Developers, however, can start to blend the physical and digital realms via technologies like virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR) and mixed reality (MR) — collectively referred to as extended reality (XR). But this dream is still in its infancy. As a result, developers need guidelines to ensure they are going down the correct path when creating XR experiences.

In this 7-page ebook, developers will learn:

• How XR is bound to change industry.
• Which challenges exist when making XR experiences for industry.
• Six best practices to keep the development of industrial XR experiences on track.
• How Unity can help make industrial XR experiences a reality.

To download your free ebook, fill out the form on this page. Your download is sponsored by Unity Technologies.

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Chipmaker AMD unveiled its next generation of processors at Computex 2024. The new AMD Ryzen AI 300 Series processors are built on AMD’s new XDNA 2 architecture and feature what AMD claims is the “world’s most powerful Neural Processing Unit (NPU)” to power AI PC laptops. For desktop computers, AMD also announced the new Ryzen 9000 Series processors built on the company’s latest Zen 5 architecture.

(Image: AMD.)

Nvidia’s profits soar

Nvidia reported that its first quarter revenue is up 17.8% from the previous quarter, amounting to $26 billion with $15 billion in profit. CEO Jensen Huang said in a statement that the company’s data center growth was due to “strong and accelerating demand for generative AI training and inference on the Hopper platform.” With Hopper making way for Nvidia’s recently announced Blackwell platform, Huang added that the company is “poised for our next wave of growth.”

Asus ExpertBook P5 to bring AI to business laptops

Asus announced the ExpertBook P5, the flagship laptop of the company’s new Expert P series of business-focused AI PCs. The ExpertBook P5 will include an Intel Core Ultra processor and feature a 14-inch, 2.5K display. Full specs will be available on the laptop’s launch in Q3 of this year.

The Asus ExpertBook P5. (Image: Asus.)

Dell revenue reflects AI growth

Dell detailed the results of its first 2025 fiscal quarter, which saw a 6% year-over-year increase to $22.2 billion in revenue. In the company’s press release, Dell CFO Yvonne McGill pointed to AI as a driver of new growth for the company.

Lenovo and Cisco partner for digital transformation

Lenovo and Cisco announced a strategic partnership to accelerate digital transformation that aims to “deliver fully integrated infrastructure and networking solutions.” The companies say they’ll work together to design and engineer turnkey solutions that will help customers advance their AI capabilities from edge to cloud.

HP looks to grow profits in AI and hybrid era

HP announced that its fiscal 2024 Q2 revenue was $12.8 billion, down 0.8% year-over-year. HP president and CEO Enrique Lores said in a statement that the company is “well positioned” for profitable growth, thanks in part to new solutions “designed for the AI and hybrid era.”

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But spatial computing, as the technology is often called, has yet to make the widespread impact that proponents believe it can.

Could a new consumer headset speed up progress? The Apple Vision Pro, which launched earlier this year, has spurred newfound interest in spatial computing and its potential as an enterprise tool. And with several engineering software developers already committed to the headset, it may win over more than a few engineers.

Apple Vision Pro for designers

The starting $3,499 price tag for the Apple Vision Pro, plus the cost of enterprise software for the headset, is a roadblock to putting the headset on the desk of every designer. But it gives engineering companies a new platform to explore the value of spatial computing.

An Apple Vision Pro user testing out Onshape. (Image: PTC.)

Engineering software companies including PTC and Nvidia have embraced the Vision Pro within the first few months of release. PTC’s Onshape was one of the first engineering apps to launch on the Vision Pro, giving users the ability to directly connect to the Onshape database (removing any required intermediate file formats needed on previous headsets), pull up 3D models, change design materials, leave comments and more.

“We were excited to get an early look of the Apple Vision Pro,” Greg Brown, vice president of product management for Onshape at PTC, told Engineering.com. “We knew that because of the way that it was going to come out—the functionality, the ease of use and all of these things—the barriers that were previously there in doing this type of visualization would be addressed in a major way.”

Brown views the biggest current engineering uses for the Vision Pro as ideation, collaboration, and evaluation, and says these are the areas where the Onshape app has focused first. The current app allows multiple people to interact with a model in the same virtual space. The following video from PTC shows the app in action:

PTC has hinted at plans to bring 3D design tools to the Vision Pro as well, but right now their software is focused on display, rendering and commenting.

