Intel launches vPro platform with 13th gen Intel Core

With a focus on security, this week Intel launched its new vPro platform powered by the 13^th Gen Intel Core (“Alder Lake”) processors. Designed for businesses, it comes in two flavours: vPro, for larger enterprises, and vPro Essentials, which contains all of the security features of vPro, but is created for smaller businesses that lack a dedicated IT staff.

Intel said that based on a March 2023 study by IOActive (registration required), security features baked into the silicon help reduce a computer’s attack surface by an estimated 70 per cent, compared to a four-year-old Intel-based PC.

In addition, noted Stephanie Hallford, Intel vice president and general manager of the commercial client division, in an interview, “one of the latest things we’ve done, working with the defenders of the world, is called Intel Threat Detection.”

She explained that technology is embedded in the processors that can detect malware such as ransomware and crypto mining and passes the information to security software such as CrowdStrike so it can act. “It is a machine learning AI-capable tool,” she said, “so each time there is a new attack, it actually learns and gets smarter.”

She added that Intel is up to 93 per cent efficacy in detecting top ransomware attacks using this technology.

The company also said that performance improvements for Intel vPro designs with 13th Gen Intel Core include:

• Up to 65 per cent faster Windows application performance versus a three-year-old desktop PC (with i9 processors, as measured by SYSmark)
• Up to 45 per cent faster content creation while multitasking than a current AMD desktop (i9 vs Ryzen 9)
• Up to 2.3 times faster Windows application performance versus a three-year-old mobile PC (i7 13^th Gen vs i7 10^th Gen, measured by SYSmark)
• Up to 40 per cent faster Windows application performance versus a current AMD notebook (measured by SYSmark), and up to 25 per cent faster business application performance versus Apple M2 (measured by Crossmark)
• Up to 58 per cent faster report generation while collaborating than a current AMD notebook (i7 13^th Gen vs Ryzen 7)

Given the new features (and, no doubt, the recent sag in PC sales), both Intel and its OEM partners are encouraging users to update their PC fleets to include the latest processors.

“In today’s business climate, refreshing to the latest hardware is no longer a luxury, but a necessity,” Intel said in its announcement. “Companies of all sizes are fighting to better defend against the latest security threats, improve employee productivity and enable optimal experiences like videoconferencing.”