New Intel Processors Accelerate 5G Network Transformation

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Intel has launched its newest 3rd Gen Intel® Xeon® Scalable processor (code-named “Ice Lake”), including new network-optimized “N-SKUs” along with verified solution blueprints that accelerate time to market. New “N-SKUs” deliver an average 62% more performance on a range of broadly deployed 5G and network workloads over the prior generation. Intel also announced it has started sampling next-generation Intel® Xeon® D processors designed for space and power-constrained environments at the edge.

“We are further unleashing the capabilities of 5G and the power of the intelligent edge with our latest network-optimized 3rd Gen Intel Xeon Scalable processors. Designed to support diverse network environments, our newest 3rd Gen processors and platform ingredients enable global communications service providers to deliver the next breakthrough in network innovation for even richer consumer and enterprise use cases,” says Dan Rodriguez, Intel corporate vice president and general manager, Network Platforms Group.

With the buildout of 5G and the rise of the intelligent edge, network infrastructure and technology need to evolve. As the leading provider of network silicon, Intel delivers the most complete set of network technologies to transform the network, and fosters the broadest, most proven ecosystem so customers have more choices and can accelerate time to deployment.

The new network-optimized SKUs are the ideal choice for wireless core, wireless access, network edge workloads and security appliances. They are available in a range of cores, frequency, features and power to deliver lower latency, higher throughput and deterministic performance for service provider network transformation requirements.

Security is important for 5G networks, and Intel® Software Guard Extensions integrated into the 3rd Gen Xeon processors enable secure channel setup and communication between the 5G control functions. Built-in crypto acceleration can reduce the performance impact of full data encryption and increase the performance of encryption-intensive workloads.

How They Pair With Other Platform Ingredients: 3rd Gen Intel Xeon Scalable processors can be paired with Intel’s suite of platform ingredients and software — including Intel® FPGAs, Intel® Ethernet 800 series adapters, Intel® Optane™ persistent memory, FlexRAN, OpenNESS, Open Visual Cloud and Intel® Smart Edge — to bring the processor performance to life and help customers achieve the right total cost of ownership.

Agilex 10 nanometer (nm) FPGAs, which are now shipping and achieve nearly twice the performance per watt over competing 7nm devices, are being used in wireless core and access segments to provide infrastructure acceleration capabilities and other valuable features to complement core and access workloads running on Intel Xeon Scalable processors.