Monday, September 18, 2023

Intel announces glass substrates for next-generation advanced packaging

Intel announced glass substrates for next-generation advanced packaging 

The new material offers ultra-low flatness and better thermal and mechanical stability, resulting in much higher interconnect density in a substrate.

Compared to organic substrates in use today, Intel's glass substrates possess superior mechanical, physical and optical properties that allow for more transistors to be connected in a package, providing better scaling and enabling assembly of larger chiplet complexes. This allows more chiplests in a smaller footprint on one package. The ability of glass substrates to withstand high temperatures is also expected to provide chip architects with the flexibility to determine the design rules for power delivery and signal routing. This attribute enables the seamless integration of optical interconnects and embedding of inductors and capacitors into the glass during high-temperature processing.

Intel said it is on track to deliver complete glass substrate solutions to the market in the second half of this decade, allowing the industry to continue advancing Moore’s Law beyond 2030.

"After a decade of research, Intel has achieved industry-leading glass substrates for advanced packaging. We look forward to delivering these cutting-edge technologies that will benefit our key players and foundry customers for decades to come,” stated Babak Sabi, Intel senior vice president and general manager of Assembly and Test Development.

https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/newsroom/news/intel-unveils-industry-leading-glass-substrates.html#gs.5vishn

Intel broadens FPGA portfolio

Intel expanded its Agilex FPGA portfolio and broadened its Programmable Solutions Group (PSG) offerings to handle the increased demand for customized workloads, including enhanced AI capabilities, and to provide lower total cost of ownership (TCO) and more complete solutions.

Intel is also officially releasing Open FPGA Stack (OFS) to open source, the first production adapter based on Intel’s F2000X infrastructure processing unit (IPU) platform and a new Nios® V processor.

Highlights of the announcement

Intel Agilex 3 devices are power and cost-optimized FPGAs in compact form factors for system/board monitoring and management, video and vision, protocol expansion, portable imaging and displays, sensor fusion, drives, robotics I/O expansion and others. New devices include

  • B-Series FPGAs have higher I/O density in smaller form factors at lower power than Intel MAX 10 FPGAs . B-Series FPGAs are targeted for board and system management, including server platform management (PFM) applications.
  • C-Series FPGAs offer added capabilities for a range of complex programmable logic devices (CPLD) and FPGA applications across vertical markets.

Intel Agilex 5 FPGA E-Series deliver up to 1.6 times better performance per watt compared to 16nm node competitors. Power capabilities are accomplished using the second-generation Intel Hyperflex™ FPGA architecture combined with Intel 7 process technology, where transistors are optimized for performance per watt. Intel Agilex 5 FPGAs and SoCs take the industry’s first AI tensor block from Intel’s previous generation high-end offerings and bring them to mid-range FPGAs in Agilex 5 FPGAs, making them an ideal choice for edge AI applications.

Intel Agilex 7 FPGAs with R-Tile are now shipping CXL IP with 2.0 features in volume: Launched in May 2023, the Intel Agilex 7 FPGAs with the R-Tile chiplet deliver leading technology capabilities with 2 times faster PCIe 5.0 bandwidth as well as 4 times higher CXL bandwidth per port when compared to other competitive FPGA products.

Open FPGA Stack (OFS) open source launch: Developers now have full access to the open source Open FPGA Stack (OFS) hardware code, software code and technical documentation for platform and workload development. The open source OFS offering supports Intel Agilex FPGAs and Intel® Stratix® 10 FPGAs, enabling hardware and software developers to harness their capabilities for their solution development.

First F2000X IPU-based production adapters launch. Napatech’s F2070X IPU production adapters enable TCO improvements for cloud and networking applications.

Nios V/c compact microcontroller is a free, soft-core IP, based on the RISC-V architecture, an open source industry standard. It will initially target all devices supported in Intel Quartus Prime Pro software with a roadmap to many devices supported in Quartus Prime Standard software. Quartus Prime is a programmable logic device design software. 



