MWC 2019: Intel Showcases New Products and Partnerships Accelerating the 5G Revolution

At Mobile World Congress 2019 in Barcelona, Intel is displaying – through new product announcements, partnerships and innovative customer use cases – how the cloud, devices and edge computing are fueling the network to transform and, in turn, unlock limitless opportunities across 5G.

Customers AT&T*, Ericsson*, Nokia*, Rakuten*, Sony*, Warner Bros.* and others are highlighting how they are innovating and expanding their businesses through the ability to successfully move, store and process massive amounts of data rapidly and efficiently.

More: Intel at 2019 MWC | Cloud-Based Network Transformation from Core to Edge Propels 5G Revolution

In addition to announcing new products uniquely tailored for delivering increased computing capability at the edge and further advances to its network technology innovation with the industry, Intel also is announcing initial customer adoption for its 10nm base station system-on-chip (SoC), code-named Snow Ridge.

“As the cloud fuels the network to transform and computing at the edge drives innovation, the opportunity for 5G becomes limitless. Intel is delivering new products and innovation to propel the adoption of 5G and empower our customers and partners to grow their businesses.”
–Sandra Rivera, Intel senior vice president and general manager of the Network Platforms Group

5G Base Stations Get Smarter: There is no area gaining more industry attention than the network edge and, in particular, radio access networks (RAN) and base station computing. First unveiled at CES 2019, Snow Ridge is Intel’s 10nm system-on-chip (SoC) technology for wireless base stations. Intel today announced that Ericsson is adopting Intel’s Snow Ridge next-generation silicon to further evolve its 5G base station product lines. To deliver its unique 5G solutions, Ericsson is using Snow Ridge as a component along with its custom silicon to deliver market-leading RAN Compute* solutions. We expect to be in production on Snow Ridge in the second half of this year.

Intel Extends Cloud Architectures to the Network Core and Edge: Intel has built compelling solutions for service providers as they transform their networks for 5G. With the upcoming launch of the next Intel® Xeon® Scalable platform family member, Cascade Lake, Intel will enable telecommunications service providers to seize new cloud and network opportunities and optimize their data center, core and edge environments to meet growing computing, artificial intelligence and storage demands. Intel will provide more details as it nears launch.

Power and Acceleration for the Edge: Along with the cloud and wireless access, the network edge is a critical point of innovation for global infrastructure providers and operators who are building out cloud-based network solutions.

To this end, Intel has delivered new products and open source software innovation with the industry. Intel today is launching the new Intel® FPGA Programmable Acceleration Card N3000 (Intel® FPGA PAC N3000) that is specifically designed for the acceleration of virtualized network functions ranging from 5G RAN to core network applications.  Customers Rakuten and Affirmed Networks* are currently sampling the Intel FPGA PAC N3000 for product delivery in 2019’s third quarter.

Intel additionally provided a first look at its upcoming Intel Xeon D family product, code-named Hewitt Lake. Hewitt Lake is expected to deliver a power-efficient SoC configuration tailored for exceptional computing at the edge and for security and storage solutions that typically face both power and space constraints.

The Open Network Edge Services Software (OpenNESS) toolkit is designed to foster open collaboration and application innovation at the network and enterprise edge. OpenNESS is an open-source reference software that we are making available to enable the ecosystem to create and deploy new edge applications and services. It helps simplify network complexity for developers and enables secure on-boarding of edge services. OpenNESS will make it easier for cloud and internet of things developers to engage with a worldwide ecosystem of hardware, software and solutions integrators to develop new 5G and edge use cases and services.

Intel Modems Move 5G Forward: While Intel’s network and edge solutions create a cloud-based foundation that enables 5G, Intel’s 5G modem  products also play a major role in moving forward 5G adoption.

Intel today is announcing a collaboration with Skyworks*  to co-optimize the multimode 5G radio frequency (RF) solution for the Intel® XMM™ 8160 5G modem.

The XMM 8160 platform will be highly scalable and targeted to all tiers and market verticals with support for 2G, 3G, CDMA, TDSCDMA, LTE, 5G and GNSS, spanning mobile, automotive, wearables, cellular infrastructure and IoT markets. The platform, including RF front end, will be available in 2019’s fourth quarter for product certification purposes at select customers, with broad availability targeted for the first quarter of 2020.

Additionally, Fibocom*, a leading manufacturer of cellular M.2 modules, is announcing today that it will enhance its product portfolio and integrate the Intel XMM 8160 5G modem. In support of this news, gateway manufacturing vendors D-Link*, Arcadyan*, Gemtek* and VVDN* announced they are adopting the Intel XMM 7560 gigabit LTE modem for their gateway solutions, with upgrade plans to move to the Intel XMM 8160 5G modem in early 2020.