Intel’s Core™ Ultra Series 2 processors have been awarded the 2026 Edge AI and Vision Product of the Year in the Edge AI Processors category.
The Intel® Core™ Ultra processor (Series 2)—codenamed Arrow Lake-H—delivers a major leap in AI, graphics, and system flexibility compared with Series 1 (Meteor Lake-H). It integrates up to 16 cores, a next-generation Intel® Arc™ GPU with up to 8 Xe cores, and an upgraded NPU (Intel AI Boost), reaching up to 99 total platform TOPS—nearly 3× higher than Series 1. Performance gains are tangible: the Intel® Core™ Ultra 9 285H achieves up to 2.2× higher AI Computer Vision throughput (Procyon), 3.3× faster Llama 3 8B inference, and 2.3× faster Stable Diffusion 1.5 generation compared with the Intel® Core™ Ultra 9 185H (Series 1) processor.
Series 2 also adds Intel® Xe Matrix Extensions (XMX), hardware-accelerated AV1 encode, and support for four 4K or two 8K displays with Pipelock synchronization, eliminating the need for discrete GPUs in demanding visual workloads. A widened 12–65 W TDP range, PCIe 5.0, DDR5/LPDDR5x-8400 memory, Thunderbolt™ 4, and integrated Wi-Fi 7 enable scalable, high-bandwidth edge designs. Combined with OpenVINO™ and Intel Open Edge Platform support, Series 2 empowers generative AI, computer vision, and multimedia inference—offering unmatched AI efficiency and responsiveness at the edge.
“We are honored to receive the 2026 Edge AI and Vision Product of the Year Award for our Intel® Core™ Ultra Series 2 processors. This recognition reflects our commitment to delivering edge solutions that combine powerful general-purpose compute and integrated AI acceleration,” stated Dan Rodriguez, Corporate Vice President and General Manager, Edge Computing Group, Intel. “The real validation comes from seeing customers transform their operations – from health to manufacturing, retail, transportation and more. We’re excited to continue empowering developers to build more intelligent edge solutions and unlock the power of AI.”
Intel invents at the boundaries of technology to make amazing experiences possible for business and society, and for every person on Earth. Harnessing the capability of the cloud, the ubiquity of the Internet of Things, the latest advances in memory and programmable solutions, and the promise of always-on 5G connectivity, Intel is disrupting industries and solving global challenges. Leading on policy, diversity, inclusion, education and sustainability, we create value for our stockholders, customers and society.
The award trophy will be presented at the 2026 Embedded Vision Summit May 11-13 in Santa Clara, CA. The awards program is organized by the Edge AI and Vision Alliance. The Edge AI and Vision Product of the Year Awards celebrate the innovation and achievement of the industry’s leading companies that are enabling and developing products incorporating edge AI and computer vision technologies.
