Intel posted a new Linux driver today for VPU support on 14th Gen Meteor Lake CPUs, reports Michael Larabel of the website Phoronix. VPU, or "Versatile Processing Unit", will be featured within the 14th Gen Core Meteor Lake CPUs.

Intel Posts New Linux Driver For VPU "Versatile Processing Unit" Coming With 14th Gen Meteor Lake CPUs

The VPU or versatile processing unit is unique because Intel will utilize it for deep learning applications with AI inference acceleration. The new VPU driver by Intel will be placed into the Linux Direct Rendering Manager, or DRM, similar to the graphics driver from the company. The new Intel VPU driver for Linux is licensed under GPLv2 specifically. The user-space stack is to use the "Intel oneAPI Level Zero API and OpenVINO," continues Larabel.

The screenshot of the new Linux versatile processing unit implementation by Intel. Image source: Michael Larabel of Phoronix

Intel anticipates having the versatile processing unit's user-space code publicly available in an open-source format at the end of the third quarter. The firmware for the VPU will remain closed-source.

Meteor Lake will get an integrated VPU Accelerator. It's similar to the Neural in the Apple M1 for speech recognition, language models, and conceivably many apps by the time Meteor Lake launches.

— Tom of Moore's Law Is Dead YouTube Channel

Intel was rumored to use the new VPU technology to compete with Apple's Neural Engine, seen in the company's desktops, laptops, iPads, and iPhones. While not knowing much about the VPUs, it is speculated that the unit will take space embedded on the dies next to Intel's CPU core architecture, similar to the architecture of the M1 processor by Apple.

In related news, AMD plans on producing an on-chip machine learning acceleration for Van Gogh and Rembrandt APU series and will potentially be the world's first processor of that caliber to release to mass desktop and mobile computing markets.

Based on the information we have, the VPU would be featured within the SOC Tile for 14th Gen Meteor Lake CPUs and may utilize Atom cores. That's at least what the rumor mill is saying right now. There are expected to be 2 to 4 of these cores within the SOC Tile which is one of the four tiles infused on the Meteor Lake chip.

According to@OneRaichu, there are only two LP-E cores on the Meteor Lake chips and those are present on the SOC Tile which means that these are the ones being used by the VPU.

Intel Meteor Lake Mobility CPU Lineup Expected Features:

Triple-Hybrid CPU Architecture (P/E/LP-E Cores)Brand New Redwood Cove (P-Cores)Brand New Crestmont (E-Cores)Up To 14 Cores (6+8) For H/P Series & Up To 12 Cores (4+8) For U Series CPUsIntel 4 Process Node For CPU, TSMC 3nm For tGPUIntel Battlemage 'Xe-LPG' GPU With Up To 128 EUsUp To LPDDR5X-7467 & DDR5-5200 SupportUp To 96 GB DDR5 & 64 GB LPDDR5X CapacitiesIntel VPU For AI Inferencing With Atom Coresx8 Gen 5 Lanes For Discrete GPU (Only H-Series)Triple x4 M.2 Gen 4 SSD SupportFour Thunderbolt 4 Ports

The versatile processing unit driver adds over eight thousand five hundred lines of code into the Linux kernel.

Intel Mobility CPU Lineup: