Intel Tofino

2023: Discontinuation of Development

At the end of January 2023, it became known that Intel had decided to curtail the development of the Tofino series of network processors. The reasons are sharply deteriorated financial indicators and a difficult macroeconomic situation.

Intel's network switch business is related to the 2019 purchase of Barefoot for an unnamed amount. The Tofino series of solutions has given Intel an additional tool to develop the data center product line. However, this division faced stiff competition from a number of serious players such as Broadcom, Cisco and Mellanox. Therefore, it was decided to put an end to the further development of the Tofino family in order to reduce costs.

Intel Tofino

Intel has invested in the network switch business with a long-term perspective. The corporation even demonstrated the integration of advanced photonic technologies with Tofino products. Intel also announced the development of Tofino 3 networking solutions. And now it became known that the division will be closed: how many employees are planned to be fired as part of this reorganization is not specified. But it says the corporation will continue to support its existing customers and products.

Intel also unexpectedly closed the Pathfinder for RISC-V program - without any public statements. This initiative, introduced in 2022, was a "show of goodwill" on the part of Intel towards the RISC-V community in order to form an ecosystem of customers for its Intel Foundry Services (IFS) division, which specializes in contract chip manufacturing. The Pathfinder for RISC-V program allowed using standard tools to design chips with the RISC-V architecture, and then implement them on the basis of FPGA. The initiative was supported by many major RISC-V companies, including RISC-V International.^[1]

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