Confirmation came ina GitHub post spotted by X user Haze, where an Intel representative said, "Deep Link is no longer actively maintained and will not be receiving future updates, meaning that there will be no changes to the features regardless of their current functionality status."

Launched in late 2020, Deep Link promised to blend the power of Intel CPUs and Arc GPUs to improve streaming, AI acceleration, and energy efficiency. To get it working, you needed an 11th, 12th, or 13th Gen CPU strapped to a shiny Arc Alchemist GPU. The package offered Dynamic Power Share, Stream Assist, Hyper Encode, and Hyper Compute.

Dynamic Power Share juggled power between CPU and GPU, Stream Assist lightened streaming workloads by using the integrated GPU, Hyper Encode jacked up video encoding speeds by combining multiple processors, and Hyper Compute mashed CPU and GPU together for AI jobs in OpenVINO.

It was fiddly even for Alchemist users struggled to get the features working reliably in apps like OBS and Handbrake. One user at GitHub could not even get Stream Assist running on a shiny new Core Ultra 7 265K plus Arc B580 combo.

Chipzilla had already stopped shouting about Deep Link in its Battlemage marketing, which should have been a clue. Meteor Lake chips, which appeared in late 2023, were never supported either. Looks like Intel quietly decided Deep Link was too niche, costly, and too much hassle.