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AI PCs Aren't Good at AI: The CPU Beats the NPU

(github.com)
486 points dbreunig | 1 comments | 16 Oct 24 19:44 UTC | HN request time: 0.001s | source
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jsheard ◴[16 Oct 24 20:16 UTC] No.41863390[source]▶
These NPUs are tying up a substantial amount of silicon area so it would be a real shame if they end up not being used for much. I can't find a die analysis of the Snapdragon X which isolates the NPU specifically but AMDs equivalent with the same ~50 TOPS performance target can be seen here, and takes up about as much area as three high performance CPU cores:

https://www.techpowerup.com/325035/amd-strix-point-silicon-p...

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JohnFen ◴[16 Oct 24 22:19 UTC] No.41864412[source]▶
> These NPUs are tying up a substantial amount of silicon area so it would be a real shame if they end up not being used for much.

This has been my thinking. Today you have to go out of your way to buy a system with an NPU, so I don't have any. But tomorrow, will they just be included by default? That seems like a waste for those of us who aren't going to be running models. I wonder what other uses they could be put to?

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jonas21 ◴[16 Oct 24 22:28 UTC] No.41864488[source]▶
NPUs are already included by default in the Apple ecosystem. Nobody seems to mind.
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1. shepherdjerred ◴[17 Oct 24 00:13 UTC] No.41865200[source]▶
I actually love that Apple includes this — especially now that they’re actually doing something with it via Apple Intelligence