Shortly after Intel announced it would no longer be developing its NUC line of the products, the company has made a joint announcement with Asus, revealing that the latter company will take over the mantle of the brand. The new non-exclusive agreement will see Asus become the manufacturing partner for existing 10th-generation through 13th-generation Intel NUCs, as well as a developer for future NUC designs.
It’s worth emphasizing here that this is a non-exclusive agreement, meaning Asus isn’t necessarily the only one to carry on the Intel NUC legacy. In fact, Intel is specifically focused on enabling ecosystem partners to continue building this kind of machine, so we might actually see some competition in the future. The company chose Asus to carry the legacy of the Intel NUC due to the company’s expertise in building mini PCs, which are generally aimed at businesses.
“As we pivot our strategy to enable ecosystem partners to continue NUC systems product innovation and growth, our priority is to ensure a smooth transition for our customers and partners. I am looking forward to ASUS continuing to deliver exceptional products and supporting our NUC systems customers”, said Sam Gao, Intel vice president and general manager of Intel Client Platform Solutions
The NUC, or Next Unit of Computing, is an extremely small form factor PC that Intel has been consistently putting out as a way to show what these kinds of machines can do, and the kind of power that can be packed into them. Intel NUCs generally serve as showcases for Intel’s latest hardware, with one of the more recent models combining Intel processors and Arc A770M graphics. In the past, we’ve also reviewed the Intel NUC Extreme, which would allow you to fit a discrete GPU in a very compact chassis to deliver high-end performance in a very compact form factor.
Companies have always been able to make PC designs based on Intel NUC PCs, but most of them didn’t get a lot of attention A notable one was the Razer Tomahawk, which combined Intel’s then-latest NUC design with an Nvidia GeForce RTX 2080 Ti. It remains to be seen what new products Asus will bring to the table under the Intel NUC line, but for now, the company will at least be handling the manufacturing of existing models.