At #MWC23, Intel introduced a vRAN Boost capability for its 4th Gen Intel Xeon Scalable processors.
The capability brings Layer 1 acceleration into the Xeon SoC and eliminates the need for external accelerator cards. Intel says its vRAN Boost has the support of Advantech, Capgemini, Canonical, Dell Technologies, Ericsson, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, Mavenir, Quanta Cloud Technology, Rakuten Mobile, Red Hat, SuperMicro, Telefonica, Verizon, VMware, Vodafone and Wind River, among others.
“Intel powers the world’s clouds, networks and enterprises, giving us unique insight on where to place compute and acceleration along the entire cloud-to-edge continuum and helping our customers scale to meet user demands,” said Sachin Katti, Intel senior vice president and general manager of the Network and Edge Group. “The advancements we’ve made in our 4th Gen Intel Xeon platforms to double vRAN performance1 while staying within the same power envelope, to nearly doubling the 5G core UPF throughput5, and to speed the deployment of a wide range of network, security and enterprise edge services, makes Intel the platform for our customers to modernize and monetize their networks of the future, today.”
Some other highlights from Barcelona
- Intel demonstrated 4th Gen Intel Xeon Scalable processors now enable the industry’s first 1 Tbps of performance for the 5G UPF workload within a single dual-socket server, further validated by Samsung.
- New Intel Infrastructure Power Manager for 5G Core reference software dynamically matches run-time server power consumption with data traffic without compromising key performance indicators such as throughput, latency and packet drop. The software, in tests with Casa Systems, NEC and Nokia, significantly reduces time-to-market for ISVs and operators by simplifying access to key capabilities in Intel’s 3rd and 4th Gen Xeon Scalable processors, including power telemetry, granular power control states and low-latency frequency change. Operators can use the reference software to reduce network TCO and accelerate progress toward net zero emissions goals, realizing millions of dollars in potential savings and a significant amount of CO2 emissions offset.
- Intel is expanding its Agilex 7 FPGAs and eASIC N5X structure ASIC devices for cloud, communications and embedded applications. As cloud service providers (CSPs) begin transitioning from 200G to 400G networks in 2023, with CoSPs to follow suit in 2024, Intel Agilex 7 FPGA AGI 041 devices will enable next-generation 400G infrastructure acceleration solutions. AGI 041 devices deliver the right balance of capacity, power efficiency and performance for the 400G Infrastructure Processing Unit (IPU) and networking solutions.