AMD releases Siena CPUs for intelligent edge, data centers

AMD announced the availability of its EPYC 8004 Series processors featuring the "Zen 4c" core, which is optimized for energy efficiency and performance in space-constrained environments from the intelligent edge to the data center.

Cited benefits for the AMD EPYC 8004 Series processors:

  • * High performance per watt: The AMD EPYC 8004 Series processors deliver up to 2x better SPECpower performance per system watt advantage compared to the competition's top networking model. 
  • * In a video encoding workload, the EPYC 8534P provides up to 2.4x the aggregate frames/hour/system watt against the competition’s comparable networking productii. In an IoT Edge gateway workload an eight core EPYC 8024P powered server can provide ~1.8x the total throughput performance per 8kW rack, compared to the competition’s eight core processor.
  • * Balanced performance: The AMD EPYC 8004 Series processors provide a balanced mix of performance and energy efficiency, making them ideal for space-constrained environments.
  • * Wide range of applications: The AMD EPYC 8004 Series processors are well-suited for a wide range of applications, from the intelligent edge to the data center.



“The new EPYC 8004 Series processors extend AMD leadership in single socket platforms by offering excellent CPU energy efficiency in a package tuned to meet the needs of space and power-constrained infrastructure,” said Dan McNamara, senior vice president and general manager, Server Business, AMD. “AMD has delivered multiple generations of data center processors that provide outstanding efficiency, performance, and innovative features. Now with our 4th Gen EPYC CPU portfolio complete, that leadership continues across a broad set of workloads – from enterprise and cloud, to intelligent edge, technical computing and more.”


Thunderbolt 5 delivers 80 Gbps bi-directionally

Intel announced Thunderbolt 5, promising 80 Gbps of bi-directional bandwidth, and with Bandwidth Boost up to 120 Gbps for displays. 

Thunderbolt 5,  will provide up to three times more bandwidth than the best existing connectivity solution, is based on industry standards – including USB4 V2 – and will be broadly compatible with previous versions of Thunderbolt and USB.  

Thunderbolt 5 builds upon Thunderbolt 4 in several ways, including:

  • Two times the total bi-directional bandwidth; Bandwidth Boost provides up to three times the throughput for video-intensive usage, up to 120 Gbps.
  • Double the PCI Express data throughput for faster storage and external graphics.
  • Built on industry standards including USB4 V2, DisplayPort 2.1 and PCI Express Gen 4; fully compatible with previous versions.
  • Double the bandwidth of Thunderbolt Networking for high-speed PC-to-PC connections.
  • Utilizes a new signaling technology, PAM-3, to deliver these significant increases in performance with today’s printed circuit boards, connectors and passive cables up to 1 meter.
  •  Computers and accessories based on Intel's Thunderbolt 5 controller, code-named Barlow Ridge, are expected to be available starting in 2024.




https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/newsroom/news/intel-introduces-thunderbolt-5-standard.html#gs.5w6rnc

indie Semi acquires EXALOS for optical

indie Semiconductor has acquired privately held EXALOS AG, a Swiss photonics company, specializing in the design of high-performance optical semiconductors. indie paid approximately $45 million to EXALOS equity holders comprised of 6.6 million indie Class A common shares. In addition, if certain revenue-based performance targets are exceeded over a 24-month post-closing period, there is an opportunity for such holders to earn up to $20 million more in cash or indie Class A common shares, at indie’s election. 

Founded in 2003 and based in Zürich, EXALOS has developed and launched several products, including its field-proven SLEDs for fiber optic gyroscope and Semiconductor Optical Amplifiers (SOAs). The company holds 59 global patents.