Hungarian CAD provider Shapr3D also offers its 3D design software on the Vision Pro, but the immersive version of the software aims to be much more versatile than mere viewing. The company is offering demos of their Vision Pro software which advertises the ability to design fully in the headset.

Other engineering software available for the Apple Vision Pro includes Nvidia Omniverse, which can stream data and applications on the headset; Vectary, an interactive product visualizer; Graphisoft’s BIMx presentation app; and JigSpace, a 3D presentation app.

Apple Vision Pro beyond design

Engineering work extends far beyond 3D models, and companies are testing out VR and AR software for use on the manufacturing floor, construction sites and beyond.

View from within the Apple Vision Pro Resolve app showing a comment left within a building. (Image: Resolve.)

Resolve is a BIM application offering immersive tools for the design and construction industry with a focus on helping all stakeholders “walk” through buildings before they are built. Resolve developed a rendering engine that can take massive engineering models and load them wirelessly onto a headset with a computer or cloud streaming. The company has previously worked with other VR headsets and now has a demo available for the Apple Vision Pro that CEO Angel Say calls “the tip of the iceberg.”

“There’s still so many more features and a general platform that we want to continue building. But that’s going to take time, both from developers like ourselves to keep adding functionality to our app, but then also from the industry to embrace these applications that we’re building and apply it to the areas that make the most sense,” Say told Engineering.com.

Resolve had to reimagine their software for the Vision Pro, as it presents a new paradigm of user navigation in virtual reality.

“There are no controllers with Apple Vision Pro, and so it’s not like you can use a joystick to fly around. It’s all eye tracking and tracking input. So that has been one thing that we’ve had to rethink,” Say said.

Other companies have also developed their own custom Vision Pro software. Porsche’s race engineering team uses the headsets to track car data in real time alongside live video from their race cars. KLM Royal Dutch Airlines is bringing Apple Vision Pros into the machine shop for training technicians.

However, the direct impact of the Vision Pro on engineering work will vary from user to user. Many engineers do not rely on Mac computers, presenting a hurdle to integrations, but Say has seen that shifting.

“You’ve got programs like Revit, Navisworks, all these things that are only run on Windows,” Say said. “But in the last decade, I would say the industry has also had a shift out in the field to using Apple devices.”

Should engineers buy an Apple Vision Pro?

Most engineers should wait on buying an expensive new Vision Pro. These headsets are only going to get cheaper, lighter, better, and have more engineering apps available. But if the cost is palatable and you’re eager to explore spatial computing workflows, you’ll likely be impressed with the Vision Pro.

“It’s one of those things that you can read about, you can watch videos, but nothing beats actually going out and getting a demo and really experiencing it for yourself,” Say said.

View from within the Apple Vision Pro headset of a tank system displayed in Onshape. (Image: PTC.)

During a recent quarterly earnings call, Apple CEO Tim Cook announced that more than half of Fortune 100 companies have purchased Apple Vision Pro headsets, showing that big businesses are seeing value in exploring the enterprise impacts of this technology.

“Real customers and real prospects have been excited to be able to get their hands on these early. They have seen benefits early and a number of them have gone out and bought them the very same day,” Brown said of his experience demoing Onshape on the Vision Pro. “That speaks volumes to me that it’s finally reached a point where it can be more than a curiosity.”

As prices come down and apps get more sophisticated, the Apple Vision Pro and other headsets that follow it could find a permanent home on every engineer’s desk.

“If people haven’t tried VR/AR in the last five years, it’s time to revisit it,” Say said. “I think it’s important to understand how much the technology has evolved and get into one of the more recent headsets.”

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3Dconnexion introduced a new version of its most popular product, the SpaceMouse Wireless, that now supports Bluetooth connectivity. Made for CAD users, the SpaceMouse Wireless is a joystick-like input device that allows users to precisely navigate 3D models with six degrees of freedom. The previous version of the SpaceMouse Wireless connected via a 2.4 GHz USB dongle called the 3Dconnexion Universal Receiver, an option which is still available for the SpaceMouse Wireless – Bluetooth Edition. The device can also be connected and charged with a USB-C cable.

