cm0002Aug 12, 2025

My new laptop chip has an 'AI' processor in it, and it's a complete waste of space

https://piefed.world/post/371490

My new laptop chip has an 'AI' processor in it, and it's a complete waste of space

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Show threadirotsomaAug 12, 2025

I mean, even if the NPU space can’t be replaced by more useful components easily or cheaply, just removing it is sure to save a small amount of power which equates to a possibly not so small amount of heat that needs to be dissipated, which takes not insignificant amounts of and/or requires slowing the system down. Additionally, the pathways likely could be placed to create less interference with each other and direct heat transfer which is likely to mean more stability overall.

Of course without a comparable processor without the NPU to compare to, these are really difficult things to quantify, but are true of nearly all compact chips on power sensitive platforms.

Show threadpftbest

No, it will not save any power at all. The power is only consumed during switching, so when some module is properly clock gated, it will not consume any power. There are many parts of the chip that are dark, for example the full CPU core could be disabled for various reasons and it does not affect power consumption when it’s dark. Maybe you know the Steam Deck, it is a battery operated device with the best power efficiency in its class. But what people don’t know is that it has more than 20% of its chip area disabled, as it relates to stereoscopic displays, because the same exact chip is also used by some AR or VR goggles, I forgot the name.

Also in general the modern chips are more limited by thermal rather than space. So realistically, even if you remove the NPU, you won’t be able to place anything high power there anyways, maybe you can put a couple hundred K of sram for cache in its place, but it won’t matter much in the end.

Aug 13, 2025 at 1:36amWeb