Intel ships Stratix 10 MX FPGA with High Bandwidth Memory DRAM

Intel has begun commercial shipments of the industry's first field programmable gate array (FPGA) with integrated High Bandwidth Memory DRAM (HBM2). Several variants are now available including the Intel Stratix 10 GX FPGAs (with 28G transceivers) and the Intel Stratix 10 SX FPGAs (with embedded quad-core ARM processor).

The Intel Stratix 10 MX FPGAs offer up to 10 times the memory bandwidth when compared with standalone DDR memory solutions, according to the company, making them suitable as multi-function accelerators for high-performance computing (HPC), data centers, network functions virtualization (NFV), and broadcast applications. The new devices provide a maximum memory bandwidth of 512 gigabytes per second with the integrated HBM2.

The Intel Stratix 10 MX FPGAs are manufactured using the company's 14 nm FinFET process and state-of-the-art packaging technology, including Embedded Multi-Die Interconnect Bridge (EMIB) technology to integrate HBM2 with the monolithic FPGA fabric.

"To efficiently accelerate these workloads, memory bandwidth needs to keep pace with the explosion in data" said Reynette Au, vice president of marketing, Intel Programmable Solutions Group. "We designed the Intel Stratix 10 MX family to provide a new class of FPGA-based multi-function data accelerators for HPC and HPDA markets."

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IDT intros IEEE 1588 timing for Cavium

Integrated Device Technology will offer integrated IEEE 1588 software and timing components for a variety of Cavium System on Chip (SoC) solutions.

IDT said the range of applications requiring precision synchronization over packet-switched networks using the IEEE 1588 protocol has expanded from mobile networks and industrial automation applications to increasing include data centers, broadcast video, high-speed trading and high-performance computing.

"IDT's advanced clock recovery algorithms and precision timing devices reconstruct accurate synchronization signals under challenging network conditions for the most demanding applications," said Kris Rausch, vice president of IDT's Timing Division.

"Cavium's network infrastructure solutions have a particular need for precision timing, whether base stations, remote radio heads or even Cloud-RAN," said Raj Singh, general manager of Cavium's Wireless Broadband Group. "As we begin the transition from 4G to 5G it will become even more critical. Giving our customers access to reference designs incorporating validated IDT timing technology is an important element in helping them quickly deliver end products to the market."

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Avaya emerges from Chapter 11 after eliminating $3 billion in debt

Avaya Holdings Corp. emerged from Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings. The company is seeking to reestablish a listing on the NYSE with approximately 110 million shares outstanding.

Avaya said it remains focused on "mission-critical, real-time communication applications of the world’s most important operations." Its portfolio includes software and services for contact center and unified communications— offered on premises, in the cloud, or a hybrid.

“This is the beginning of an important new chapter for Avaya,” said Jim Chirico, Avaya’s president and CEO. “In less than a year since the commencement of our chapter 11 restructuring, Avaya has emerged as a publicly traded company with a significantly strengthened balance sheet. Overall, we reduced our prior debt load by approximately $3 billion, and we exit today with more than $300 million in cash on our balance sheet.  The reduction of our debt and certain other long-term obligations will also improve annual cash flow by approximately $300 million compared to fiscal 2016.”

“We have the flexibility we need to invest in the large and growing contact center and unified communications markets as we complete our transformation to a software, services and cloud solutions provider,” Chirico added. “With a new Board and leadership team firmly in place, Avaya is now well-positioned to execute on its growth plan and deliver the returns and value expected by our stakeholders.”

• Avaya entered chapter 11 proceedings on 19-January-2017. 
  
• In June, Extreme Networks announced a deal to acquire Avaya's networking business for approximately $100 million. 

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ATP grows into largest tower company in the Andes

Andean Tower Partners (ATP) has acquired Torres Unidas from Berkshire Partners for an undisclosed sum. The acquisition adds 1,644 sites to ATP's portfolio of digital communication infrastructure assets to ATP, which now has over 2,150 sites, and manages more than 32,000 master leased sites and 13 small cell networks deployments in Colombia, Peru, and Chile.

The former CEO of Torres Unidas, Daniel Seiner, will become the CEO of the combined company and Estrella Zaharia will continue with her responsibilities as Chief Marketing Officer.

ATP said it is now the largest privately-owned tower company in the Andean Region.

"We are excited about the continued progress of ATP following our successful institutional capital raise earlier this year," said Marc Ganzi, Chairman of ATP, and Founder and CEO of Digital Bridge Holdings. "We see a significant tower deficit in the Andean Region, and this acquisition will enhance ATP's ability to meet an increasing need for telecom infrastructure as our wireless carrier partners continue to densify their networks to keep up with anticipated data consumption in the region. We are also equally excited about the combination of these two management teams to ensure execution of our business plan and most importantly meeting the coverage objectives of our customers in the region."

