The Future of AI Processing

The world is shifting from cloud-based AI servers to AI-ready computers. The aim is to make AI systems faster, more energy-efficient, and more secure—especially when it comes to sending sensitive information to cloud servers.

In our new article series, we focus on the functionalities of Neural Processing Units (NPUs) and Central Processing Units (CPUs) and explore their role in the future of AI processing.

Beyond CPUs and NPUs

We're at the gates of a new AI era, where significant shifts in processing are underway. The traditional boundaries of Central Processing Units (CPUs) and Neural Processing Units (NPUs) are being surpassed as we speak. The pace of innovation in AI demands an equally dynamic evolution in the processors that power it, heralding the potential emergence of specialised processors designed to overcome the unique challenges and opportunities of AI's next frontier.

The Onset of Specialised Processors

The journey beyond CPUs and NPUs is marked by exploring specialised processors that can offer even greater efficiency and performance in AI applications. These future processors may be tailored to specific AI domains, such as quantum computing for complex problem-solving or bio-inspired computing for learning and adaptation. The ongoing research and development in AI hardware optimisation are driven by the quest to break through the limitations of current technologies, enabling faster, more efficient, and more intelligent AI systems.

Research and Development in AI Hardware Optimisation

AI hardware optimisation is busy with activity as researchers and engineers aim to innovate beyond the usual CPUs and NPUs. This includes efforts to reduce energy consumption, increase processing speed, and minimise latency while maintaining or enhancing the accuracy and reliability of AI systems. The development of new materials, circuit designs, and computing paradigms, such as neuromorphic computing, which mimics the neural structures of the human brain, is at the forefront of this research. These advancements promise to usher in a new generation of AI processors that are more powerful and more aligned with the principles of sustainable and responsible technology.

An Optimistic Outlook on the Future of AI Processing

The future of AI processing is bright with possibilities. As we move past CPUs and NPUs, more specialised processors come into play, offering new ways to innovate and use AI. This evolution is not just about achieving higher performance metrics; it's about redefining what is possible in AI, from enhancing everyday technologies to solving some of the world's most pressing challenges.

The ongoing advancements in AI hardware optimisation are showcasing the human spirit of inquiry and invention. With a continued focus on innovation, collaboration, and ethical considerations, the future of AI processing holds the promise of unlocking unprecedented levels of intelligence and capability in machines. As we look forward to this future, it's clear that the journey of AI is only just beginning, and the processors that power it will continue to play a pivotal role in shaping its trajectory.

Microsoft’s Vision Takes Shape

AI isn't just talk anymore—it's driving innovation. Microsoft leads the charge, reshaping PCs with its vision of AI-powered computers. The latest iteration of Windows introduces a dedicated Copilot key, signalling a leap towards integrating AI capabilities directly into the fabric of personal computing. Central to this vision is the requirement for NPUs capable of performing at least 40 trillion operations per second, a specification that promises to bring Microsoft Copilot’s functionalities closer to the user, locally, albeit with some reliance on cloud processing.

During Intel’s AI Summit in Taipei, a significant announcement was made, officially outlining the hardware requirements for running Microsoft’s AI model on Windows. Intel, a stalwart advocate for the AI PC category, underscored the importance of these specifications. The move towards local processing of large language models (LLMs) like Microsoft Copilot offers several intrinsic benefits, including reduced latency for quicker response times and a theoretical improvement in privacy. Moreover, this shift aims to alleviate the load on Microsoft’s servers, allowing for more efficient use of resources in training new AI models or providing cloud-based AI services.

The Hardware Challenge and the Promise of Local Processing

The ambition to run AI models locally, however, is not without its challenges. The sheer size of models such as GPT-4, which underpins Microsoft Copilot, necessitates a significant amount of computational power and memory. Current estimates place GPT-4 at around 1.7 trillion parameters, a scale that requires innovative solutions to run effectively on personal computing devices.

Intel’s discussions around running “elements” of Copilot locally suggest a strategic move towards utilising smaller, specialised models that can operate within the constraints of existing hardware. This approach is further evidenced by Microsoft’s investment in Mistral AI, a firm specialising in creating compact AI models. Such developments hint at a future where AI PCs can offer a blend of local and cloud processing, leveraging the strengths to deliver enhanced privacy, responsiveness, and reliability in AI applications.