The 3Dconnexion SpaceMouse Wireless – Bluetooth Edition. (Image: 3Dconnexion.)

Siemens and Sony team up on NX Immersive Designer

Sony and Siemens have announced new details of their collaboration to develop an XR headset for CAD designers. The Sony-designed SRH-S1 headset, which was on display at Siemens’ recent Realize Live user conference in Las Vegas, Nevada, includes two 4K OLED microdisplays and two controllers designed for precisely manipulating 3D objects. The SRH-S1 will be available exclusively with Siemens’ NX CAD software through a bundle called NX Immersive Designer, which Siemens expects to launch at the end of 2024.

Designing in Siemens NX with a virtual monitor using Sony’s SRH-S1 XR headset. (Image: Sony.)

New Copilot+ AI PCs from Dell, HP, Lenovo, Acer and Asus

All major PC makers launched new laptops in a category that Microsoft refers to as Copilot+ PCs. Powered by the Snapdragon X Elite and Snapdragon X Plus processors, the new computers include a neural processing unit (NPU) capable of performing 45 trillion operations per second (TOPS), a feature that PC maker Dell says will allow users to run AI tasks more efficiently.

Dell announced five Copilot+ PCs: the Dell XPS 13, Inspiron 14 Plus, Inspiron 14, Latitude 7455 and Latitude 5455. HP announced two: the HP OmniBook X and EliteBook Ultra. Lenovo also announced two: the Lenovo Yoga Slim 7x and ThinkPad T14s Gen 6. Acer unveiled the Acer Swift 14 AI and Asus the Asus Vivobook S 15.

The Dell XPS 13 Copilot+ AI PC with a Snapdragon X Elite processor. (Image: Dell.)

AMD launches EPYC 4004 Series server CPUs

AMD announced the AMD EPYC 4004 Series, a set of eight new server CPUs that the company says deliver strong performance at an affordable price for small to medium businesses. The single-socket processors use AMD’s Zen 4 architecture. AMD says that the new EPYC 4564P provides a 1.8x increase in performance per CPU dollar compared to the Intel Xeon E-2488. Hardware provider MSI has already announced server platforms supporting the new processors.

Boxx AI

Workstation maker Boxx Technologies unveiled Boxx AI, a new line of multi-GPU desktop and data center workstations for AI design and development. The desktop systems include up to four Nvidia RTX 6000 Ada Gen GPUs with up to 192 GB of GPU memory.

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The evolution of modern workplaces, characterized by longer hours spent indoors under artificial lighting, increased screen time and sedentary desk-based work, has inadvertently led most humans to no longer follow the innate biological process of living from sunrise to sunset. This disruption of the circadian rhythm is further interrupted by the type of lighting used. With most studies estimating that people spend approximately 90% of their time indoors, that equates to a lot of time humans are deprived of natural lighting.

This white paper explores the positives and negatives of natural and artificial lighting and how science is helping to create new lighting options that address human biology to enhance mental and physical well-being.

Your download is sponsored by LANTANA LED.

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Not all have embraced the technology, but with spatial computing making headlines with Apple’s recent Vision Pro headset, holdouts may find themselves increasingly wondering: can AR work for me?

The Augmented Reality for Enterprise Alliance (AREA) made answering that question a bit easier today with the release of its AR Safety Infographic. The interactive chart details 12 benefits, hazards and risks of industrial AR use to give prospective users a full picture of how the technology could impact their workplace.

Screenshot of the AREA AR safety infographic. The live infographic allows users to click on each section for more detailed information. (Image: AREA.)

AR proselytizers typically don’t dwell on the downsides of the technology, but the AREA infographic reveals several safety risks worth considering. The biggest, shown in red at the bottom, relate to the hard facts of wearing a clunky headset over one’s eyes: cognitive distraction, reduced visibility and physical strain. These downsides could make AR users a risk to themselves and their coworkers, particularly in industrial environments where workers must remain alert to potential danger.

But at the same time as it introduces these risks, AR has the potential to solve them. The top layer of the AREA infographic reveals that AR can benefit user safety by improving their situational awareness, reducing their mental load and decreasing their need to expose themselves to other potential industrial hazards.

So is AR a safety risk or a safer way to work? It can be both. Like any technology, AR has upsides and downsides, and the final balance lies in the end use. AREA’s goal is to help enterprises understand these tradeoffs to adopt AR with confidence.

