AMD today demonstrated the first network function virtualization (NFV) solution on AMD's 64-bit ARM-based SoC codenamed "Hierofalcon," which is now sampling to AMD's embedded customers. The NFV demonstration is powered by a 64-bit ARM-based AMD Embedded R-Series SoC supported with technology from Aricent and Mentor Graphics, which offer the networking software stack and embedded Linux, respectively.

NFV is a solution that simplifies deployment and management for network and telecommunications service providers with a virtualized communications infrastructure.

At ARM TechCon, AMD specifically showcased the capabilities of an ARM-based NFV solution, virtualizing the functionality of a packet data network gateway, serving gateway, and a mobility management entity. In addition to virtualizing hardware components, AMD showcased a live traffic migration between the ARM-based AMD Embedded R-Series SoC and the x86-based second generation AMD R-Series APU. AMD's ARM-based NFV solution could be used by telecommunications network infrastructure providers interested in a flexible software-defined networking (SDN) implementation to manage networking services with configurable hardware to help reduce complexity and cost. NFV is the abstraction of numerous network devices such as routers and gateways, to enable relocation of network functions from dedicated hardware appliances to generic servers. With NFV, much of the intelligence currently built into proprietary, specialized hardware is accomplished with software running on general purpose hardware. The resulting solution is a fully virtualized communications infrastructure -- including virtual servers, storage and networks -- that simplifies deployment and management for network and telecommunications service providers.

AMD demonstrated an embedded Linux-based virtual NFV solution that showed a mobile packet core network running subscriber calls from simulated Evolved Node B (eNodeB) user equipment such as a cell phone or tablet with Serving Gateway (SGW), Packet Data Network Gateway (PGW), and Mobility Management Entity (MME) control and data plane functions hosted on the AMD Embedded R-Series platform. The demo also included a prototype version of the Mentor Embedded Linux development platform and Sourcery CodeBench tools. As part of this solution, AMD has also enabled the first OpenDataPlane (ODP) demonstration with Evolved Packet Core applications on a 64-bit ARM processor in addition to Data Plane Development Kit (DPDK) on the AMD x86 processor and OpenStack to create the basis for an AMD NFV reference solution.

The AMD Embedded R-Series SoC is the first 64-bit ARM Cortex-A57-based platform from AMD targeting embedded data center applications, communications infrastructure and industrial solutions. It includes up to eight ARM Cortex-A57 CPUs and provides high-performance memory with two 64-bit DDR3/4 channels with error correction code (ECC). The integrated SoC includes 10Gb KR Ethernet and PCI-Express Gen 3 for high-speed network connectivity. The AMD Embedded R-Series SoC also provides enhanced security capability with support for ARM TrustZone technology and a dedicated cryptographic security co-processor. The AMD Embedded R-Series SoC is expected to ship in the first half of 2015.