Navigating the Present and Future of AI PCs

Despite the positive outlook, AI PCs have limitations, especially in the processing power of NPUs. Microsoft's specifications for AI PCs have yet to be met by most devices on the market, with existing NPUs falling short of the required 40 trillion operations per second. This gap highlights the reliance on GPUs to supplement processing power and meet the demands of running complex AI models.

Looking ahead, advancements in processor technology, such as Qualcomm’s Snapdragon X Elite mobile processors, promise to bridge this gap. These future processors, capable of 45 TOPS, alongside powerful GPUs, pave the way for running substantial AI models entirely on-device. As hardware continues to evolve, the vision of AI PCs capable of offloading more functionality to local devices becomes increasingly feasible, marking a significant milestone in the journey towards truly intelligent personal computing.

Incorporating AI capabilities directly into PCs represents a bold step forward, blending the power of cloud computing with the advantages of local processing. As Microsoft and its partners make their way along the path, the challenges and opportunities of this transition, the promise of AI PCs capable of enhancing privacy, efficiency, and user experience, shines brightly on the horizon, heralding a new era of personal computing.

Contact us for further information on our AI-ready computer offerings.

Have you read the previous article of our series? Click here to read it.

Privacy Overview

Privacy Policy

We respect privacy and your rights to control your personal data. We will be clear about the data we collect and why. Your
data is safeguarded by us and we do not and will not sell or rent your data to third parties. We may combine your information
with information we collect from other companies (such as demographic data) to improve and personalize the services
provided to you.

We collect:

Name, email address, IP address and information provided by cookies or similar technology.

Why:

We use this information to share news about events and products offered by CID. Additionally, the IP address helps us to
understand geographic information about our website visitors better so that we can improve our website for everyone.

Buying Products

When you buy from us, you may be asked to provide information so that we can complete your purchase. Information may
include things like your name, phone number, email, shipping/delivery address, and payment information. We collect: Your
name, phone number (optional), email address, delivery/shipping address, and payment information. Why: We use this
information to complete your transaction, follow up with you about your purchase, help with any delivery issues, handle
returns, and other issues related to the purchase of the products.

Use of Email / Anti-Publishing Policy

We will use email to communicate with you after you provide us your email address to gain access to our services. When you
interact with us through your Online Services account, you provide your email address as a way for us to communicate with
you.

We will never request that you provide sensitive personal information, such as bank account numbers, PINs, user names, or
passwords through email.

To verify the destination of an active link, you should hover your mouse over it and review the address information displayed in
the status bar located at the bottom of your browser page; it will display the Web address destination of the link.

Phishing

Web users should be wary of suspicious email. Signs that an email may be a phishing attempt include:

The email contains obvious spelling errors. Phishers do this intentionally in order to avoid spam filters many Internet
providers use.
Links to the Web site contain all or part of a real entity's name, or Web address, but the link itself is not identical to that of the
legitimate Web site. Clicking on these links may take you to a different, possibly malicious Web site or pop-up windows that
ask you to provide, update, or confirm sensitive personal information. (Remember to check the true destination of an active
link by hovering your mouse over it and reviewing the address information displayed in the status bar at the bottom.)

Phishing detection may be enhanced by use of a Web browser that has a phishing filter. The latest versions of most browsers including Internet Explorer, Firefox, and Opera include phishing filters that can help in detecting phishing attempts.

What we collect:

This may include contact information such as your name, email address, phone number, social media identifiers (if you
contact us using a social media channel), and the content of your chats and other communications with CID services team
(including voice recording). In certain situations we may need to collect system configuration & diagnostic information to
enable us to fulfil our delivery & support obligations.

Why:

We collect this information to enable us to deliver the services defined in your service agreemen.

Information obtained from third-party sources

We protect data obtained from third parties according to the practices described in this notice and we also apply any
additional restrictions imposed by the source of data.

How We Use Personal Information

CID uses the data we collect to provide you with the products and services we offer, which includes using data to improve
and personalise your IT experiences. We also use the data to communicate with you, for example, informing you about, new
products or services available, security and other types of updates.

CID uses the data for the following purposes:

Providing our Product Experience
Customer Support
Product Improvement
Security, Safety, and Dispute Resolution
Business Operations
Communication, Marketing and Advertising

Providing our Product Experience

We use data to provide and improve the Products we offer and perform essential business operations. This includes
operating products, maintaining and improving the performance of products, including developing new features,
research and providing customer support.

