The Intel AI PC Sustainability Story: A Path to Greener Computing

In today’s world, sustainability is a priority for many organizations. Whether driven by environmental concerns, regulatory requirements, corporate goals, or the fact that over 50% of young professionals consider a company’s sustainability practices when choosing an employer, decision-makers across industries are seeking eco-friendly solutions that also benefit their bottom line.

The Role of Technology in Sustainability

An organization’s tech stack can be both a challenge and an opportunity in achieving sustainability goals. While data centers and servers often come to mind when thinking about technology and sustainability, business PCs also play a crucial role.

At Intel, sustainability has been a core focus for decades. When designing the Intel® Core™ Ultra processors, which power AI PCs, we prioritized sustainability at every stage. This article explores how we engineered and collaborated with ecosystem partners to create AI PCs on Intel Core Ultra that are sustainable by design.

Processor-Level Efficiency

The development of Intel® Core™ Ultra processors aimed to reduce energy use with a next-generation hybrid architecture, including a GPU, CPU, and NPU.

Next-Gen Hybrid Architecture: This architecture features Efficient-cores (E-cores) for low-power tasks and Performance-cores (P-cores) for high-power tasks. For instance, watching a video locally runs on E-cores, while video editing runs on P-cores, optimizing energy use.
Intel® Thread Director: This tool analyzes workloads and assigns the right application thread to the appropriate core, optimizing performance per watt. This approach allows Intel Core Ultra-based notebooks to consume up to 64% less energy than ENERGY STAR 8.0 requirements.
Integrated Neural Processing Unit (NPU): The NPU is designed for AI tasks, making AI workloads more energy-efficient compared to running them on a CPU or GPU.
Xe-LPG GPU Architecture: The integrated GPU built on the new Xe-LPG architecture significantly improves performance per watt, contributing to power savings.

System-Level Efficiency

Intel also helps OEM partners enhance energy efficiency at the system level through tuning, display, and thermal technologies.

Tuning: Intel® Adaptix™ software toolkit helps OEMs tune systems for better efficiency and performance. It includes Intel® Energy Performance Optimizer, which optimizes energy efficiency based on user behavior.
Display: Intel® Intelligent Display Technology senses user presence and dims the display when the user is away, saving power.
Thermal: Intel® Automated Dust Cleaning Technology reduces dust on fans, improving energy efficiency and extending system component durability, which can lower IT maintenance costs over time.

Application-Level Efficiency

Applications bring AI PCs to life. Intel collaborates with over 100 AI independent software vendors (ISVs) and plans to have more than 300 AI-accelerated applications by the end of 2024. This collaboration focuses on improving the energy efficiency of applications.

Zoom: A 1x1 Zoom call uses 38% less power on an Intel Core Ultra processor compared to a 13th Gen Intel Core processor.
Microsoft Teams: A Microsoft Teams 3x3 call with AI-enhanced capabilities on an Intel Core Ultra processor uses 13% less power than the previous generation processor.

Lower Energy Consumption and Environmental Impact

Intel’s commitment to sustainability has led to multiple innovations for AI PCs. These efforts are crucial as 81% of senior IT leaders prioritize “green IT” on their corporate agenda. Together with OEM and ISV partners, Intel helps enterprises adopting AI PCs to lower energy costs and reduce tech-related environmental impact.

By focusing on processor, system, and application-level efficiencies, Intel is paving the way for a more sustainable future in computing.