Intel 4 Process Node Powers Ericsson New “AI and 5G Advanced ” RAN Compute Chips

Ericsson Networks has announced an "enhanced portfolio" for RAN Compute, which is powered by Intel's 4 process node technology.

For those unaware, Ericsson Networks is widely known for facilitating communication service providers (CSPs) for the advancements in radio access technology. The upgrades made in the RAN Compute lineup are specifically targeted toward the rapidly growing mobile traffic, as it is said to grow by 3 times globally till 2028. Moreover, since the adoption of 5G as the standard is also increasing simultaneously, the need for "power" to actually cater to such an audience is now becoming a need, which is why Ericsson's new RAN Compute products could prove to be quite beneficial.

Our new and enhanced RAN Compute portfolio was designed with Ericsson’s customers and their future needs in mind. It both addresses their need to maximize spectrum utilization and facilitates their desire to future-proof their networks with support for Open RAN architectures.

-Michael Begley, Head of RAN Compute, Ericsson,

Moving on to the crux, Ericsson has released a total of four different products that intend to "maximize RAN compute capabilities with optimized performance for the least hardware and energy footprint". These include the indoor (RAN Processor 6672 & RAN Processor 6655) and outdoor (Radio Processor 6372 & Radio Processor 6355), targeted at different applications. The interesting part about the new Ericsson silicon is the utilization of the Intel 4 process, and the images shared by Ericsson of their new silicon actually point towards the fact that the magic of IFS was used here.

The intriguing element about Intel 4 is that it hadn't seen the industry's adoption until now, and only Team Blue's upcoming Meteor Lake CPU lineup was expected to utilize it, but it looks like the process is going to make great strides at custom ASIC networking. Ericsson RAN Processor 6672 and Radio Processor 6372 will now offer four times more capacity and are two times more energy efficient compared to the previous generation, supporting both 4G and 5G modes in a single package. Moreover, the new RAN compute products consume 30 to 60 percent less power compared to industry benchmarks.

Ericsson's new RAN Processor and Radio Processors are expected to take the dynamics of global networking to a new height, and the integration of the Intel 4 process is definitely a step in the right direction.

News Source: Ericsson