Written by Scott Bicheno
US semiconductor giant Nvidia is keen to persuade telcos to use its chips in their networks but it still has a way to go.
The announcement of the first GPU (graphics processing unit) accelerated 5G network, run by NTT Docomo in Japan, has been positioned by Nvidia as a proof-point of this, but the supporting media and analyst call was thin on specifics. Everyone knows Nvidia’s GPU chips are really powerful, which is why they’re taking centre stage in the current AI boom and why anyone who bought Nvidia shares a year or so ago is currently feeling very smug.
What remains to be proven is the need for those chips in in a telecoms environment as opposed to, say, a datacentre or a gaming PC one. ‘Docomo’s move aims to address the multibillion dollar problem of driving improvements in performance, total cost of ownership and energy efficiency while unlocking the flexibility, scalability and supply chain diversity promise of Open RAN,’ says the accompanying Nvidia blog.
But many of the proof points offered by Docomo and its systems integrator partner Fujitsu on the call focused on the features and benefits of OREX, which is described as ‘an open RAN service brand by Docomo and multiplex global partners’. One that caught the eye is that OREX can lower the total cost of ownership of a RAN deployment by up to 30% but, again, while Nvidia is an OREX vendor, it wasn’t obvious to what extent energy-intensive GPUs contribute to the below benefits.
