AMD has had a low profile in the 5G networks market to date, though as networks start to be virtualized, we could assume it will start to challenge Intel in the data centers that are optimized to support the vRAN’s centralized units (CU), and even the edge nodes that will support the distributed units (DUs). However, the acquisition of Xilinx, the largest maker of field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs), has catapulted AMD into a far more prominent position in the emerging 5G vRAN space, since Xilinx has taken a leading position in the radio unit (RU) end of the 5G RAN, while also developing FPGA-based accelerators that can offload intensive tasks such as beamforming from the central processor in a…