"The combined portfolio will give Andean Tower Partners an enhanced footprint in the region, and we are eager to continue to help operators densify their 4G networks and bring the dream of 5G to life in our region," said Seiner. "These are exceptionally high-quality assets and locations that will allow us to offer an even more compelling value proposition to carriers as they look for a preferred partner that can deliver a full suite of solutions to support their growth in the region."

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Australia's NBN Co extends Ericsson fixed wireless contract to 2020

NBN Co has announced it will continue its fixed wireless and Sky Muster™ managed services partnership with Ericsson (NASDAQ: ERIC) through to 2020.

Australia's NBN Co has extended a managed services contract with Ericsson through to 2020. Ericsson will continue to be responsible for nbn fixed wireless network operations, ground systems operations for Sky Muster – the operator's satellite service – as well as customer connections and assurance for both technologies.

NBN Co's fixed wireless and Sky Muster services cover more than 980,000 homes in regional and remote Australia with more than 290,000 homes connected to broadband services via NBN Co's retail service providers.

"As we extend our strategic partnership with NBNCo, we look forward to continuing the delivery of fixed wireless and satellite services to regional and rural Australia. The availability of ubiquitous broadband to homes and businesses across Australia will help to bridge the digital divide and support economic and community growth," stated Emilio Romeo, Managing Director of Ericsson Australia and New Zealand.

Ericsson has been NBN Co's managed services provider since 2011, when it was appointed to build and operate a fixed-wireless broadband network based on TD-LTE technology.

In 2014, the partnership was expanded to include operation of the ground component of NBN Co's long-term satellite solution and end user connections and assurance services.

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Cisco and Digicel target digitization for the Caribbean

Digicel has signed a framework agreement with Cisco for accelerating the digital agenda and existing digitization policies for 26 countries in the Caribbean and Central America. 

The companies agreed to collaborate to develop a digitization vision for each country for both the immediate and the long term, defining areas for implementation and specific projects, such as Healthcare/Telemedicine, Smart Cities, and Connected Schools, as well as to develop an educational strategy based on Cisco Networking Academy. 

"Digitization is a key driver for economic development in any country. Through this partnership with Digicel, our goal is to grow GDP, create new jobs and invest in a sustainable innovation ecosystem across public and private sectors in the Caribbean and Central America," says Alison Gleeson, Senior Vice President of the Americas, Cisco. "The Cisco and Digicel collaboration will map pathways to growth for countries throughout the region, positioning them for long-term prosperity in the digital age."

The initial list of targeted countries includes: Anguilla, Antigua & Barbuda, Aruba, Barbados, Bermuda, Bonaire, British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands, Curacao, Dominica, El Salvador, French West Indies, Grenada, Guyana, Haiti, Jamaica, Montserrat, Panama, Saint Lucia, St. Kitts & Nevis, St. Vincent & the Grenadines, Suriname, Trinidad & Tobago and the Turks & Caicos Islands.

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Frontier says rural broadband deployment ahead of schedule

Frontier Communications reports that it is ahead of schedule in deploying rural broadband, exceeding 2017 milestone requirements of the Connect America Fund program (CAF) in eight additional states.

The carrier is now ahead of schedule in Florida, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Tennessee, Texas, and Wisconsin. This is in addition to Arizona, Connecticut, Georgia, Montana, New York, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Washington and West Virginia as having reached the 40 percent milestone.

Nationally, Frontier now provides broadband to over approximately 331,000 and small businesses in its CAF-eligible areas and has improved speeds to over approximately 875,000 additional homes and businesses.

“We are piling up broadband milestones as we make a strong broadband deployment push to close out 2017," said Mark D. Nielsen, Frontier Executive Vice President and Chief Legal Officer. "The combination of CAF and Frontier's investments have enabled new broadband connections that are vital to closing the digital divide. Every day we see our customers benefiting from the significant economic and educational benefits of broadband connectivity."

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Meituan data centers deploy Mellanox Ethernet switches, adapters

Meituan.com will deploy Mellanox Spectrum Ethernet switches, ConnectX adapters and LinkX cables to accelerate its multi-thousand servers for their artificial intelligence, big data analytics and cloud data centers. The installation will use Mellanox 25 Gigabit and 100 Gigabit smart interconnect solutions and RDMA technology.
Financial terms were not disclosed.

Meituan.com is the world’s leading online and on-demand delivery platform, supporting 280 million mobile users and 5 million merchants across 2,180 cities in China, and processing up to 21 million orders a day during peak times.

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