"EXALOS’ differentiated solutions immediately expand indie’s ADAS and User Experience product and technology offering to our global tier one and automotive OEM customer base," said Donald McClymont, indie’s co-founder and CEO. "Specifically, indie can now leverage EXALOS’ core Super luminescent LED, and SOA technologies to enable Head Up Display (HUD), high brightness visible lighting and Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU)-based navigational applications and, importantly, to extend our FMCW LiDAR portfolio. We are gaining a well-established team of 17 world class engineers, including the industry’s leading expertise in bright light sources based on a proprietary Gallium Nitride process. At a higher level, our acquisition of EXALOS represents another step in our quest to build a broadline Autotech powerhouse.”

“We are excited to join forces with indie at this key juncture of EXALOS’ evolution," said Christian Velez, CEO and founder of EXALOS. "Given indie’s global sales channels and demonstrated scalability, I am confident that together we can take our business to the next level, capitalizing on clear product synergies between us and extending our customer reach while preserving the EXALOS innovation engine."

 

Sunday, September 17, 2023

STL opens optical manufacturing facility in South Carolina

STL inaugurated a state-of-the-art manufacturing facility in Lugoff, South Carolina - The Palmetto Plant. 

The new facility, spanning over 168,000 sq. ft will specialize in future-ready optical solutions, including high fiber count cables with smaller diameters. The emphasis will also extend to pioneering designs, notably high-capacity ribbonized cables and ruggedized designs for rural deployments. 

The company said this strategic investment reinforces its commitment to the Make in America vision. 

The Palmetto Plant will also serve as STL's North American Headquarters.

Paul Atkinson,  CEO, Optical Networking Business at STL, said: "Our new cable plant in Lugoff, South Carolina, is a testament to our commitment to the US market and our customers in North America. This facility mirrors our ethos and  STL's larger purpose - of Transforming Billions of Lives by Connecting the World. I am excited to see its impact on America's rural connectivity and digital landscape." 

  • In August, Nokia confirmed that its fiber-optic broadband network electronics and optical modules manufactured in the U.S. will meet the current Buy America guidelines announced by the Department of Commerce. Nokia expects to become the first Buy America compliant technology vendor eligible for use in the Department of Commerce Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment (BEAD) program.
  • In May, Corning inaugurated its newest optical cable manufacturing campus in Hickory, North Carolina. Corning has manufactured optical fiber and cable in North Carolina for more than 40 years. With the opening of the Trivium campus, Corning will manufacture optical cable at two sites in Hickory and at sites in Newton and Winston-Salem. The company manufactures optical fiber in Concord and Wilmington. 

KKR to acquire 20% in Singtel’s data centre business

A fund managed by KKR will commit up to S$1.1 billion (~US$800 million) for a 20% stake in Singtel’s regional data centre business. 

Singtel’s regional data centre business is part of the Digital InfraCo unit which was formed in June 2023. Singtel has been growing this business anchored by its expertise in Singapore where it is one of the largest operators. In addition to 62MW of existing capacity in Singapore, Singtel is building a new 58MW DC Tuas in Singapore and has also partnered Telkom and Medco Power in Indonesia and GULF and AIS in Thailand to develop data centres in Batam and Bangkok respectively. The data centre portfolio will deliver a total combined capacity of over 155MW once the three new projects are operational in 2025, with room to scale up to more than 200MW.

This investment puts the enterprise value of Singtel’s overall regional data centre business at S$5.5 billion. KKR will have the option to increase its stake to 25% by 2027 at the pre-agreed valuation.

Mr Bill Chang, CEO of Singtel's Digital InfraCo, said, “KKR's investment underscores the quality of our data centre portfolio and confidence in our plans to scale the business by capitalising on the digitalisation and rapid AI adoption that is transforming this region. Our expertise in designing, building and operating data centres, and our connectivity leadership in the region, together with KKR's strong track record in supporting digital infrastructure assets and its platform-building expertise makes for a powerful combination. We look forward to building on the strong momentum we have achieved to grow the business into one of the region's leading green and sustainable data centre platforms with rich hyper-connectivity services.”

