Product category:
Communications ICs (Wired)
News Release from: EZchip Technologies | Subject: NP-4
Edited by the Electronicstalk Editorial
Team on 04 June 2007
Processor promises all line-card
functions in one
Network processor aims to offer system vendors a significant cost reduction by integrating all the key components of their line card into a single chip.
EZchip Technologies has outlined details of its NP-4 network processor, which is being designed in a 65nm silicon process and is scheduled to sample in 2008 The NP-4 will offer system vendors a significant cost reduction by integrating all the key components of their line card into a single chip
This article was originally published on Electronicstalk on 12 Oct 2007 at 8.00am (UK)
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Highlights of the device include: 100Gbit/s throughput for building 20, 40 and 100Gbit/s line cards for carrier Ethernet switches and routers (CESR); integrated traffic management providing granular bandwidth control to enable the delivery of triple-play services in Ethernet networks; integrated 100, 10 and 1Gbit/s Ethernet serial ports; integrated fabric interface chip (FIC) for direct connection to Ethernet switches that are used as switch fabrics while providing system-wide quality of service (QoS); the use of external memory chips based on low-cost and low-power DRAM technology; operations, administration and management (OAM) processing offload; and software compatibility with company's existing NP-2 and NP-3 network processors.
The NP-4 enables the building of next generation CESR equipment through groundbreaking levels of integration and functionality.
It provides a total of 100Gbit/s throughput and features a 100Gbit/s port, eight 10Gbit/s ports and 24 x 1Gbit/s Ethernet ports.
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Integrated hierarchical traffic management assigns individual flows with specific quality of service (QoS) and enforces service level agreements (SLA) for applications, services and users.
The NP-4 enables direct connection from the line card to Ethernet-based switching fabric through a unique integration of the functionality typically provided by a separate fabric interface chip.
It provides control over traffic arbitration and scheduling from all the line cards in the system across the switch fabric, to provide end-to-end system-wide QoS.
This allows system vendors to utilise low-cost Ethernet switches as their fabric solution and eliminate the fabric interface chip from their line cards.
The result is significant reduction in line card and overall system cost.
Other (nonEthernet-based) switch fabrics with proprietary interfaces from leading vendors are supported as well.
The NP-4 is also designed to use external memory chips based on low cost and power DRAM technology to further reduce the overall solution's cost and power.
EZchip provides network processors to the fast growing carrier Ethernet market and in particular for building CESR equipment, a market segment that is forecasted by Infonetics Research to grow from US $5 billion in 2006 to $9 billion in 2010.
The NP-4's flexibility, integration and port diversity make it ideal for building a variety of line cards for CESR including line cards with 24 or 48 gigabit ports; two, four or eight 10 gigabit ports; or one 100 gigabit port.
"Through NP-2's and NP-3's processing flexibility and integration EZchip has attained a leadership position in the market for high-speed network processors and can claim the major Tier-1 Carrier Ethernet Switches and Routers (CESR) vendors as its customers", says Eli Fruchter, President and CEO of EZchip Technologies.
"In NP-4 we will provide higher throughput and port-density, integration of key line card elements in a single chip, and direct connection to Ethernet switch fabrics".
"This combination brings Enterprise per-port price points to the Carrier Ethernet market in a fully programmable chip".
"It allows us to offer a compelling solution for applications ranging from the high-end fully featured CESR platforms to the simplest, most cost-sensitive applications".
"With broad support building for 100Gbit/s Ethernet, EZchip has wisely decided to skip the intermediate 40Gbit/s performance point", says Bob Wheeler, Senior Analyst at The Linley Group.
"By targeting 100Gbit/s of throughput, the NP-4 should also be an attractive single-chip solution for high-density GbE and 10GbE line cards".
The NP-4 is software compatible with EZchip's NP-2 and NP-3 processors and boasts all of their features, and in particular the extensive processing flexibility and the integrated hierarchical traffic management especially tuned for delivering triple-play services.
The NP-4 also features dedicated hardware for OAM processing offload.
OAM (operations, administration and maintenance) is a set of specifications that provide the cornerstone for reliability and high availability in carrier Ethernet networks.
OAM processing however burdens CESR equipment with significant processing overhead related to complex packet classification, simultaneous monitoring of many sessions and accurate bandwidth control.
The NP-4, through its processing flexibility, integrated traffic management and OAM support hardware, enables high-performance OAM processing that can adapt to changing standards and requirements.
Through programming the NP-4 delivers a variety of applications such as L2 switching, Q-in-Q, PBT, VPLS, MPLS and IPv4/IPv6 routing.
NP-4's exceptionally flexible packet processing enables system designers to future proof their designs to support new protocols and features through software updates.
Packet parsing is supported for any field anywhere in the packet.
Various table lookup options are provided with support for long lookup keys and results.
Flows are classified based on any combination of extracted packet information.
Any packet header and content can be edited and packets can easily be replicated to support multicast applications".
"A "run to completion" processing model guarantees support for processing scenarios of any complexity.
Large code space is provided to support complex applications as well as true hitless code updates.
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