A Neural Engine (or NPU, Neural Processing Unit) is a dedicated chip section optimized for AI/ML tasks. It accelerates on-device features like photo enhancement, voice assistants, and AI text generation.
NPU performance is measured in TOPS (Trillions of Operations Per Second). Apple A17 Pro Neural Engine: 35 TOPS. Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 Hexagon NPU: ~45 TOPS. Apple M4: 38 TOPS. Microsoft Copilot+ PC requirement: 40+ TOPS.
NPUs make on-device features feasible without cloud round-trips: real-time translation, photo subject masking, voice transcription, generative AI image edits.
In 2024+, NPU TOPS became a key Windows 11 Copilot+ purchasing criterion. Higher TOPS enables more on-device AI features and reduces battery drain vs cloud-based equivalents.