Opinion: Intel focuses on 5G infrastructure
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Opinion: Intel focuses on 5G infrastructure
Atom and Xeon parts for networking, among other Intel innovations
The big picture: As with many other computing platforms, it's the software that's driving the biggest innovations in networking. By building on more standardized hardware platforms (x86 for Intel and Arm for Marvell) and leveraging open source software tools and platforms, like Linux, companies can create networking-related innovations at a faster and more efficient pace.
Despite the cancellation of this year's Mobile World Congress show in Barcelona, quite a few tech companies are still making important announcements that were originally planned for the show. Not surprisingly, several of those announcements are focused on 5G.
One of them -perhaps somewhat surprisingly -comes from chip leader Intel. The company sold its 5G modem business assets to Apple last fall, and many considered that move to be the company's exit from the 5G world. But Intel has a much bigger, though significantly less well-known, business creating chips that help power the network infrastructure equipment that sits at the heart of today's 4G LTE and 5G networks, including base stations and other core components.
For years, much of the network silicon inside these devices was custom designed and built by the vendors making the equipment -companies like Ericsson, Nokia, Huawei, etc. However, with the growth of more software-based networking advancements, including things like network function virtualization (NFV), as well as increasing demand for general compute performance to handle applications like AI at the edge, Intel and other specialized vendors like Marvell have seen strong interest in their off-the-shelf "merchant"