At MWC (Mobile World Congress) 2021, Intel introduced Intel Network Platform, as well as new additions to its product range for 5G and edge, reaffirming its position as the leading network silicon provider.

The Intel Network Platform is a technology foundation that enables customers and partners to take advantage of Intel hardware features from core to access to edge, while reducing development complexity and speeding time to market.

It contains system-level reference architectures, drivers, and software building blocks that allow for the rapid creation and delivery of Intel-powered network solutions, making network software development and optimization easier and faster.

"Network transformation is crucial to unlock the possibilities of 5G and maximize the emergence of the edge to create new and better business results for our customers around the world”, says Dan Rodriguez, Vice President, Network Platforms Group, Intel.

The company verified its supremacy in the virtual radio access network (vRAN), adding that Intel technology is used in nearly all commercial vRAN deployments.

Intel believes that by 2025, it will be able to tap into a $65 billion edge silicon opportunity as its broad array of feature-rich silicon and optimized software solutions.

Over 35,000 end customer edge deployments now use Intel technology, according to the company.

Whether customers wish to buy a commercial solution or create their own, the Intel Smart Edge comprises two software packages for the multi-access edge computing layer that will now have a uniform design and codebase to enable them onboard and manage edge apps and network activities.

It's a commercial program designed for on-premise enterprise use cases like private networks and universal Customer Premise Equipment.

A new Intel Agilex FPGA with inbuilt cryptography acceleration that can support MACSec in 5G applications has been added to the Intel Agilex FPGA family.

According to the business, this adds an additional layer of security to vRAN at the fronthaul, midhaul, and backhaul levels.

"With our decade of experience as the top network silicon provider, we have been pushing this move from virtualizing the core to access to the edge and developing edge computing capabilities to enable our society's digital transformation”, Rodriguez continued.

During Intel's keynote address at the 2021 virtual Computex, the firm announced two new 11th Gen U-series CPUs, the Core i7-1195G7 and Core i5-1155G7, as well as a 5G M.2 module.

Both chips are equipped with the company's Iris Xe graphics and can be used in slim and light notebooks. With a basic clock speed of 2.9GHz, Intel touts the Core i7-1195G7 as its top model. Using Intel's Turbo Boost Max 3.0 technology, the model is reported to reach 5.0 GHz on a single core.

The other chip, the Core i5-1155G7, has a base clock of 2.5 GHz and a maximum speed of 4.5 GHz. Another feature is that they both have four cores and eight threads.