via X user Haze. After Intel quietly stopped promoting the feature in newer products such as Battlemage, it has now confirmed that active development for Deep Link has ceased. While you still might be able to use Deep Link, Intel has clarified that there will be no future updates or official support from their customer service channels. Deep Link was introduced in late 2020. It allows you to harness the combined power of your Intel CPU and Arc GPU to improve streaming, AI acceleration, and overall efficiency. To utilize Deep Link, you needed an Intel 11th, 12th, or 13th Generation CPU and a dedicated Arc Alchemist GPU. The suite offered four key utilities: Dynamic Power Share, Stream Assist, Hyper Encode, and Hyper Compute. Dynamic Power Share optimizes performance and power by intelligently shifting power resources between the CPU and GPU. Stream Assist improved streaming by offloading the task from the dedicated GPU to the integrated GPU. Hyper Encode accelerated video encoding using multiple Intel processors. Lastly, Hyper Compute leveraged your Intel CPU and GPU to accelerate AI workloads in OpenVINO. "Deep Link is no longer actively maintained and will not be receiving future updates, meaning that there will be no changes to the features regardless of their current functionality status." These features boosted performance in apps like OBS, DaVinci Resolve, and Handbrake. The user who originated the thread at GitHub could not get Stream Assist up and running with OBS using the latest Arc B580 paired with the Core Ultra 7 265K. Following a month-long wait, a representative relayed that Intel had discontinued software development. It turns out that even Alchemist users had a hard time getting these features working in Handbrake and OBS. It's possible that Intel considered Deep Link a niche feature and deemed the ongoing effort and investment not worthwhile. Besides, most of these features require per-vendor validation. Development was likely dropped a while back, as Meteor Lake, an architecture that dates back to late 2023, is also not among the supported CPUs. Follow Tom's Hardware on Google News to get our up-to-date news, analysis, and reviews in your feeds. Make sure to click the Follow button.