Mr David Luboff, Partner and Head of Asia Pacific Infrastructure, KKR, said, “We are pleased to provide this tailored solution to support the regional data centre platform of Singtel, one of the most longstanding and distinguished corporations in Singapore and a leading digital infrastructure provider in Asia Pacific. Robust digital infrastructure, including high-quality data centres, will play a crucial role in enabling Southeast Asia’s flourishing digital economy, and Singapore is well-placed to serve as a central hub for the region. We look forward to working closely with Bill, Arthur and Singtel’s talented team to meet this tremendous demand, and sharing our global expertise and network to accelerate the platform’s growth across the region.”


Colt Data Centre Services launches Mumbai data center

Colt Data Centre Services (DCS) launched its Navi Mumbai data centre located on a land parcel of 15 acres capable of supporting 120MW of IT power capacity. The data centre boasts a highly resilient 220kV GIS substation onsite with LILO configuration. The data centre also provides multi-layered security with combination of hardened physical parameters, access control and 24x7 surveillance. The site has undergone a comprehensive TVRA assessment and has been categorized as a low risk site. Colt DCS has over 25 years of experience supporting mission-critical workloads based on its award-winning Operations and Service Management capabilities.

Navi Mumbai is the first DCS data centre in India. 

https://www.coltdatacentres.net/en-GB/press-releases/data-centres/2023/09/mumbai-launch


Microsoft to host Oracle Cloud Infrastructure Database Services

Microsoft Azure data centers will host Oracle database services running on Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI).

As a result of this expanded partnership, customers will have the choice to deploy their Azure services with their fully managed Oracle Database services all within a single datacenter, including support for Oracle Exadata Database services, Oracle Autonomous Database services, and Oracle Real Application Clusters (RAC). Oracle and Microsoft have also developed a joint support model to provide rapid response and resolution for mission-critical workloads.

Additionally, Oracle and Microsoft have significantly simplified the purchasing and contracting process.

“We have a real opportunity to help organizations bring their mission-critical applications to the cloud so they can transform every part of their business with this next generation of AI,” said Satya Nadella, Chairman and CEO, Microsoft. “Our expanded partnership with Oracle will make Microsoft Azure the only other cloud provider to run Oracle’s database services and help our customers unlock a new wave of cloud-powered innovation.”

“Most customers already use multiple clouds,” said Larry Ellison, Oracle Chairman and CTO. “Microsoft and Oracle have been working together to make it easy for those customers to seamlessly connect Azure Services with the very latest Oracle Database technology. By collocating Oracle Exadata hardware in Azure datacenters, customers will experience the best possible database and network performance. We are proud to partner with Microsoft to deliver this best-in-class capability to customers.”

https://www.oracle.com/news/announcement/oracle-database-at-azure-2023-09-14/

UK offers £88 million in R&D grants for O-RAN projects

The UK government is offering £88 million in R&D grants.

The 19 successful projects in the Open Networks Ecosystem (ONE) Competition will demonstrate the reliability and feasibility of Open Radio Access Network (RAN) technologies and showcase their role in delivering resilient and future-proofed connectivity to UK citizens and businesses. 

The projects will initiate trials of open 5G networks across the country, in: 

  • major urban centres in Glasgow, Cambridge, Liverpool, Bath, and the City of London 
  • iconic sports and entertainment venues including Cardiff’s Principality Stadium, Sunderland’s Stadium of Light, the National eSport Arena, Cambridge Corn Exchange, and Shelsley Walsh motorsport venue 
  • the historic seaside resorts of Blackpool and Worthing 

https://www.gov.uk/government/news/88-million-research-and-development-boost-for-innovative-connectivity-to-future-proof-uk-mobile-network 

Skyloom to integrate its optical terminal with Satellogic satellites

Skyloom Global Corp. announced plans to integrate Skyloom’s Optical Communications Terminal with Satellogic satellites, which designs, manufactures, and operates its own constellation of submeter EO satellites.