“Our mission is to help companies in all parts of the AR ecosystem achieve greater operational efficiency through the smooth introduction and widespread adoption of interoperable AR-assisted enterprise systems,” said Mark Sage, AREA’s executive director, in an AREA press release. “Our AR Safety Infographic provides reliable guidance that makes the path to AR adoption surer, shorter, and smoother.”

AREA is an alliance that covers the full spectrum of spatial computing stakeholders. Members include hardware providers such as DigiLens, Magic Leap and Vuzix; engineering software developers such as Dassault Systèmes, Hexagon and PTC; academic institutions such as Johns Hopkins University and Wichita State University; and engineering end users such as Boeing and Boston Engineering.

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Related: AI PCs are here. Should engineers upgrade?

The new Lenovo ThinkPad P1 Gen 7 laptop. (Image: Lenovo.)

The new laptops “offer an ideal combination of workstation know-how, high levels of AI-ready performance, and true mobility,” according to Rob Herman, VP of Lenovo’s worldwide workstation and client AI business, in Lenovo’s press release.

With availability starting as early as this month, the new ThinkPads provide an interesting option for engineers seeking a Spring upgrade. Here’s what we know so far about the mobile AI PCs.

The Lenovo ThinkPad P1 Gen 7: Upgrades and downgrades

The new lineup’s main attraction is the ThinkPad P1 Gen 7, a laptop that first debuted in 2018 as Lenovo’s answer to those choosy customers who wanted both a powerful mobile workstation and one that was extremely thin and light. While it delivered on the latter, it wasn’t until its fourth generation in 2021 that the P1 got access to the then top-of-the-line mobile GPU, the Nvidia RTX A5000.

Using the Lenovo ThinkPad P1 Gen 7. (Image: Lenovo.)

Now in its seventh generation, the ThinkPad P1 still has access to powerful GPUs—but no longer the most powerful available. The P1 Gen 7 maxes out at the Nvidia RTX 3000 Ada Generation, which is a few rungs down from the flagship RTX 5000 Ada available to Lenovo’s more powerful mobile workstations and even to the new laptop’s predecessor, the P1 Gen 6.

But in this era of AI PCs, the spotlight is shining less on the GPU and more on the CPU—or rather, on the NPU that now comes with it. The neural processing unit is a new part of Intel’s Core Ultra processors that aims to accelerate certain AI applications. Lenovo described its relation to the GPU, which also has built-in AI acceleration, in its press release: “The integrated NPU is dedicated to handling light, continuous AI tasks, while the Nvidia GPU runs more demanding day-to-day AI processing.” The ThinkPad P1 Gen 7 can be configured with Intel Core Ultra processors up to the Core Ultra 9 185H.

Another notable spec change concerns the P1 Gen 7’s memory. There’s good news and bad news. The maximum configurable memory capacity has decreased from 96 GB in the P1 Gen 6 to 64 GB in the Gen 7, but the memory itself has been upgraded. According to Lenovo, the P1 Gen 7 is “the world’s first mobile workstation to include LPDDR5x LPCAMM2 memory” from Micron, which consumes “up to 61% less active power” and provides “64% space savings” compared to DDR5 SODIMM, the memory found in the P1 Gen 6 and in some new mobile workstations.

A few specs remain largely unchanged from the previous generation. The maximum storage available in the ThinkPad P1 Gen 7 is still 8 TB. The display is still 16 inches, with a 16:10 aspect ratio and options up to a 4K OLED touchscreen. The new laptop is slightly heavier than its predecessor, starting at 4.03 pounds (1.82 kg) rather than 3.92 pounds (1.78 kg).

The Lenovo ThinkPad P1 Gen 7 will be available in May in the U.S. with an expected price of $2,619.

Specs of the Lenovo ThinkPad P16v i Gen 2, ThinkPad P16s i Gen 3 and ThinkPad P14s i Gen 5

Alongside the premium ThinkPad P1, Lenovo’s other three new AI PCs are the more budget-friendly ThinkPad P16v i Gen 2, P16s i Gen 3 and P14s i Gen 5. While all offer NPU-equipped processors up to Core Ultra 9 185H, their other specs vary considerably.

