Above: SolidRun’s ClearFog Mini ITX platform designed for the COM Express type 7 form factor

The race for 5G sends many companies back to the labs, in order to reshape their offer and adapt their products to a new level of performance. SolidRun and Virtium have just joined the race and announced a collaboration to provide building blocks for the network edge in the age of 5G. The joint effort is focused on existing products: The two companies are working together to combine SolidRun’s CEx7 16-core LX2160A Computer-on-Module and ClearFog CX LX2K network computing platform, with Virtium’s StorFly M.2 SATA SSDs, DDR4 modules and StorKit SSD software.

They plan to provide edge-computing solutions that capable of handling the speed, connectivity and data security across 5G networks. “We saw an opportunity to create a variety of solutions ranging from computer on modules and carrier boards to rack-mount Arm servers that will expedite the proliferation of 5G across the entire ecosystem,” explained Atai Ziv, CEO at SolidRun. “Virtium ensures that our systems are paired with storage solutions that won’t bottleneck data processing speeds or compromise data security.”

190 million 5G subscriptions by the end of 2020

Poised to deliver as much as a 2,000-percent increase in network speed and support for up to 10-times more device connections than 4G, while reducing total network power consumption, 5G is expected to bring the Internet of Things (IoT) to new levels. According to a recent Ericsson Mobility Report, 190 million 5G subscriptions are expected by the end of 2020 and forecasted to grow to 2.8 billion in 2025, representing approximately 30% of total mobile subscriptions.

To design the systems needed to proliferate 5G across the entire ecosystem, hardware solutions must be optimized for reliable transfer of data at incredibly fast rates and be protected against data loss from power failure, while offer a new level of security. The two companies plan to provide both indoor and outdoor edge computing applications

Established in 2010 and based in Yokneam, Israel, SolidRun provides System on Modules (SOMs), Single Board Computers (SBCs), Industrial PCs, Edge Devices and Embedded Systems based on ARM and x86 architecture.  Among its customers: Beoing, Google, Ericsson, Dell, Sony and more.