Ericsson and Intel have announced a strategic collaboration to utilize Intel’s 18A process and manufacturing technology for Ericsson’s future next-generation optimized 5G infrastructure.

As part of the agreement, Intel will manufacture custom 5G SoCs (system-on-chip) for Ericsson to create highly differentiated leadership products for future 5G infrastructure. Additionally, Ericsson and Intel will expand their collaboration to optimize 4th Gen Intel® Xeon® Scalable processors with Intel® vRAN Boost for Ericsson’s Cloud RAN (radio access network) solutions to help communications service providers increase network capacity and energy efficiency while gaining greater flexibility and scalability.

“Ericsson has a long history of close collaboration with Intel, and we are pleased to expand this further as we utilize Intel to manufacture our future custom 5G SoCs on their 18A process node, which is in line with Ericsson’s long-term strategy for a more resilient and sustainable supply chain,” said Fredrik Jejdling, Executive Vice President and Head of Networks, Ericsson. “In addition, we will be expanding our collaboration that we announced at MWC 2023 to work together with the ecosystem to accelerate industry-scale open RAN utilizing standard Intel Xeon-based platforms.”

“As our work together evolves, this is a significant milestone with Ericsson to partner broadly on their next-generation optimized 5G infrastructure. This agreement exemplifies our shared vision to innovate and transform network connectivity, and it reinforces the growing customer confidence in our process and manufacturing technology,” said Sachin Katti, Senior Vice President and General Manager of the Network and Edge group, Intel. “We look forward to working together with Ericsson, an industry leader, to build networks that are open, reliable and ready for the future.”

In Intel’s roadmap, 18A is their most advanced node among five nodes in four years. After introducing RibbonFET and PowerVia in Intel 20A, they will bring ribbon architecture innovation and improved performance to 18A. These technologies will help Intel reclaim leadership position by 2025 and enhance the future offerings for their customers.

The future is open and scalable

As 5G deployments continue, the future lies in fully programmable, open software-defined networks powered by the same cloud-native technologies that transformed the data center, delivering unparalleled agility and automation.

To realize the best performance, innovation and global scale, the industry needs to work together and continue to synchronize network specifications as part of one global set of standards. Intel and Ericsson collaborate with other leading technology companies to bring these benefits to their customers toward industry-scale open RAN.