Back in June, Nvidia announced that it had secured agreements with Microsoft and several other PC makers to develop AI- and agent-ready PCs for Windows based on its RTX Spark chip. However, details on the machines were limited at that time.
New Surface Laptop Ultra
On Wednesday, during an event in San Francisco as part of the city's Tech Week, Microsoft unveiled the specifications and pricing for its new Surface Laptop Ultra. The PC is available in two base models:
- One starting at $2,600
- A more powerful version starting at $3,700
Prices can increase to $5,900 with options for additional memory and storage. Notably, Microsoft indicated that the highest-end device is already out of stock.
Surface RTX Spark Dev Box
Additionally, Microsoft introduced its new workstation powered by the RTX Spark chip: the Surface RTX Spark Dev Box, which starts at $6,000. This workstation comes equipped with Microsoft development tools such as VS Code, GitHub Copilot CLI, WSL, and PowerShell 7.
The primary selling point for both the Surface Laptop Ultra and the Dev Box is their capability to run AI models locally on-device without additional costs. They feature a CPU, GPU, unified memory, and enhanced cooling systems necessary for handling AI workloads. Furthermore, they operate on a revamped version of Windows 11, which includes a feature called Execution Containers. This feature simplifies the sandboxing of AI agents, as stated by Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella during the event.
