Microsoft has been investing a lot in machine learning, working with silicon vendors to support running AI models on your PC as fast as possible. This has required the development of a whole new generation of silicon from Intel, AMD and ARM. Often called "AI accelerators," neural processing units are dedicated hardware that handle specific machine learning tasks such as computer vision algorithms. You can think of them much like a GPU, but for AI rather than graphics. They often share a lot of features with GPUs, having many relatively low precision processor cores that implement common machine learning algorithms.

The topic of AI is not new and each one of us is benefiting from AI every day, transforming many aspects of our lives. This trend is fueled by edge computing which is providing opportunities to move AI workloads from the Intelligent Cloud to the Intelligent Edge for improved response times and bandwidth savings. In combination with Digital Twins and IoT, there is a strong trend not only in manufacturing but also in other industries to leverage AI/ML analytics for getting better and faster insights for improved Predictive Maintenance and more. The benefit of edge deployments is especially strong when it comes to computer vision models that take large data streams like images or live video as input. With edge computing, these large data streams can now be processed locally at the device / client, eliminating the need for significant bandwidth or privacy concerns associated with streaming into a cloud data center. Edge video analytics systems can execute computer vision and deep-learning algorithms either directly integrated into the camera or with an attached edge computing system.

Microsoft will release a refreshed Arm-based desktop PC for developers later this year. Project Volterra will speed up machine learning algorithms for data scientists and AI developers. The vendor introduced the stackable PC, which can connect to multiple units for additional capabilities, last week at Microsoft Build, its annual software and web developer conference. The PC will enable developers to use Arm-native versions of Microsoft developer tools to build apps. The small PCs, which look like Mac minis, are built from recycled ocean plastic. They are the first to integrate the gasconaded neural processing units (NPUs) -- a controversial name that some analysts view with skepticism.

At its annual developer conference, Microsoft doesn't typically announce new hardware. But at Build 2022 the company made time to unveil Project Volterra, a PC Microsoft designed to assist developers with building native ARM apps that employ AI-accelerated workloads. While we don't have all the details on Project Volterra just yet, what we do know is that it will feature a Qualcomm Snapdragon chipset with a dedicated neural processing unit or NPU. Microsoft told TechCrunch the component would deliver "best-in-class" AI computing capacity and efficiency. A neural processor isn't something you typically see on PCs. They're far more common in phones where they help save on battery power by taking on machine learning tasks from the CPU.

Today at Build 2022, Microsoft unveiled Project Volterra, a device powered by Qualcomm's Snapdragon platform that's designed to let developers explore "AI scenarios" via Qualcomm's new Snapdragon Neural Processing Engine (SNPE) for Windows toolkit. The hardware arrives alongside support in Windows for neural processing units (NPUs), or dedicated chips tailored for AI- and machine learning-specific workloads. Dedicated AI chips, which speed up AI processing while reducing the impact on battery, have become common in mobile devices like smartphones. But as apps like AI-powered image upscalers come into wider use, manufacturers have been adding such chips to their laptop lineups. M1 Macs feature Apple's Neural Engine, for instance, and Microsoft's Surface Pro X has the SQ1 (which was co-developed with Qualcomm).