ASUS recently threw Intel’s NUC lineup a lifeline, after the chipmaker announced that it would halt all “direct investment” into division and rely on “ecosystem partners to continue NUC innovation and growth”. To that end, the Taiwan-based company has been granted a non-exclusive license, allowing it to sell all of Intel’s current designs, as well as design new ones in the future.
“Our NUC systems product team delivered unique products that spurred innovation in the ultra-small form factor market. As we pivot our strategy to enable ecosystem partners to continue systems product innovation and growth, our priority is to ensure a smooth transition for our customers and partners. I am looking forward to ASUS continuing to deliver exceptional products and supporting our NUC systems customers,” Sam Gao, Intel Vice President and General Manager at Intel Client Platform Solutions, says.
As to why ASUS was chosen, Intel’s official newsletter simply states that the company has a proven track record of “delivering industry-leading mini PCs” to customers and thus making the brand suited towards driving the NUC product lineup. On that note, ASUS will be allowed to manufacture and sell 10th to 13th Gen NUC systems, along with all future CPU generations that the chipmaker plans on releasing down the line.
Besides CPUs and its new ARC GPU division, Intel was also known for its Next Unit of Compute, or NUC, for the past several years. At its very core, the lineup is often sold to consumers as a barebones system, comprising only the bare essentials. Typically, that includes a CPU attached to a Compute Element, the chassis, and PSU, and that’s it. Memory, storage, and discrete graphics are optional extras that will increase the cost of these units.
While this has forced Intel to increase the size of its NUCs over the years, the chipmaker has at least made an effort to keep their physical expansion to a minimum. For example, the NUC 13 Extreme that we reviewed at the end of last year – also its last, given how its situation developed – is probably one of the biggest units it’s made, being able to house a full-fat NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 Ti from ASUS.
(Source: Intel, Ars Technica, Engadget, The Verge)
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