The new ThinkPad P16v i Gen 2. (Image: Lenovo.)

The ThinkPad P16v i Gen 2 is the closest to the ThinkPad P1 Gen 7 in both size and specs. It’s got a 16-inch, 16:10 display with up to a 4K resolution (but no OLED or touchscreen option). It can be configured with up to the Nvidia RTX 3000 Ada Generation GPU, just like the P1, though it doesn’t offer any GeForce RTX options, which the P1 does. The P16v has a higher max memory capacity than the P1, 96 GB, though that’s because it’s DDR5 memory and not the P1’s LPCAMM2 LPDDR5x (which is not currently available in modules over 64 GB). The ThinkPad P16v i Gen 2 can be configured with up to 4 TB of storage. It will be available this month with an expected starting price of $2,279.

The new ThinkPad P16s i Gen 3. (Image: Lenovo.)

The ThinkPad P16s i Gen 3 is another 16-inch laptop with a 16:10 display, which, like that of the P1, can be a 4K OLED display (but again, no touchscreen option). However, it takes a significant step down in graphics performance, maxing out with the freshly announced Nvidia RTX 500 Ada Generation GPU, an entry level mobile GPU with 4 GB of VRAM. The P16s can be configured with up to 96 GB of DDR5 memory and up to 2 TB of storage. The ThinkPad P16s i Gen 3 will be available beginning in May 2024 with an expected starting price of $1,859.

The new ThinkPad P14s i Gen 5. (Image: Lenovo.)

Finally, the ThinkPad P14s i Gen 5 is the latest iteration of what engineering.com found to be the best budget mobile workstation of 2022. It’s basically a smaller version of the ThinkPad P16s i Gen 3, offering the same selection of specs but with a 14.5-inch, 16:10 display (up to a 4K resolution, but no OLED or touch option). The ThinkPad P14s i Gen 5 will be available in Q2 of 2024, according to Lenovo, with an expected starting price of $1,829.

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The new Nvidia RTX A400 (left) and RTX A1000 (right) GPU. (Image: Nvidia.)

And yet, the RTX A400 and A1000 are pitched at professional users. Nvidia’s blog post introducing the new graphics cards says they’re designed to serve architects, engineers, industrial planners, and healthcare and financial professionals, among other users.

“They expand access to AI and ray-tracing technology, equipping professionals with the tools they need to transform their daily workflows,” wrote Nvidia senior product marketing manager Stacy Ozorio.

Specs of the Nvidia RTX A400 and A1000 GPUs

The two new graphics cards share a few features in common. Both the RTX A400 and A1000 are 50-watt, single-slot cards offering four Mini DisplayPort outputs (a new high for the 400-series, which previously had only three display outputs in the Nvidia T400).

The differences between the cards are found it their processing capacity: the number of RT cores for real-time ray tracing, Tensor cores for AI acceleration, CUDA cores for general graphics processing, and the size and bandwidth of their memory.

These spec differences manifest in a roughly 2.5x performance increase from the A400 to A1000, according to Nvidia’s peak performance data. (You have to give Nvidia credit for the arithmetically accurate product names.)

(Data: Nvidia.)

Are the RTX A400 and A1000 a good fit for engineers?

Nvidia’s new graphics cards clearly improve over their preceding generation, but they themselves are a generation behind Nvidia’s current Ada Generation graphics cards. It was just two months ago that Nvidia announced the RTX 2000 Ada Generation workstation graphics card as the entry point to the Ada generation desktop GPUs, a $625 card that beats the A400 and A1000 on every aspect of performance—most of all in the headline features of real-time ray tracing and AI acceleration.

The new cards seem to be best suited not for engineering workstations but for space- and power-constrained computers that require a bit of extra graphics horsepower—perhaps just the ability to output to four displays at once. “[T]he A400 and A1000 GPUs bring impressive features to compact, energy-efficient workstations,” Ozorio wrote.

The Nvidia RTX A1000 is now available from Nvidia distribution partners including PNY and Ryoyo Electric, and the Nvidia RTX A400 is expected to be available in May. An Nvidia representative told Engineering.com that the estimated street price of the Nvidia RTX A400 is $135 and the RTX A1000 is $365.

