At an event attended by its brand-new CEO, Pat Gelsinger, the company highlighted that the launch includes new network-optimized “N-SKUs” and proven solution models that deliver up to 62% more performance on 5G networks and widely deployed workloads compared to the previous Generation. It also announced that it has begun testing the latest generation Intel Xeon D designed for environments with limited space and power at the edge. Special coverage.
Today, Intel launched its latest scalable processor, 3rd Gen Intel Xeon (with code name “Ice Lake”). “With the development of 5G and the rise of the smart edge, both infrastructure and network technology need to evolve. As a leading provider of network silicon, Intel offers the most comprehensive suite of technologies to transform the network and foster the broadest and most proven ecosystem so that customers have more options and can accelerate time of deployment,” the company said in a statement.
According to the presentation, the new network-optimized SKUs are the ideal choice for wireless cores, wireless access, network edge workloads and security appliances. They are available in a variety of cores, frequency, functions and power “to offer lower latency, higher and deterministic performance to meet the transformation requirements of the service provider’s network,” the firm stated.
Navin Shenoy, Executive Vice President of the Intel Data Platforms Group, commented in his presentation: “The proliferation of the hybrid cloud is offering new levels of efficiency and scalability, and the growth of the cloud is democratizing high-performance computing, opening new boundaries of knowledge. We are seeing AI and machine learning increasingly infused into every application from edge to network to cloud to create dramatically better vision. Then there’s the rapid adoption of 5G, which is fueling new use cases that demand lower latency and higher bandwidth, which in turn is pushing computing to the edge, closer to where data is created and consumed. “The confluence of these trends is leading to the biggest and fastest build out of computing in human history.”
Navin Shenoy, Executive Vice President of the Data Platforms Group at Intel
In that sense, the executive said that “to keep pace with this rapid digital transformation, Intel recognizes that infrastructure has to be built to be flexible across a broad set of workloads. This means that the data centers of the future will look very different from how they do today. They’ll be more distributed in size and location, built on both public and private clouds. Compute, storage and memory will be increasingly disaggregated leveraging pools of infrastructure,” he said.
“In the last years, Intel has built an unrivaled portfolio to deliver all the smart silicon components our customers need to move, store and process data from CPU to FPGA to AI processors; to GPU, to Ethernet, to silicon photonics and to software. “
“And all of this is supported by our recently announced IDM 2.0 strategy, which enables leadership products, leadership supply chain and leadership costs. This strategy places us in a unique position to respond to the needs of our clients. At the heart of our portfolio is our Xeon processor. It is the foundation of the edge and network cloud, and is designed with decades of collaborative innovation with our customers, building on security and acceleration for critical workloads such as AI. The 3rd Gen Xeon has been designed from the ground up for cloud, AI, 5G and the edge,” he said.
The executive informed that Microsoft Azure offers a range of confidential solutions, authorized by Intel Software Guard Extensions (SGE). “It is tested on our Xeon E processors and is now available on Intel Xeon Scalable processors, which provide enclaves of trust to accommodate huge workloads and data sets.
Mark Russinovich, Microsoft CTO.
On the other hand, Clay Magouryrk, Executive Vice-President of Oracle Cloud Infrastructure, said that the company is bringing the power of 3rd Generation Xeon to Oracle Cloud Infrastructure for its HPC instances and for general purpose workloads with its flexible virtual machines. Srini Kalapala, VP of Technology Strategy and Network Cloud of Verizon was also present.
Clay Magouryrk, Executive Vice-President of Oracle Cloud Infrastructure
Shenoy said that customers need solutions that are easy to implement and introduced Intel Market Ready and Intel Select Solutions, where they offer verified solutions, from genomic simulation and analysis on HPC to vSAN on VMware to Opencloud, to NFV for networks, to Microsoft SQL, SAP HANA and AI conferences. More than 500 ready-to-deploy partner solution offerings.
