What does an NPU do and why do so many laptops have them?
Wondering what an NPU actually does and whether you even need it? We've got you covered.
An NPU, or Neural Processing Unit, is a specialized chip designed to handle AI workloads, using significantly less power than a standard laptop's CPU or GPU. The inclusion of NPUs in laptops is largely driven by Microsoft's Copilot + PC certification, which mandates a minimum of 40 TOPS (measuring AI performance) in new machines to access certain Windows AI features.
This has led to a surge in laptops featuring NPUs, with analysts projecting that AI-capable PCs account for over half of global shipments. While NPUs excel at accelerating inference (the process of running AI models), they are not suited for AI model training, which still requires a powerful GPU. Their primary applications currently include features like background blur on video calls, noise suppression, real-time translation, and local search indexing.
The NPUs' efficiency in these tasks, coupled with the stringent certification requirements, has made them a standard feature in many mid-range and premium laptops. Despite the growing prevalence of NPUs, software support remains limited, with most of the available applications leveraging this technology being relatively basic.
Written by urgent.news from Engadget's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