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It’s not entirely a marketing buzzword. AI PCs, which are now being offered by major PC makers including Dell and Hewlett-Packard, have at least one new part to justify the new name: the neural processing unit, or NPU. Coexisting alongside the CPU—or integrated within it—and complementing the AI-friendly GPU, the NPU is meant to accelerate the machine learning calculations that are becoming increasingly important to modern software.

Engineering software is no exception. CAD and simulation providers have been testing the waters of AI, and it seems inevitable that it will play an increasingly prevalent role for engineers, architects and other professional users.

The Dell Precision 5690 AI PC. (Image: Dell.)

So, should engineers rush out to buy a new, NPU-equipped AI PC, or wait for the NPU to mature? Here’s what you need to know about the emerging tech and where it can make an impact.

CPU, GPU and NPU: The evolution of computing processors

All computers are built around a central processing unit (CPU) that can handle a wide variety of instructions sequentially. Over time, CPU chips have become faster and more powerful. However, our appetite for crunching numbers grew and continues to grow even faster.

Chip designers responded by offloading specific CPU-intensive instructions, such as graphics and video rendering, to a second processor called a graphics processing unit (GPU). Through parallel processing, GPUs significantly improved the performance of graphics and computational tasks in demanding applications such as simulation and 3D rendering.

The recent advent of AI software dramatically increased the demand for processing data yet again. This time, chip designers have responded by offloading more CPU-intensive instructions, such as the mathematics for neural networks, to a third processor called a neural processing unit (NPU). The NPU specializes in AI computations such as matrix multiplication and convolution.

An overview of three computer processors—CPU, GPU and NPU—and how they complement one another. (Image: Qualcomm.)

How do NPUs accelerate AI applications?

Unlike CPUs that sequentially process instructions, NPUs are optimized for parallel computing, making them highly efficient at machine learning algorithms, massive multimedia data transformation and neural network operations.

NPUs can achieve significant performance improvements for certain instructions compared to CPUs and GPUs. Intel, for instance, claims that its new NPU-equipped CPU achieves 1.7 times more generative AI performance compared to the previous generation chip without an NPU. The extent of performance improvement depends on many factors, including how well the application software is optimized to take advantage of the NPU, but the potential for speedup isn’t the only benefit: reassigning instructions to the NPU can also reduce power consumption and improve device battery life. The same Intel benchmark revealed a 38% power reduction on Zoom calls thanks to NPU offloading.

Major chipmakers have developed their own versions of NPUs meant to accelerate AI applications on a wide variety of devices. While the NPU architectures vary along with their speed, processing capacity, power consumption, thermal performance and other characteristics, these neural processors all share the goal of improving AI and machine learning performance. Apple’s custom A-series and M-series processors, which power its Mac computers as well as iPhones and iPads, include an NPU that Apple calls the Neural Engine. AMD’s Ryzen 7040 and 8040 series processors include NPUs based on the chipmaker’s XDNA architecture. Qualcomm’s Hexagon NPU brings AI acceleration to its mobile Snapdragon SoCs.

Overview of Intel’s NPU. (Image: Intel.)

The list goes on, but for engineering users the most significant NPU may be Intel’s. The chipmaker has integrated an NPU into its latest generation Intel Core Ultra processors, which power most of the new generation of engineering workstations. Intel says that its partnered with more than 100 independent software vendors (ISVs) for AI PC optimization, with more than 300 AI-accelerated features to come throughout 2024. Unfortunately, no engineering ISVs are listed as partners on Intel’s website—not yet, anyways.

Should engineers upgrade to an AI PC?

Engineers already ready for a workstation upgrade have no reason to avoid the latest generation of AI PCs, coming as they do with all the standard generational improvements. However, at this point the NPU itself is not a reason for engineers to upgrade. There isn’t yet enough AI incorporated in popular engineering software to make an appreciable difference for those workloads. But that could change, and quickly.

As with CPUs and GPUs before them, it’s only natural to assume that NPUs will evolve in capability as their utility increases. Predicting the future is always tricky, but a few trends are visible in the future of AI-related software that will drive NPU hardware developments.

CPU designs and architectures are approaching various limits. This suggests that GPUs and NPUs will experience most of the advances needed to keep pace with AI improvements. Advances in machine learning algorithms will likely reduce the demand for computing resources, but increases in model complexity may overshadow the efficiency gains. NPUs could serve a key role in making up the difference.

