Product category:
Communications ICs (Wired)
News Release from: Iris Technologies | Subject: NPU 3M network processor
Edited by the Electronicstalk Editorial
Team on 09 July 2003
Network processor joins TI programme
Iris Technologies has developed its first communications semiconductor product, the Iris network processor, and has added this offering to the Texas Instruments third party programme.
Iris Technologies has developed its first communications semiconductor product, the Iris network processor, and has added this offering to the Texas Instruments third party programme Ideal for packet processing, the network processor leverages TI's TMS320 DSPs to offer designers of communication systems and subsystems a unique combination of performance and power efficiency by incorporating fully customised RISC cores optimised for fast lookups and efficient traffic shaping with a highly optimised instruction set for network processing
This article was originally published on Electronicstalk on 21 Aug 2003 at 8.00am (UK)
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Iris Technologies first joined TI's third party programme in February 2003 with the introduction of a single board process controller (IrisPCC) that is built around TI's TMS320C2407 processor.
The NPU 3M network processor is the newest addition to Iris' network processing unit (NPU) family known for its protocol-independent, scalable processors.
The network processor is offered in two versions, IrisNPU3M-AE and IrisNPU3M-SS, for use with Texas Instruments TMS320 DSPs for development of media gateways, access points, hubs and routers.
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Both versions have a common core, consisting of five 32bit RISC engines.
"By extending the inherent advantages of this family and offering features such as a low pin count, extremely low power dissipation and frequency of operation, the network processor provides designers of subsystems and systems in communications with the capabilities they need to develop next generation communication applications", said Praveen Buddhireddy, Systems Manager, Iris Technologies.
In a typical network processor the power dissipation is about 12W, which equals about 10% of total power dissipation in a gigabit line card.
The high rate of power consumption can lead to problems like large power consumption on line cards, EMI and thermal problems that complicate the mechanical design of the chassis, spacing of the individual line cards and the cooling requirements.
The Iris network processor with low power dissipation (2W) has an edge on power, performance and cost metrics.
Low pin counts lead to easier PCB layout as well cheaper PCB manufacturing costs.
The RISC-based multiprocessors of the NPU family and the programmability of the TI TMS320 DSPs offer a cost-effective, reconfigurable and upgradable platform for communications applications.
All signal processing required on the channel as well as the additional processing such as layer 1 and layer 2 protocol implementation can be taken care of by TI DSP solutions, and the packet processing and forwarding functions can be offloaded onto the Iris NPU.
The NPU is designed for developing cost effective DSP-based communications platforms that have multiple applications.
Iris also provides design solutions using this product and Texas Instruments TMS320 DSPs for communications applications.
For instance, the network processor can be used for both wireline and wireless products in conjunction with TI's DSPs where higher layer forwarding and packet processing is required.
"TI and Iris Technologies share a common goal of providing designers with the best tools possible to build innovative communication products", said Cathy Wicks, Third Party Marketing Manager, TI.
"Designers can now develop not just the physical layer processing blocks, such as modulation, encoding and other baseband processing interface using the TI DSPs, but can also use this product to offer customers complete solutions with both line/air interfaces and trunk side packet interfaces".
The processor provides a guaranteed forwarding rate of 3 million packets per second and supports both CSIX and PCI interfaces, enabling it to be used in gigabit line cards, or in access routers that require peer-to-peer communication and routing functions.
Peer-to-peer communication requires higher layer forwarding and routing capability for content switching.
Packet classification and filtering is provided to support QoS and security.
Support for 2D and 3D classification is also available.
Iris provides full custom solutions including firmware and algorithm development for OEM customers.
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