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Industrial Technology Research Institute

Computer & Communication Research Laboratories

Network Processor

Programmable semiconductor devices for network oriented processing and switching Helps new technologies get to market faster Attempts to do for networking what WinTel did for PC A business projected to grow to more than $600 million by 2002, according to Dataquest

Good

Poor

GoodPoor

Price/Performance

Flexibility,Time toMarket

GeneralPurpose

Processor

GeneralPurpose

Processor

Expensive, slow

High performanceLow cost

Highly flexibleFast time-to-market

CustomASICs

CustomASICs

NetworkProcessor

NetworkProcessor

Large R&D expensesShort market window

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Industrial Technology Research Institute

Computer & Communication Research Laboratories

Network Processors Markets

A high-layer packet-analysis and forwarding function currently served by ASICs

A control function for handling multiple routing and switching channels, usually served by a RISC device such as the 960 or StrongARM

An application processor function for specialized duties such as quality-of-service (QoS) bit assignment and virtual-private-network tunnel creation.

In some cases, the network processor offloads critical instructions from the host processor in a system, thereby improving throughput. In other cases, these new processors can replace the host CPU.

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Industrial Technology Research Institute

Computer & Communication Research Laboratories

Network Processors can do -- in hardware at wire-speed

Routing (L3 switching, L4 switching, MPLS, multi-layer switching, etc.)Multi-protocol support for LAN and WAN integrationBandwidth shaping to create CoS and optimize expensive WAN bandwidthSetting of precedence bits to map CoS into the InternetSophisticated QoS support to help provide reliable Voice over IP transmissionHigh-speed evaluation of QoS tags to help enhance Policy Based Network Ma

nagementPer flow queuing and weighted fair queuing IP multicast for scalable push and multimediaMix and convert frames to cellsNetwork address translation for network security and simplified IP addressing IP accounting for network design and billing IP tunneling to create Internet VPNs

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Industrial Technology Research Institute

Computer & Communication Research Laboratories

Packet Processing Venders

MMC Networks Intel : based-on i960 RISC architecture (Acquire Level One, Acclaim, and Jato) TI : Digital Thunder (based -on TMS320C6000 architecture, VoIP) LSI Logic Mips Tecnnologies, Inc. : R3000, R4000, R5000 Motorola : MPC850 C-Port Corp. : “The Communications Platform Company” Softcom Microsystems, Inc. Maker Communications Sitera, Inc. T.sqware, Inc. : Edge Processor XaQti Agere, Inc. : “Smart Processing for Terabit Networks”, Fast Pattern Processor Silicon Spice Maverick Networks (Acquired by Broadcom) QuickSilver Technology : DSP-intensive Software Radio