Utilizing Skyloom’s OCT, Satellogic will test new methods of high-resolution EO data delivery through both SkyCompass-1, the geostationary-based (GEO) lasercom network infrastructure Skyloom developed with its partner, Space Compass, and direct downlink to a gateway within view of the low altitude image area, significantly decreasing latency. 

As a first step in its commissioning, the Satellogic spacecraft will conduct a low earth orbit (LEO)-to-ground link by handshaking with Skyloom’s optical ground station in Broomfield, Colorado. The Satellogic-Skyloom agreement follows a feasibility study on the ability of Satellogic’s Mark-V platform to establish lasercom links.

Thursday, September 14, 2023

NTT pioneers power transmission over optical fiber

NTT has successfully delivered electric power exceeding 1W to a remote location over more than 10 km using a single optical fiber. This achievement, which marks the world's first instance of maintaining high-speed and high-quality communication while transmitting power through an optical fiber, was accomplished in partnership with Kitami Institute of Technology, part of the National University Corporation Hokkaido Higher Education and Research System (KIT).

NTT says the breakthrough paves the way for extending high-speed optical communication to underserved regions, including areas without electrical power, and establishing emergency communication methods through optical fiber in disaster-stricken situations. Traditional technology limited the distance over which power could be supplied to drive optical communication devices to under 10 km due to optical fiber input light intensity constraints. 

In this experiment, NTT used multi-core optical fiber (MCF) with four optical paths (cores) with the same diameter as the commonly used optical fiber..

The MCF employed in this research matches the thinness of existing optical fibers, with each core exhibiting transmission characteristics identical to those of standard optical fibers.  Each core can function independently, avoiding optical signal interference between cores, allowing for core allocation to power supply, communication or both.


In this study, to maximize optical power supply, a 1550 nm wavelength light source was introduced into four cores. Additionally, two of the four cores were allocated both up and down signals with a wavelength of 1310 nm, facilitating bidirectional optical communication. The configuration allowed for two sets of two-core combinations, creating two separate communication systems.

The capacity of optical power supply can be expressed as the product of transmission distance and supplied power. In this research, MCF was leveraged to maximize power supply per unit cross-sectional area and mitigate return light, which can degrade power supply efficiency. As a result, after transmitting MCF over a distance of 14 km, approximately 1W of power was obtained. This achievement translates to an optical power supply capacity of 14 watt/km, setting a world record.

NTT will present details of its research on October 4, 2023, at the 49th European Conference on Optical Communications (ECOC) in Scotland. 

https://group.ntt/en/newsrelease/2023/08/29/230829a.html

BT tests liquid cooled network switches and servers

BT is trialling "precision liquid cooled" network switches using a solution provided by Iceotope and Juniper Networks QFX Series Switches, which are widely used in existing network cloud architectures. 

In addition to its trial with Iceotope and Juniper, BT will test the following liquid cooling systems, which were also demonstrated at BT Group’s Sustainability Festival:

  • Precision Liquid Cooled networking servers and data centre equipment, with Iceotope and Juniper
  • Full immersion of networking servers in an immersion tank, with Immersion4
  • Liquid-cooled cold plates of networking equipment in a cooling enclosure, with Nexalus
  • Cooling using sprayed-on partial immersion of data centre equipment, with Airsys.

BT Group expects that several different cooling solutions could eventually be deployed, depending on specific location and operational requirements. The trials will aim to establish which solutions are optimal for each scenario, and the extent of potential energy savings.

Maria Cuevas, Networks Research Director, BT Group said, “As the UK’s largest provider of fixed-line broadband and mobile services in the UK, it isn’t a surprise that over 90% of our overall energy consumption – and nearly 95% of our electricity - comes from our networks. In a world of advancing technology and growing data demands, it’s critical that we continue to innovate for energy efficiency solutions. Liquid cooling for network and IT infrastructure is one part of a much bigger jigsaw but is an area we’re very excited to explore with our technology partners.”

https://newsroom.bt.com/bt-takes-the-plunge-with-new-liquid-cooling-trials/

Napatech debuts IPU powered by Intel Xeon + Agilex 7 FPGA

Napatech introduced a 200 Gbps IPU (infrastructure processing unit) based on the Intel IPU Platform F2000X-PL, which leverages an an Intel Xeon D SoC and Intel Agilex 7 FPGA.

