Intel introduced Core Ultra vPro laptop and Raptor Lake Refresh vPro desktop processors for business

Intel announced a new series of vPro processors at MWC, focusing on enhanced security. The vPro series includes Core Ultra (Meteor Lake) mobile processors.

In recent years, Intel has changed its approach to the vPro platform, moving away from hardware-based features in favor of software-based ones, which helps differentiate it from the mainstream line of consumer chips in cyber security. The Core Ultra series, part of vPro, offers security features for both small businesses (vPro Essentials) and large enterprises (vPro Enterprise), including Intel Hardware Shield technology to protect software.

The new vPro processors offer greater support for artificial intelligence technologies, making them better suited for enterprise workloads. They are represented only by the Meteor Lake-U and Meteor Lake-H models, and the updated Raptor Lake Refresh mobile chips (14th generation Core) are not included in the corporate line of Intel processors.

The company says thatthe new vPro processors are 36% more energy efficient than the previous generation chips, delivering 47% faster performance than PCs from three years ago, and up to 2.2 times faster performance in work-related tasks AI compared to 13th Gen Intel Core processors using dedicated Movidius AI VPUs. Also for the new processors, support for Wi-Fi 7, AV1 encoding and decoding is announced.

According to Intel representatives, about a hundred different systems based on new vPro processors from different manufacturers will be presented on the market. They will begin to appear on sale this quarter.

Also at MWC 2024it became known that by the end of 2027, Intel expects to begin producing products using the latest Intel 10A process technology. The company plans to begin production of chips using Intel 14A technology in 2026, so it will have about a year to subsequently develop Intel 10A technology. Apparently, the latter will involve not only the use of EUV lithography with a high numerical aperture (High-NA), but also a transistor structure with an ambient gate (GAA) and power supply technology on the reverse side of the printed circuit board.