Ahead of this week’s Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Intel launched its latest Xeon processors built for networking and edge applications.

The Xeon D-2700 and the D-1700 processors are systems-on-chip (SoCs) built for the software-defined network and edge, with integrated AI and crypto acceleration, built-in Ethernet, and support for time coordinated computing and time sensitive networking.

They can extend compute with acceleration beyond the core data centre, generating a better overall experience for key network and edge usages and workloads.

“As the industry enters a world of software-defined everything, Intel is delivering programmable platforms for networking and the edge to enable one of the most significant transformations our industry has ever seen,” said Dan Rodriguez, Intel corporate vice president. “The new Intel Xeon D processor is built for this. Based on the proven and trusted Intel architecture, this processor is designed for a range of use cases to unleash innovation across the network and edge.”

The growing opportunity for network and edge infrastructure is set to reach $77bn by 2026, and most data are expected to be created and processed outside of traditional data centres by 2025. Anticipating these trends, the Xeon D processors include capabilities to meet the workload requirements of the software-defined network and edge.

Built to handle use cases such as security appliances, enterprise routers and switches, cloud storage, wireless networks, AI inferencing, and edge servers, they deliver performance assisted by integrated Ethernet, QuickAssist technology, software guard extensions and AI acceleration with Intel’s AVX-512.

Rakuten Mobile deployed the world’s first open, fully virtualised cloud native infrastructure in Japan to deliver a reliable, flexible, scalable, secure and resilient mobile network for its partners and end users. It has incorporated a Xeon D processor to improve performance while meeting its specifications to design Symware, a compact, lightweight, self-cooling and weatherproof, containerised RAN, working in collaboration with Intel and Juniper. This is for dense urban environments and, in this case, Tokyo, demonstrating the power of vRAN, built on Intel technology.

The processors feature industrial-class reliability, multiple hardware-based security capabilities and up to 56 high-speed PCIe lanes to support high-bandwidth networks with up to 100Gbit Ethernet. The D-1700 is scalable from four to ten cores and the D-2700 from four to twenty cores.

Features include up to four-channel DDR4 with 3200MT/s, up to 100Gbit Ethernet throughput capability, and up to 32or 64 4.0 PCIe lanes.

Built on Sunny Cove core architecture, the processors have an improved front end, with a higher capacity and improved branch predictor. They have a wider and deeper machine sustained by a wider allocation, larger structures and execution resources. There are enhancements in transition line buffers, single-thread execution and prefetching.

Data centre-optimised capabilities include a larger mid-level cache (l2) and a higher vector throughout.

Generation-over-generation performance increases include up to 2.4 times improvement for visual processing inference, up to 1.7 times improvement for complex networking workloads such as 5G UPF at the network edge, up to 1.5 times improvement for SD-WAN, SASE and edge use cases with IPSec, up to 1.8 times improvement for application delivery controller and security appliance use cases with TLS, and up to 1.56 times improvements for communication appliances.

Intel’s network and edge technology supports numerous industry use cases, including in factories, smart cities and hospitals as they process compute closer to where the data are generated. More than 70 technology companies are working with Intel on designs that use the latest Xeon D processors, including Cisco, Juniper Networks and Rakuten Symphony.