The Latest Xeon D Outing Brings More Performance to the Edge

Intel has launched two lines of Xeon D processors ahead of Mobile World Congress (MWC) in Barcelona, designed specifically for the requirements of software-defined networks and edge computing.

This is the first refresh for the Xeon D line since the second quarter of 2019.

The D-1700 and the D-2700 are built on Sunny Cove Core architecture and feature integrated AI and cryptography acceleration, hardware-based security capabilities, and built-in Ethernet.

Potential use cases for these chips include security appliances, enterprise routers and switches, network-attached storage, wireless networks, and edge servers.

“Intel, along with its partner ecosystem, is working with communications service providers, cloud service providers, telecom equipment manufacturers, and network equipment providers alike, helping them prepare for edge demands—and capture market opportunity,” Jennifer Panhorst, VP and GM of Intel’s Network and Edge Platforms Division, said in a blog post.

Tenacious D

The new D-1700 chips feature between 4 and 10 cores and up to 32 PCIe 4.0 lanes, with 20 different SKUs on offer.

The more powerful D-2700 family offers between 4 and 20 cores and 64 PCIe lanes, across 16 different SKUs.

Both support four-channel DDR4 clocked up to 3200 Hz, 100Gb Ethernet, and are delivered as BGA packages.

Related:Intel’s Unsold Processors Are Piling Up

In Intel’s own benchmarks, the chips delivered major generation-over-generation improvements in visual processing inference (up to 2.4 times), complex networking workloads like 5G UPF (up to 1.7 times), and general communication appliance workloads (up to 1.56 times).

Intel said more than 70 technology companies were working on designs that utilize the latest Xeon D versions, including Cisco, Juniper Networks, and Rakuten Symphony – the Open RAN-focused telecommunications vendor that was spun out of Japanese online commerce giant Rakuten in 2021.

Symphony collaborated with Intel and Juniper to create Symware, a Xeon D-powered, fanless, weatherproof, modular RAN box, which is being offered as a service to telecommunications and IT companies – enabling many more organizations to easily build their own 4G or 5G networks.

“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. The new Intel Xeon D processor is built for this,” Dan Rodriguez, Intel corporate VP for Network and Edge Group and GM of the Network Platforms Group, said in a statement.