COMPUTEX 2026 Taipei International Computex 2026 will officially launch on June 2. The highly anticipated official award Best Choice Award (BC Award) before the show will be announced today (21st). Intel’s flagship mobile processor Intel Core Ultra Series 3 (codenamed Panther Lake) stood out from the fierce competition and won the highest honor Golden Award in one fell swoop, demonstrating its all-round strength in key indicators such as performance, AI computing, graphics processing and energy efficiency.
The competition for this year’s Best Choice Award has been unprecedentedly fierce. According to the organizer, the Taipei Computer Association (TCA), the number of entries and the innovation and superiority of the participating products have increased significantly this year compared with previous years. In the end, a total of 11 gold awards, 34 category awards, 2 special awards for small and medium-sized enterprises and 7 special awards for technology sustainability were awarded, totaling 54 awards. The award-winning companies span domestic and foreign technology giants such as NVIDIA, Intel, MediaTek, Delta, Asus, Gigabyte, MSI, Phison, etc., reflecting that artificial intelligence is accelerating from data centers to industrial implementation and entering the practical application period of AI.
Reviewer’s comments: 18A process pioneer, reshaping the new landscape of the PC industry
According to the official reasons for winning the BC Award, the Intel Core Ultra Series 3 processor uses the most advanced Intel 18A process node, introduces the industry’s first RibbonFET gate-surround (GAA) transistor architecture and PowerVia back-side power supply technology, and is Intel’s first consumer-grade chip platform designed and manufactured in the United States. Through advanced packaging and 3D silicon stacking technology, multiple computing chips (CPU, GPU, NPU) are integrated into a single system-on-chip (SoC), greatly improving the synergy between components.
Josh Newman, vice president of Intel’s Client Computing Group and general manager of consumer PCs, said: “The recognition of the COMPUTEX Best Choice Golden Award and the enthusiastic feedback from review media and partners once again prove that Intel Core Ultra Series 3 is rapidly changing the development direction of the PC industry. We are honored to receive this honor and will continue to promote innovation in performance, AI computing and graphics technology in the future, so that users do not have to compromise between battery life and experience while pursuing top specifications and high mobility.”
18A process + Arc B390 internal display: double breakthrough in performance and energy efficiency
The Intel Core Ultra Series 3 processor will debut at CES 2026 and is the industry’s first consumer-grade processor using the Intel 18A process, codenamed Panther Lake. The platform is equipped with newly designed performance core (P-core) and efficiency core (E-core), with a maximum Boost clock of up to 5.1 GHz, and is equipped with a fifth-generation NPU (neural network processing unit) with an AI computing power of up to 50 TOPS. The total computing performance of the platform is up to 180 TOPS, which can fully support the AI functional requirements of Microsoft Copilot+ PC.
It is worth noting that some high-end models have built-in Intel Arc B390 graphics chips (Xe3-LPG Battlemage architecture, 12 Xe cores, up to Boost clock 2.5 GHz), which can provide powerful graphics computing capabilities without the need for an additional independent graphics card, enough to meet the needs of modern games, advanced visual effects, and high-resolution displays. This design allows thin and light notebooks to have a visual experience comparable to that of a discrete graphics card, making it extremely attractive to creators and high-performance users.
In terms of AI capabilities, Panther Lake is equipped with a fifth-generation NPU with an AI computing power of up to 50 TOPS. Coupled with the collaborative computing of the CPU and GPU, the total AI performance of the platform can reach 180 TOPS, fully meeting the various AI functional requirements of Microsoft Copilot+ PC, including real-time subtitles, Windows Studio Effects, automatic super resolution (Auto SR) and other local AI applications. Compared with the previous generation Lunar Lake architecture, NPU performance has increased by more than 40%, and GPU graphics performance has also improved significantly.
From PC to Edge: Over 200 Product Designs Comprehensive Layout
In terms of ecosystem layout, Intel Core Ultra Series 3 has been widely adopted by major OEM partners around the world, covering more than 200 product designs, covering high-end consumer notebooks, commercial systems supporting Intel vPro, 2-in-1 devices, Mini PCs and other diverse product types. It is worth mentioning that this is the first time that Intel has certified the Core Ultra series processors for embedded and industrial edge computing scenarios, including vertical application fields such as robotics, smart cities, automation, and medical care. It shows that Intel is actively extending the capabilities of AI PCs to the edge computing market.
A number of products equipped with Panther Lake are already on the market, including flagship thin and light laptops and gaming models of major brands. More new designs will continue to be launched in the second half of 2026.
Competitive product trends: NVIDIA and MediaTek also won gold awards on the same day
This year’s BC Award gold medal winners have a strong lineup. The top honors shared with Intel include NVIDIA’s next-generation AI supercomputer architecture “Vera Rubin NVL72” and the “Jetson Thor” platform specially built for physical AI and robots. MediaTek also won the gold medal with its “single-chip MLO highly integrated Wi-Fi 8 tri-band connection chip”, which shows that the competition between AI terminal devices and high-speed networking technology is accelerating.
Delta Electronics also performed well, with its “AI Container Data Center” and “High Density Liquid Cooling Solution (CDU)” both winning gold awards, responding to the cooling and power supply needs in the era of high computing power. Phison Electronics’ 245TB ultra-high-capacity enterprise-class SSD PASCARI D206V also received the Gold Award.
Computex 2026 Highlight: Countdown to Intel CEO Chen Liwu’s keynote speech
With the announcement of the Core Ultra Series 3 award-winning news, the market is also paying close attention to Intel’s further trends at COMPUTEX 2026. Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan will deliver a keynote speech at 1:30 pm on June 2. He is expected to share in-depth Intel’s latest technological breakthroughs in the fields of chips, systems and software, including the next step of the 18A process, the expansion strategy of the AI PC ecosystem, and a roadmap to jointly promote performance, energy efficiency and large-scale development with ecosystem partners. This will also be Chen Liwu’s first keynote speech at COMPUTEX after taking over as Intel CEO, and the industry is paying close attention to it.
Summarize
The Intel Core Ultra Series 3 processor won the COMPUTEX 2026 Best Choice Golden Award, which is not only an authoritative endorsement of Intel’s 18A process technology and Panther Lake architecture, but also symbolizes that Intel’s competitiveness in the AI PC era has reached a new level. As the Computex exhibition is approaching and new products continue to be shipped in the second half of the year, the PC processor market in 2026 will enter a new situation of a three-party competition between Intel, AMD, and Qualcomm. Whether Intel can consolidate its leading position in mobile platforms through the leading advantage of the 18A process will be the focus of observation in the second half of the year.
Source: KOCPC Chinese