Customer Support

We use data to diagnose product problems, repair customers' devices and provide other customer care and support services.

Product Improvement

We continually use data to improve our products and services, including adding new features or capabilities, such as
user error reports to improve security features, using search queries and clicks to improve the relevance of search
results, using usage data to determine what new features to prioritise.

Security, Safety, and Dispute Resolution

We use data to protect the security and safety of our products and our customers, to detect and prevent fraud, to
resolve disputes and enforce our agreements.

Business Operations

We use data to protect the security and safety of our products and our customers, to detect and prevent fraud, to
resolve disputes and enforce our agreements.

Communication, Marketing and Advertising

We use the data we collect to deliver and personalise our communications with you. For example, we may contact you
by email or other means of electronic communication to inform you about new CID products or Services, security or
software updates, update you on a support issue, invite you to take part in a survey. We also use cookies and similar
technologies to provide the most relevant advertising to you.

Sharing and Disclosure

CID does not and will not sell personal information about our customers.

We only disclose your data as authorised in this Statement. We may share information with the following types of third parties.

Who We May Disclose your Personal Information to and Why

Third party vendors. CID uses a variety of third-party vendors to carry out services like website management and hosting,
product purchases and shipping, credit card processing and email communications. We only share your personal data as
necessary. To complete a transaction, provide a product or service you have requested or authorised and only with vendors
or agents working on our behalf for the purposes described in this Statement. In this case, your personal information will be
shared with these agents or contractors but only for the purpose of performing services on behalf of CID and in accordance
with this Notice. The up-to-date list of these parties may be requested from CID at any time.

Parties with whom it might be necessary, when we reasonably believe it to be required by law or in connection with legal
proceedings; to prevent harm to CID or its customers; for the prevention and detection of crime or the apprehension or
prosecution of offenders; to maintain the security of our products or to protect the rights or property of CID.

Parties with whom it might be necessary to complete a financial or corporate transaction such as a merger or sale of assets.

We may also share non-personal information such as aggregated data with our partners or publicly.

Communication, Marketing and Advertising Preferences

You can opt out of receiving certain direct communications from CID. If you wish to stop receiving emails from us, you can do
so by following the instructions included in every email sent to you via the “Unsubscribe” tab. We respect your choice, and we
will stop sending you promotional emails once you unsubscribe. It may take up to one week to process your request

Cookies and Other Similar Technologies

We use cookies and similar technologies like pixels, tags, web beacons, and other identifiers to help us personalise our
website for you, understand how users are using our website and help customise our marketing offerings. By visiting our
website you agree to the use of cookies and similar technologies for the purposes described in this Statement.

Cookies

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you visit the website again, the cookie allows that site to recognise your browser. The length of time a cookie will stay on your
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they expire or are deleted. We use the following types of cookies on our website.

Strictly necessary cookies. These cookies are essential for you to browse our website and use its features. Without these
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Performance upped. These cookies collect information about how you use our websites. This data may be used to help
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Functional cookies. These cookies allow our websites to remember choices you make and personalise your experience. We
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subject to the respective privacy policies for these external services, for example, the Facebook Data Use Policy.
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a visitor stays on our website, what pages they find most useful, and how they arrived at cidistribution.com. When you visit our
site we store the name of your internet service provider, the parts of our site you visit, the date and duration of your visit, and
information from the device (device type, operating system, screen resolution, language, country you are located in, and web
browser type) you used during your visit. We only capture and store a truncated version of your IP address. It is captured and
stored in an anonymized format by suppressing the last octet so your full IP address never reaches our servers and we never
have access to it.

We process this usage data to facilitate your access to our services (e.g. to adjust our services to the device you are using)
and to recognize and stop any misuse. We also process usage data in an anonymized form for statistical purposes and to
improve our site.

How to control cookie settings

Most web browsers allow you to control cookies through their settings preferences, however if you limit the ability of websites
to set cookies, you may impact your overall user experience. Below you can learn about how to control cookie settings on
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In addition to cookies, we sometimes use small graphic images known as 'pixels' (also known as web beacons, clear GIFs, or
pixel tags). We use pixels in our email communications to you (if you have selected to receive such communications) to help us
to understand whether our email communication has been viewed. We also use third party pixels (such as those from Google,
Facebook, and other advertising networks) to help us provide advertising that is relevant to your interests.

