This year has seen Intel putting together a heavyweight portfolio of chips and associated services to support 5G, as it plays for a significant role in the next generation of mobile networks. Its latest step is to combine its FPGAs (field programmable gate array) chips, which are commonly used as accelerators for RAN functions that are not easily supported by standard cloud processors, with RF technology from Analog Devices (ADI). This combination, together with developer tools, will be targeted at designers of 5G radio units within a virtualized RAN environment. This sees Intel extending its reach beyond its natural comfort zone of processors for cloud infrastructure, and right to the edge of the 5G network, where very specialized chips will…