Napatech’s F2070XTM IPU is engineered for cloud, enterprise, and telecom data centers that are optimized for hybrid multi-cloud and edge-computing architectures, supporting applications that may be virtualized (virtual machines), cloud-native (containers), bare-metal and microservices-based.

The Napatech F2070X IPU is a 200 Gbps card that includes two ports configurable for 10, 25, and 100 gigabit Ethernet. Multiple versions are
available in various SoC, FPGA, and memory configurations, and are supported in standard, high-volume servers from multiple manufacturers.

The F2070X IPU is powered by Napatech’s feature-rich software and high-velocity roadmap that deliver NIC functionality, while offloading and accelerating networking (OVS), Storage (NVMe/TCP), Security (TLS), and other workloads.

Key benefits of IPUs: 

  • Performance: hardware-based, line-rate forwarding with sophisticated packet processing.
  • Efficiency: offloading of infrastructure processes, reclaiming valuable host CPU resources for applications and services.
  • Customization: software and hardware programmable, delivering hardware performance at the speed of software
    innovation.
  • Security: Hard isolation between tenant applications and services, and operator infrastructure processes.
  • Sustainability: tenant and service scalability per server, reducing cost, power, and cooling per rack.
  • Ease of Use: The Intel Xeon D processor simplifies moving the networking and storage stacks from the host to the
    IPU.

“Napatech is pleased to have reached this important milepost in our collaboration with Intel,” said Henrik Brill Jensen, CEO of Napatech. “Our joint efforts to bring IPU hardware and software solutions to IT organizations of every size unlock new high-growth markets for our products, and underpin our aim for transformational growth of our business.”

“Our collaboration with Napatech is an indication of our commitment to expanding our leadership in infrastructure processing in data center networks,” said Jim Dworkin, Vice President and General Manager of the Cloud & Enterprise Acceleration Division at Intel. “We are pleased to collaborate with Napatech to combine the high performance of Intel Agilex 7 FPGAs with Napatech’s production-grade hardware and software expertise. Napatech’s upcoming F2070X IPU isa high-performance data center infrastructure server on a PCIe card that can help deliver the scalable and high-performance products, solutions, and services customers require to make their cloud and enterprise data centers moreefficient and cost-effective with high feature velocity.”

https://www.napatech.com



Prisma Photonics raises $20M for optical sensing of power grids

Prisma Photonics, a start-up based in Tel Aviv, raised approximately $20 million in a Series C round for its optical sensing technology for monitoring large-scale infrastructure, such as power grids.

Prisma Photonics says its optical fiber sensing technology offers power transmission operators better ways to manage their grids. It allows them to maximize the electrical capacity of the current grid to increase the integration of renewable energy sources. Doing that, operators respond to new emerging regulations such as FERC order 881 in the U.S. and similar. Real-time alerts on electrical faults and extreme weather conditions such as wildfires and icing offer better ways to retain grid resiliency in changing environments. Prisma Photonics uses existing optical fibers and can monitor distances of up to thousands of kilometers without the need to install any sensors on the infrastructure itself.

The funding round was led by New York-based global private equity and venture capital firm Insight Partners, with participation from Elements, a Climatech fund, SE Ventures (Schneider Electric's venture capital arm), Future Energy Ventures (the venture capital investment and collaboration platform of E.ON),  Events and alerts are reported in real time and within meters of accuracy.