We use a variety of security technologies and procedures to help protect your personal data from unauthorised access, use or
disclosure. For example, we store the personal data you provide on computer systems that have limited access and are in
controlled facilities. When we transmit data over the Internet, we protect it using encryption.

While no service is completely secure, CID takes precautionary measures to help prevent information about you from loss,
theft, misuse and unauthorised access, disclosure, alteration and destruction. For example, we ensure that our third-party data
centre vendors provide adequate security measures.

Additionally, your data is protected with encryption, such as Transport Layer Security (TLS), during transition over the Internet.
Your personal information is stored on servers that are kept in a controlled environment with limited access. While we take
reasonable precautions to guard personal information we collect from you, no security system is impenetrable.

Other Important Privacy Information

Our Policy Towards Children

CID does not seek to gather information on or from children. We do not knowingly solicit personal information from children or
send them requests for personal information.

Our Retention of Personal Data

CID retains personal data only for as long as necessary and that is relevant to provide services, support your product and fulfil
the transactions you have requested, or for other essential purposes such as complying with our legal obligations, and
resolving disputes and enforcing our agreements. Because these needs can vary for different data types in the context of
different products or services, actual retention periods can vary significantly.

Changes to Our Privacy Notice

CID may modify or update this Statement when necessary to reflect customer feedback and changes in our products and
service; so, please review it regularly. When we update this Statement, we will revise the 'Last Update' date at the top of this
document. If there are material changes to the Statement or in how CID uses your personal data, we will notify you by posting
a notice of such changes before they take effect. We encourage you to regularly review this Statement to learn more how CID
is using and protecting your information. Your continued use of the service or products after any modification to this
Statement will constitute your acceptance of such modification and updates.

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3rd Party Cookies

We'd like to set Google Analytics cookies to help us to improve our website by collecting and reporting information on how you use it. The cookies collect information in a way that does not directly identify anyone. For more information on how these cookies work, please see our 'Cookies page'.

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Cookie Policy

What are Cookies?

We use the term cookie to describe cookies and similar technologies such as tags and pixels. Cookies are small data files that websites place on your computer, laptop or mobile device.

Our use of Cookies

We use Cookies for the following purposes:

To improve the performance of our websites by understanding which parts work well, and which don't.
To deliver relevant online advertising to you both on our websites and elsewhere. This is sometimes done by combining data that we already have about you with the data collected through Cookies. These Cookies are placed by us and selected third parties and enable adverts to be presented to you on our and third party websites.
To measure how effective our online advertising and marketing communications are.
To enable us to collect information about how you and other people use our websites.
To improve your experience on our websites, for example we use Cookies to remember the products you've put in your basket and to personalise your experience.

What Cookies do we use?

We use the following Cookies:

Strictly necessary Cookies. These are Cookies that are required for the operation of our website. They are necessary for the safety, security and integrity of the site. For example they help support the structure of the pages that are displayed to you, help to improve navigation and allow you to return to pages you have previously visited. This type of Cookie only lasts for the duration of the time you are visiting the website. When you leave the website they are deleted automatically.
Performance Cookies or analytical Cookies. They allow us to recognise and count the number of visitors and to see how visitors move around our website when they are using it. This helps us to improve the way our website works, for example, by ensuring that users are finding what they are looking for easily. The data is aggregated and anonymised, which means we cannot identify you as an individual.
Functionality Cookies. These are used to recognise you when you return to our website. This enables us to personalise our content for you, greet you by name and remember your preferences (for example, your choice of language or region). These Cookies will remain on your device until you choose to clear it. If you choose to do this, you will need to enter your details each time you visit the site.
Targeting Cookies. These Cookies will collect information about your browsing habits and allow us to show you adverts while you are browsing our site and other sites on the internet. They are set by us or by carefully selected third parties. They help us to understand the performance of our marketing activities and improve the relevance of the adverts that you see.

Blocking or restricting Cookies

You can stop Cookies being used on your device by activating the setting on your browser that allows you to block the deployment of all or some Cookies. Please visit www.allaboutcookies.org to find out how. Please note, if you use your browser settings to block Cookies you may not be able to access all or parts of our site.

If you have a question about this policy please contact us by one of the following means:

By email: DPO@centerprise.co.uk

Policy change

This cookie policy was most recently updated in DEC2020. If we make changes to it, then we will take appropriate steps to bring those changes to your attention.