Ericsson has announced its partnership with Intel for the production of 5G System-on-Chips (SoCs) using Intel's 18A process. Fredrik Jejdling, executive vice president and head of Networks at Ericsson, expressed excitement about expanding their collaboration with Intel, stating, "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." Jejdling also emphasized their commitment to accelerating industry-scale open RAN by leveraging standard Intel Xeon-based platforms.
Intel has revealed that its 18A process is expected to be "manufacturing ready" in the second half of 2024. The company believes that this process will position them as leaders in the industry by 2025, enhancing the offerings of their customers in the market. Sachin Katti, Senior Vice President at Intel, described the partnership with Ericsson as a significant milestone and emphasized their broad collaboration in developing next-generation optimized 5G infrastructure.