"Grid congestion and the integration of renewable sources have become pressing challenges for power market operators such as our Tier-1 customers," states Dr. Eran Inbar, CEO of Prisma Photonics. "Our AI-driven technology not only adds a layer of resilience to the grid but also enables dynamic line rating capabilities, unlocking the full potential of existing infrastructure. This investment led by Insight Partners highlights the urgent need for innovative, scalable solutions in critical infrastructure management."

https://www.prismaphotonics.com

  • In January, Prisma Photonics, which has been using optical fibers to monitor Israel's national transmission electrical grid since 2020, was awarded a contract by Israel Electric Corporation (IEC) to extend coverage to 1,000 km (over 620 miles), which is 20% of the transmission grid. 

Lumen expands its SASE with cloud-hosted gateways

Lumen introduced new Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) features including:

Security Service Edge (SSE) and cloud-hosted gateways

  • SSE is a collection of integrated, cloud-centric security capabilities – including cloud-hosted gateways – that provide safe access to websites. It also includes the access and sharing of sensitive data and user permission management for software-as-a-service (SaaS) applications provided by leading SD-WAN and security partners.
  • Cloud-hosted gateways enable organizations to adopt "grow as they go" network and security management features without the need for premise-based equipment.

Customers benefit from Lumen-hosted gateways because they:

  • Enable customers to migrate off shared gateways and onto a dedicated node providing enhanced security and reliability nationwide.
  • Provide flexible, centralized security services and dedicated cloud hosting with simplified and predictable pricing.
  • Enable secure remote access from virtually anywhere to the customer's data and cloud applications.

Global expansion

  • U.S.-based customers can now deploy premise-based SASE services to locations in Canada and EMEA.

VIAVI offers Network Intelligence and Optimization on Google Cloud

Viavi released its NITRO AIOps on Google Cloud.

Highlights:

  • Network Performance Optimization: NITRO AIOps enables CSPs to proactively monitor and optimize network performance. By identifying potential bottlenecks and anomalies, CSPs can take timely actions to ensure seamless network operations and consistent, high-quality service delivery. 
  • Enhanced Customer Experience: With granular insights into customer behavior and usage patterns, the solution allows CSPs to tailor services to individual preferences. This results in personalized offerings, improved customer satisfaction, and increased loyalty. 
  • Capacity Planning and Resource Management: The solution's AI-driven analytics aids CSPs in effective capacity planning and resource management. By optimizing network resources, CSPs can achieve better resource utilization and cost efficiency. 
  • Real-Time Anomaly Detection: AIOps empowers CSPs with real-time issue detection, enabling swift response to network anomalies and potential service disruptions, minimizing downtime and enhancing network reliability. 
  • Predictive Maintenance and Quality Assurance: By predicting potential network issues and faults, the solution helps CSPs adopt a proactive approach to maintenance and quality assurance, ultimately leading to improved service quality and reduced operational costs. 


"VIAVI constantly strives to provide innovative solutions and purposeful industry partnerships that address emerging opportunities in our markets. This partnership enables the transition to cloud-based networks with end-to-end visibility. Working with Google Cloud, we are pleased to offer critical problem-solving solutions for service providers as part of their native cloud services," said Deepak Shahane, Vice President and General Manager, Service Enablement, VIAVI. "As this partner demonstration shows, we aim to enable the industry to leverage VIAVI capabilities to improve operations and management that includes fully validated, provisioned, and observable networks in any use case."

Wednesday, September 13, 2023

Arm readies IPO at $51.00 per ADS

Arm Holdings plc priced its initial public offering of 95,500,000 American depositary shares at a price to the public of $51.00 per ADS. 

The ADSs are expected to begin trading on the Nasdaq Global Select Market on September 14, 2023 under the symbol “ARM.”

