Rather than using gear primarily from telecommunications-specific firms such as Nokia, Ericsson or Huawei Technologies Cos, carriers are shifting toward using software to handle more network functions and tapping the same kind of standard computing equipment used in data centers to run the networks.
Intel, which has lost its core data center and personal computing markets after years of manufacturing troubles with networking chip business working in its favour, has made chips an increasingly important part of its business, growing 20% in 2020 to account for $6 billion of its $77.9 billion in overall sales.
Dan Rodriguez, general manager of Intel's network platforms group, meanwhile, said that part of that growth has come from Intel's decision nearly a decade ago to invest in software akin to an operating system for its network chips. The system, called FlexRAN, lets carriers or software firms write code for 5G networks.
