Consultancy Gartner predicts that by 2025, more than 50% of the data is expected to be generated and processed outside of traditional data centers, which brings new growth opportunities to the industry chain. According to the data, by 2026, the network and edge infrastructure market size is expected to reach $77 billion!
Of course, opportunities favor only those who are prepared; as a leader in the network chip market, Intel is clearly "prepared." On the eve of MWC 2022, Intel introduced the Intel Xeon D-series processors. Built for software-defined networking and the edge, the family of products is built for software-defined networks and the edge, integrates AI and cryptographic acceleration, built-in Ethernet, supports Intel time-orchestrated computing and time-sensitive networks, and delivers industrial-grade reliability to deliver a better overall experience for critical network and edge use cases and workloads.
As Nick McKeown, Senior Vice President and General Manager of Intel's Networking and Edge Business Unit, said, as the industry enters the era of software-defined everything, Intel is providing programmable platforms for networking and the edge to support industry transformation. Based on this, the Intel Xeon D-series processor came into being. Powered by proven and trusted Intel architecture, the processor is designed for a wide range of use cases and will unlock the potential for innovation in networking and at the edge. ”
Three characteristic blessings: to create a "handy" weapon
As 5G technology continues to mature, new applications and services emerge in an endless stream, requiring network architectures to keep pace with innovation. At the same time, the customer-side applications are gradually personalized and diversified, and the center of data processing is moving to the edge, requiring lower latency, higher bandwidth, stronger and more diverse connections, and higher security and data processing capabilities.
But moving compute, storage, and networking resources to the edge is not an easy task, requiring sufficient agility, flexibility, and scalability, which is Intel's goal and mission. "In networking and edge computing, Intel's mission is to provide customers, software developers, with the best and broadest programmable platform in the industry." Nick McKeown points out.
The best carrier for this platform is the new Intel Xeon D-series processor. As the first SoC chip specifically designed for networking and the edge, the Intel Xeon D-Series processor is a balanced system for edge computing needs, with scalability, high integration, and suitability for complex scenarios, providing energy savings while maximizing compute, memory, and IO performance and optimal latency in complex and varied application scenarios and workloads.
In terms of scalability, the new Intel Xeon D-Series processors support up to 4 channels of DDR4 memory at 3200Hz, Ethernet throughput of up to 100GbE, and up to 32/64 4.0 PCIe channels. The D-1700 can be scaled from 4 to 10 cores, and the D-2700 can be scaled from 4 to 20.
In terms of integration, intel xeon D-series processors integrate Ethernet, QuickAssist technology, Intel Software Guard Extensions technology, and AI acceleration capabilities brought by the AVX-512 instruction set to enable easy support for a variety of needs.
In terms of suitability for complex scenarios, Intel Xeon D-Series processors can support expansion temperatures as low as minus 40 degrees in an integrated SoC package, making them ideal for compact designs in indoor, outdoor, and complex environments.
Zhuang Binghan, vice president of Intel's sales and marketing department and general manager of customer sales for Asia Pacific operators, pointed out in an interview that Intel Xeon D-series processors have greatly enriched Intel's product system in the network and edge infrastructure markets, and for different production environments and workloads, users and developers can always find the most handy "weapons" in Intel's product map. "The closer you get to the edge, the higher the power and cost requirements of end users and developers; 'hyperconverged' products like Intel Xeon D-series processors will lead to a better experience and even become the first choice for all-in-ones."
"No will": Unlock the potential of network and edge commerce
As the first SoC product built from scratch for the edge, intel Xeon D-series processors are "not going to do" in terms of performance.
Intel Xeon D-Series processors deliver up to 2.4x better visual processing inference performance than the previous generation; network communication performance up to 1.74x for network workloads such as 5G UPF at the edge; up to 1.5x performance for SD-WAN, SASE, and edge use cases with IPSec; up to 1.8x performance for application delivery controller and security device use cases with TLS; and up to 1.56x performance for communications devices.
Among the many characteristics, Zhuang Binghan particularly emphasized AI capabilities. Zhuang Binghan pointed out that in the network and edge computing scenarios, the main application of AI capabilities is concentrated in the reasoning part, and the AI engine of intel Xeon D series processors is seamlessly combined with the x86 architecture, superimposed on its own low power consumption and high integration advantages, which can quickly and efficiently perform inference and other computing power calculations.
Taking the application of small cell stations as an example, it involves complex vector computation and matrix computation scenarios, which requires the call of vector computing power on the CPU. "This is also the original intention of Intel to retain and emphasize consistent AI capabilities in low-power products." What's more, Intel Xeon D-series processors use the same interface as Xeon Scalable, which allows customers to take full advantage of today's software investments and development resources, perform rapid reuse and migration, and reduce duplicate investments.
On Rakuten Mobile, it features the new Intel Xeon D-series processors that meet Symware design specifications while achieving optimal performance. Symware is a compact, lightweight, self-cooling, weatherproof containerized RAN solution developed by Rakuten Mobile in collaboration with Intel and Juniper Networks, ideal for the world's most densely populated urban environments, such as Tokyo, which has demonstrated the power of vRAN through intel technology.
Openness as the foundation: empowering industry innovation and enriching the industrial ecology
The powerful and balanced hardware performance of Intel Xeon D-Series processors is just the tip of the iceberg of Intel's competitiveness in the networking and edge markets, and a competitive product portfolio and premier ecosystem are equally important.
Zhuang Binghan pointed out that Intel is not just a CPU company, but an XPU+ software + ecosystem company, which provides customers with overall value. "Intel can provide heterogeneous, high-performance solutions for different workloads. Intel can provide highly integrated solutions like Intel Xeon D when workloads are fairly simple, or heterogeneous computing power such as CPUs, GPUs, FPGAs, IPUs, etc. when the complexity of the load increases or when customers want more differentiation. At the same time, Intel has also introduced a unified, simplified programming model oneAPI software platform to simplify application development across different computing architectures; to achieve a one-time development everywhere deployment! ”
At the software level, Intel also introduced a new version of the Intel distribution of the OpenVINO toolkit on the eve of MWC. The release is based on feedback from developers over the past three and a half years and includes more choices of deep learning models, more choices of device portability, and higher inference performance and fewer code changes.
Zhuang Binghan said that Intel's vision in the network and edge infrastructure field is to open software so that it can run on programmable hardware, and partners can do a variety of different innovations and customizations. Taking communication network equipment as an example, it has become an industry consensus to promote network cloudification in the form of NFV. "Intel's platform is not to limit innovation, but to empower more innovation, to enrich the entire industry ecosystem, so that more partners can participate in network business innovation at a lower cost." When there are more players in the industry, there will be more competition and differentiation, and the pace of innovation will not stop. ”