The selling shareholder, a wholly-owned subsidiary of SoftBank Group Corp., in the IPO has granted the underwriters an option to purchase up to an additional 7,000,000 ADSs to cover over-allotments, if any, for 30 days after the date of the final prospectus. The IPO is expected to close on September 18, 2023, subject to customary closing conditions.

https://www.arm.com

Some notes on Arm

  • Arm CPUs shipped in greater than 99% of the world’s smartphones in 2022
  • More than 30 billion Arm-based chips reported as shipped in the fiscal year ended March 31, 2023, representing an approximately 70% increase since the fiscal year ended March 31, 2016.
  • To date, Arm technology has shipped in more than 250 billion chips
  • Approximately 70% of the world’s population uses Arm-based products
  • For the fiscal year ended March 31, 2023, Arm's total revenue was relatively flat at $2,679 million, as compared to $2,703 million in the fiscal year ended March 31, 2022. 
  • In the fiscal year ended March 31, 2023, as a percentage of total revenue our gross profit margin was 96% and operating income margin was 25%.
  • As of March 2023, Arm had 5,963 full-time employees across North America, Europe and Asia.
  • Arm began as a joint venture between Acorn Computers, Apple Computer, and VLSI Technology in 1990.


Deutsche Telekom and Microsoft launch 5G Private Networks

Deutsche Telekom launched its new “Campus Network Smart” solution built on  Microsoft Azure private multi-access edge compute (MEC), which includes the new Azure Private 5G Core service deployed on Azure Stack Edge. This provides customers with a private 5G network that can operate across multiple sites.

Deutsche Telekom tested the new private 5G network solution with Microsoft in a lab environment in Bonn, Germany, last year. As a second step, the two companies carried out a field trial with a leading pharmaceutical company in Germany, beginning in February this year. This pilot customer tested the 5G campus network with various use cases, including the use of AR glasses for remote maintenance. Another use case saw forklifts enabled for object recognition in a high-bay warehouse, in order to monitor inventory and automatically scan barcodes.

Hagen Rickmann, Managing Director Business Customers at Deutsche Telekom in Germany says: “Our new 5G Campus Network Smart solution lowers the barriers to entry for campus networks, in terms of both cost and effort.  Customers with an existing Microsoft Azure landscape, as well as new customers in the small and medium-sized enterprise segment benefit from the solution. They can get started with 5G technology and drive forward their digitalization – while maintaining flexibility”.

"German industry is taking a leading role in adopting Industry 4.0 Transformation, and we are excited to enable Deutsche Telekom to provide complete solutions including network and a growing ecosystem of Modern Connected Apps into this market. Customers can now benefit with a choice of ready to deploy applications over superior cloud-managed private network to accelerate their business transformation." said Shriraj Gaglani, VP Product Management, Microsoft.

https://www.telekom.com/en/media/media-information/archive/telekom-and-microsoft-launch-campus-network-offering-1048758

SES partners with Starlink on MEO-LEO for cruise ships

SES is partnering with SpaceX on a low-latency, high-throughput satellite connectivity service enabled by integrating Starlink’s low-earth orbit (LEO) and SES’s medium earth orbit (MEO) constellations.

The joint offering – SES Cruise mPOWERED + Starlink – seamlessly integrated, sold and delivered by SES – will combine the best of both MEO and LEO orbits to provide high-speed and secure connectivity 24/7 to cruise ships and their guests, regardless of their route and location.

The solutions are available in either Premium tier (3Gbps/ship) – for the leading ships who wish to deliver the highest throughput in the industry or Pro tier (1.5Gbps/ship) – for the operators who wish to manage user experience by matching the right application to the right orbit.

“At SES, we strive to provide a world-class connectivity experience for our cruise customers and deliver the same level of service they would enjoy on land,” said John-Paul Hemingway, Chief Strategy Officer at SES. “By being the only one in the cruise industry to expand our unique multi-orbit GEO and MEO network to utilise LEO, we believe it opens new opportunities for us to meet the needs of cruise guests and crew members, and the operational requirements of cruise operators to accelerate their digital transformations – wherever they may be.”

https://www.ses.com/press-release/ses-introduces-cruise-industrys-first-integrated-meo-leo-service-starlink