Microsoft is making great preparations for the amazing future growth of hardware-accelerated local AI tools; the initial steps may not seem exciting, but they are nonetheless crucial.
Let us think about rushing over to the Task Manager—hold on, do not go! While it may not be the most glamorous subject matter, this is a significant development none the less.
AMD and Microsoft have partnered to enable the Microsoft Compute Driver Model (MCDM) for AMD chips, which will allow Task Manager to track NPU resource utilization in the same manner that it does for the CPU, GPU, and other components. AMD has announced that it will be working with Microsoft to add support for the latter’s most recent neural processing units (NPUs) in Windows.
Even though Team Red entered the NPU market first, AMD is likely relieved that its main rival, Intel, already offers MCDM support for its own on-chip NPUs.
AMD applauded Microsoft for recognizing the value of neural processing hardware, pointing out that the company’s efforts to “keep pace with the added complexity of PCs” are admirable and pointing out that the use of AI, which can be accelerated by a local NPU, is expected to grow in the years to come.
