The image is by Alex Castro.
Intel made its first statement on the metaverse on Tuesday, acknowledging that the future of computing will always be connected to our physical world. The chip company is bullish on the possibilities of the metaverse in abstract, but it raises a key issue with realizing any metaverse ambitions: there is not nearly enough processing power to go around.
The metaverse may be the next major platform in computing after the world wide web and mobile, according to an editorial from Raja Koduri, a senior vice president and head of Intel's Accelerated Computing Systems and Graphics Group. The idea that the metaverse is right around the corner is cold water, writes Koduri. Koduri doesn't think we're close. He says that we need a 1,000x increase in power.
Virtual reality meetings, digital concerts, and of course, NFT-based integrations are some of the things that have been built into the metaverse hype. There is a lot of excitement about the future of virtual and augmented reality headsets, whether it be Meta's Quest products or Apple's long-rumored headset.
The actual building blocks of the metaverse are not just going to be software and virtual spaces, but even the headsets and gadgets people wear to get there. The future of technology will be in the computers and server that run the virtual worlds. Today's computers are simply not powerful enough to make those dreams a reality, and that is the biggest reality check that Intel has. They are not even close.
Computers are not powerful enough for the metaverse.
On the other hand, the statement is pretty obvious. The maximum number of people that can be in a space is 20 and it is for basic, Roblox-style animated worlds. The state of the art in virtual reality still requires thousands of dollars of PC gaming hardware, with plenty of drawbacks, like requiring a tethered headset and graphics that still don't measure up to what 2021,'s best flatscreen games can offer. Even the biggest traditional video games that aren't dealing with the added demands of virtual reality can only handle up to 100 to 128 players at a time.
In his editorial, Koduri notes that we can't put two people in a virtual environment with today's technology. Consider what is required to put two individuals in a social setting in an entirely virtual environment: convincing and detailed avatars with realistic clothing, hair and skin tones, all rendered in real time and based on sensor data capturing real world 3D objects, gestures, audio and much more; data transfer at
It would take a lot of computing infrastructure to scale up to the hundreds of millions of users that Ready Player One, Snow Crash, or Matrix-style metaverse concept would require.
Intel has an interest in saying that we need more and better computers. After all, Intel makes everything from consumer devices to data centers. If the metaverse needs a 1,000x increase in computing capacity, that is good for business. In its metaverse brief, Intel explicitly called out both its client compute and cloud processors and graphics products.
Noupscale is a file on thechorusasset.com.
The problem is that even though the hardware alone is going to get us to 1,000x, even Intel doesn't think so. According to Koduri, a standard Moore's Law curve is only going to get us to about eight or 10x growth over the next five years. Moore's Law is defined as the doubling of computational capacity every two years, which tracks with the eight to 10x growth that Koduri predicts.
Instead, Koduri is predicting that improvements to the software will make up the gap. Things like machine learning-powered neural nets, or artificial intelligence-enhanced computational techniques of the sort that Intel already is using for things like its Deep Link technology or the upcoming XeSS super sampling it is planning to debut with its Arc GPUs early next year. It is a big ask for Intel to offer a hundredfold improvement in computing capacity, all on top of the growth offered by its existing hardware roadmap.
In an interview with Quartz, Koduri said that improved software and algorithms will be crucial to helping mitigate the increased energy consumption that trying to brute force the problem would create.
Hardware improvements alone won't be enough.
It is easy to say that software will fill in any gaps that hardware leaves behind. It is appealing to think that major tech companies might be able to solve their computation issues with the help of machine learning and artificial intelligence. It seems like a tall order to rely on them to 100x tomorrow's computing, which is forecast to only see a 10x jump based on hardware improvements alone.
The fact that Intel is thinking about it now is an encouraging sign. It is easy to start pitching fanciful ideas of selling NFTs that will follow you from place to place in different games and virtual settings. If the metaverse is ever going to reach its sci-fi ambitions, there is a lot more work that needs to be done in the coming years.
Related:
