Intel unveils a range of new Arc GPUs – serious graphics users will have to wait for more powerful models, though, as they target a completely different and more lucrative market
Two years after the debut of its Arc Alchemist GPUs, Intel is launching six new Arc products, but these are designed for edge/embedded systems.
These edge systems, which process data close to the source to reduce latency and bandwidth usage, are becoming increasingly important in areas such as IoT, autonomous vehicles and AI applications.
As Intel says, βAI at the edge is exploding and new use cases and workloads are being developed every day. These AI workloads often require high levels of parallel processing and memory bandwidth for peak performance, dedicated hardware, optimized architecture for compute efficiency, and reduced latency with faster results for real-time processing. A discrete GPU can be the ideal solution for edge AI use cases that require high performance and complex model support.β
Six SKUs
The new Arc on edge GPUs are built on Intel’s highly scalable Intel Xe-core architecture and support AI acceleration, visual computing and media processing. Using the OpenVINO toolkit, developers can deploy AI models on Intel hardware.
The Arc on edge offering has a number of benefits, including reduced latency, improved bandwidth efficiency, and better privacy and security.
For high performance and to handle heavy AI workloads and extended use cases such as facial recognition and generative conversational speech, there is the 7XXE. For immersive visual experiences and enhanced AI inference capabilities, there’s the 5XXE, and for low-power, small form factor requirements, Intel has the 3XXE.
There are six SKUs available: the A310E and A3503 with 6 Xe cores, the A370E and A380E with 8 cores, and the A580E and A750E with 28 cores. The A310E, A3503 and A370E have 4 GB of GDDDR6 memory with a memory bandwidth of 112 GB/s. The A380E has 6 GB with a bandwidth of 186 GB/s, while the memory and memory bandwidth of the A580E and A750E are unknown for now. Intel only says it is βin planning.β There’s also no launch date for these two, just TBD. The remaining four SKUs will be available this month.
Intel Arc GPUs are built to be paired with Intel Core processors, 10th generation and up, and Intel Xeon W-3400 and W-2400. A number of products featuring the new Arc GPUs will be released in the coming months by Intel partners, including ADLINK, Advantech, Asus, Matrox and Sparkle.