Then it was the turn of Lisa Spelman, Corporate VP and CEO of Intel’s Xeon & Memory Group. “With up to 40 cores, higher I /O bandwidth, memory channels, and memory capacity with Optane, Intel offers more advanced platform capabilities,” she said. Regarding the 5G power, she argued that due to the growth of video streaming services in the current context, network operators need to significantly increase capacity and performance without dramatically increasing their capital footprint: “The ability to do this is based on a virtualization foundation, Intel’s area of expertise,” she emphasized. “Our network-optimized Xeon N SKUs offer lower latency and higher performance with a variety of core counts and wrapping power.” She also assured that the new 3rd Generation Xeon offers an easy migration from on-premises services to the cloud, creating a simpler path to trusted cloud environments.
Lisa Spelman, Corporate VP and CEO of Intel’s Xeon & Memory Group.
“Xeon is the only data center processor with built-in AI acceleration.” “More than 80% of today’s emerging technologies have AI foundations”
In terms of security, Intel assured that the company’s software protection extensions built into the 3rd Generation Xeon processors allow the configuration of secure channels and communication between the 5G control functions. “Built-in cryptographic acceleration can reduce the impact of full data encryption and increase the performance of encryption-intensive workloads,” she emphasized.
“SGX has the smallest potential attack surface within the data center system and will help customers better protect their sensitive data.”
This was followed by the presentation of Pat Gelsinger, new CEO of Intel, who was welcomed by CEOs of leading companies in the technology market, such as Dell Technologies, Cisco, HPE and Lenovo.
“With our new scalable Xeon processors, our ecosystem can create solutions that matter, and our customers can safely place their workloads where they work best, from the edge, the network, to the cloud. Whether you are securing financial services through confidential computing, embracing AI to accelerate medical diagnostics and optimize supply chains, or transforming networks to embrace 5G, our 3rd Gen Xeon scalable processors and data-centric portfolio are the reliable technological base for your solutions,” he emphasized.
“We are no longer just a CPU company.”
Finally, he invited to attend the Intel Developer Forum, which will be held next October in San Francisco.
Wireless Core 5G
Intel says that with Xeon 3rd Generation scalable processors, communications service providers can increase UPF 5G performance by up to 42%. “Combined with the Intel Ethernet 800 series adapters, they can deliver performance, efficiency, and confidence for use cases that require low latency, including augmented reality, cloud-based gaming, discrete automation, and even robotic surgery,” he emphasized.
vRAN
As operators virtualize the radio access network (vRAN) for agility, they rely on 5G multiple inputs and outputs (MIMO) to increase capacity and performance. “With the company’s newest Intel Xeon processors, Intel Ethernet 800 series adapters, and dedicated vRAN accelerators, customers can double the performance of massive MIMO in a similar power package for a 3x100MHz 64T64R vRAN configuration,” says the press release.
CDN
With 3rd Generation Intel Xeon Scalable processors and the latest Intel Optane persistent memory, customers can get up to 1.63x higher performance and 33% more memory capacity, the company noted, enabling them to serve the same amount of memory subscribers with a higher resolution or a greater number of subscribers with the same resolution.
Select Solutions
Intel announced that it will upgrade its network workload-optimized solutions to vRAN, Visual Cloud Deliver Network, and NFVI Forwarding Platform, which offer pre-tested and verified configurations that accelerate development time and simplify infrastructure deployment.
These solutions were developed together with various software partners, including Red Hat, VMware, and Wind River. “We are working with several partners in the Intel Network Builders ecosystem to verify their offerings for these solutions, including: ASUS, Advantech, Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE), Intequus, Inventec, Lanner Electronics, Lenovo, Nexcom, QCT, Supermicro and ZT Systems,” he said.
Next Generation Intel Xeon D
Code-named “Ice Lake-D,” these processors are designed to support denser, smaller-size, and edge-resistant designs. Now Intel is testing them and working with customers and partners, including Cisco for networking products, Supermicro for FlexRAN-based vRAN solutions, and Rakuten Mobile for next-generation RAN products, to meet higher capacity needs.
