Microsoft Unveils AI-Focused Hardware and Windows Updates

Microsoft made a splash at their latest live event, showcasing new gear and Windows updates that promise to mix things up. It’s been a while since they’ve taken the stage – but now they’re back with some real surprises.

The Surface Laptop Ultra is finally available for pre-order, starting at $2,599. First shown in May as just a teaser, we now have all the details: it’s powered by Nvidia’s RTX Spark SoC, plus options for 5120-core or 6144-core Blackwell GPUs and up to 128GB of unified memory LPDDR5x.

One key advantage Surface Laptop Ultra has over other machines is its ability to handle AI tasks with greater efficiency. Thanks to unified memory allocation, developers can manage their resources more smoothly – a major plus for those in the field.

But it’s not just AI development that gets a boost from this new tech: the laptop itself handles modern gaming without breaking a sweat. Microsoft says the credit goes to unified memory allocation, which makes this level of performance possible even with out-of-the-box specs.

Nvidia’s Jensen Huang joined forces with Microsoft on stage to show off their RTX Spark Dev Box – essentially an $5,999 aluminum box designed specifically for top developers who need serious AI power. It comes pre-loaded with Windows 11 and a custom ‘developer-optimized’ build that gets things done.

The real star of the show is the Dev Box’s performance: packed with 128GB of unified memory, Nvidia’s RTX GPU on board – all this adds up to over one petaflop (or 1,000 teraflops) of AI compute power. That means top developers will love what Microsoft and Nvidia have cooked up here.