As AI features become increasingly popular in applications, NPUs may become essential to everyone’s PC—even engineers.

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But there was plenty of software news as well, and the updates to Nvidia Omniverse signal exciting new opportunities for the 3D simulation, visualization and collaboration platform. Omniverse continues to expand with a new set of Cloud APIs enabling new partners and integrations—including the Apple Vision Pro.

Omniverse comes to the Apple Vision Pro

Apple’s recently released virtual and augmented reality (VR/AR) headset, the Apple Vision Pro, has sparked a new wave of consumer interest in spatial computing. Professional users are also keenly watching the new headset, and Nvidia has given them another reason to be excited for its potential as a design tool: Nvidia Omniverse data and applications can now be streamed to the Apple Vision Pro.

With new Cloud APIs, Nvidia Omniverse will be able to stream to the Apple Vision Pro over Nvidia’s Graphics Delivery Network (GDN). (Image: Nvidia.)

The Vision Pro connection is built on five new Omniverse Cloud APIs for interacting with Universal Scene Description (OpenUSD) data, the foundation of Nvidia Omniverse. The new APIs include USD Render, which generates ray-traced renders of OpenUSD data; USD Write, which allows users to modify OpenUSD data; USD Query, which enables scene queries and interaction; USD Notify, which keeps track of changes to OpenUSD data; and Omniverse Channel, which provides a connection for collaboration across users and tools.

There’s another step to bring Omniverse to the Apple Vision Pro. The new Omniverse Cloud APIs send the OpenUSD data to Nvidia’s Graphics Delivery Network (GDN), which Nvidia’s press release describes as “a global network of graphics-ready data centers that can stream advanced 3D experiences to Apple Vision Pro.”

The GDN is an important part of the equation. As a standalone headset, the Apple Vision Pro can’t offer the graphics horsepower needed to render Omniverse data with the full ray-traced realism that users expect, particularly for applications such as design reviews or product configuration. Streaming that OpenUSD data over GDN, Nvidia claims, allows the Vision Pro to provide fully detailed, photorealistic 3D graphics.

“Apple Vision Pro is the first untethered device which allows for enterprise customers to realize their work without compromise,” said Rev Lebaredian, vice president of simulation at Nvidia, in the press release.

Wearing an Apple Vision Pro headset, a user interacts with a car configurator developed in Nvidia Omniverse by CGI studio Katana. (Image: Nvidia.)

“The breakthrough ultra-high-resolution displays of Apple Vision Pro, combined with photorealistic rendering of OpenUSD content streamed from Nvidia accelerated computing, unlocks an incredible opportunity for the advancement of immersive experiences,” Mike Rockwell, vice president of the Vision Products Group at Apple, said in the release.

Omniverse in Teamcenter and beyond

For engineers who don’t yet have an Apple Vision Pro, there a few more familiar tools that are embracing Nvidia Omniverse’s new Cloud APIs. Huang announced in his March 18 keynote that Siemens will be using the new APIs across its Xcelerator portfolio of engineering software, starting with its cloud-based PLM tool Teamcenter X.

“Through the Nvidia Omniverse API, Siemens empowers customers with generative AI to make their physics-based digital twins even more immersive,” said Siemens CEO Roland Busch in an Nvidia press release announcing the new APIs. “This will help everybody to design, build and test next-generation products, manufacturing processes and factories virtually before they are built in the physical world.”

The five new Omniverse Cloud APIs will allow the platform to connect with engineering applications like Siemens Teamcenter X. (Image: Nvidia.)

Siemens isn’t the only software provider implementing the new APIs to connect Omniverse to their applications. Nvidia announced several other partners that will be adopting the Omniverse Cloud APIs, including Ansys, Cadence, Dassault Systèmes (for its 3DExcite brand), Hexagon, Microsoft, Rockwell Automation and Trimble.

Huang sees digital twins as one of the core applications of Omniverse, and has big expectations for how engineers will use the platform.

“Everything manufactured will have digital twins,” Huang said in the Nvidia release. “Omniverse is the operating system for building and operating physically realistic digital twins. Omniverse and generative AI are the foundational technologies to digitalize the $50 trillion heavy industries market.”

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