As mini PCs/mini consoles have flourished, traditional mid-tower and full-tower personal computers have gradually lost ground, with mini consoles rapidly capturing a significant market share and gaining favor from many users. Mini consoles equipped with Intel CPUs have long been renowned for their high reliability and various professional features, occupying a unique niche in the mini PC market. The concept of AI PCs has undergone numerous innovations in recent years, transitioning from initial AI cloud service clients to cloud-native nodes and eventually becoming offline nodes capable of supporting edge computing. The shift in this task’s implementation has also gradually moved from high-performance PC hosts, which have historically held a dominant market position, to desktop mini PCs. The latest mini consoles powered by Intel Core Ultra series CPUs have taken the lead in spearheading innovation during this era of AIPCs.

How Intel has promoted PC miniaturization in the past 10 years

From the world's first general-purpose computer ENIAC, which occupied an area of 170 square meters and weighed 30 tons, to the powerful MINI PC that can be held in one hand, the miniaturization of personal computers (PCs) has always been a concern for major manufacturers and users. About 20 years ago, the industry derived ITX specifications from the ATX standard, supplemented by plug-in power supplies and low-profile designs, allowing for the construction of DIY hosts that are much smaller than traditional mid-tower and thin client machines. In the commercial field, there are also customized versions of SFF (Small Form Factor) hosts. At that time, Intel's CPU ("T" series) for the small and low-power market was the first choice for players for small-sized hosts. With the birth of more new low-power and high-performance CPUs, as well as Intel's unremitting exploration of PC miniaturization, Intel NUC (Next Unit of Computing) was finally born in 2013. This type of extreme miniaturization and high-performance product directly refreshed the world's perception of PC miniaturization. It can be said that NUC first defined the mini-host.

Although the miniaturization of PCs has made great progress, at this time, the miniaturized PCs are still at the level of replacing entry-level PCs, which can only be used for office work, browsing the web, and playing high-definition videos. They are unable to create content. There has always been a demand gap for high-performance mini PCs, and due to the lack of suitable CPUs, this gap could not be met at that time. Mini PCs can mainly be used in special industrial and commercial situations where volume requirements are high, which has laid a solid historical foundation for the ultra-reliability of mini PCs.

Intel boasts the most diverse lineup of CPUs in the industry. In addition to targeting ultra-low power consumption with its U series, its higher-performance P and H series CPUs essentially offer performance on par with desktop-grade CPUs, while also providing a higher energy efficiency ratio. The latest generation of Intel Core Ultra series processors has even taken a step ahead of desktop platforms by incorporating an AI acceleration unit, NPU, into the CPU, marking the beginning of the AI PC era. As Intel’s products continue to evolve and the DIY industry explores new possibilities, manufacturers and enthusiasts alike have come to realize that mobile platform CPUs are an ideal choice for the miniaturization of PCs. In recent years, more manufacturers have chosen to use high-performance mobile CPUs in mini PCs, constantly innovating and pushing the boundaries. Mini PCs have transitioned from being merely “small” to being “small yet powerful.” Now, the performance of mini PCs is no longer a trade-off between size and capabilities, heralding a new era of mini PCs advancing towards desktop-level performance.

It is precisely because of this performance improvement that mini PCs have made up for the previous shortcomings. In just a few years, hundreds of products have emerged, covering almost all application scenarios from low-end entry-level to high-end commercial use. In particular, in 2022, with the launch of Xiaomi mini PCs, mini PCs have truly achieved a breakout, and Intel's differentiated layout of CPU products in the low-power P series, mainstream performance H series, and excellent performance HX series has also yielded results. The mini PC market has also entered a period of rapid development. In 2022-2028, the growth of mini PCs worldwide exceeded 27%, and the domestic market increased by more than 30% due to the hot sale of Xiaomi mini PCs. Intel has provided players with a variety of mini PC options.