HILLSBORO, Ore. — With the large number of network-processor startups preparing packet-parsing architectures for summer sampling, Intel Corp.'s network-products division and Texas Instruments Inc.'s enterprise network business unit want to be sure they have development environments in place for their own network-processor offerings.
Intel offered hints this week on the functions it will seek to cover in a future generation of network processors serving aggregation-router and broadband switch markets.
TI, meanwhile, disclosed partners and development tools for its "Digital Thunder" program, first announced last fall, in which packet switching is linked to the TMS320C6000 architecture to recruit DSP in packet-analysis tasks. Some partners, such as Wind River Systems Inc. and Telogy Networks Inc., were no surprise. But TI said it also plans to work with Sun Microsystems Inc. on Jini distributed-network applications and with Novell Inc. on embedded support for Novell Directory Services, used in high-level policy-management schemes.
For Intel, the move into network-specific processors repeats an earlier success the i960 RISC architecture had in first-generation LAN-switching control architectures. Doug Carrigan, product-marketing engineer in Intel's network-products group (Hillsboro, Ore.), said Intel now sees three separate network-processor 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; and an application processor function for specialized duties such as quality-of-service (QoS) bit assignment and virtual-private-network tunnel creation.
Broad approach
Intel will develop processors and a development environment that will cover all three areas, Carrigan said, though not necessarily with a single processing architecture. Intel's target is the real-time networking area of large carrier-class routers and switches, he said. That means a future networking architecture will be separate from the Pentium/IA-64 host architectures for desktops and servers, though it may leverage other internal cores like StrongARM.
Intel last month made an offer to acquire Level One Communications Inc. (Sacramento, Calif.), a mixed-signal data-communications specialist. Level One earlier acquired Acclaim Communications Inc. (Santa Clara, Calif.), a company with Layer 3 packet-analysis talents, and Jato Technologies Inc. (Austin, Texas), Gigabit Ethernet specialist with expertise in packet-bursting over the PCI bus. Carrigan noted that Intel began planning the network-processor group before the Level One offer was made. While Intel would examine carefully any talents Level One might bring, he said, the bulk of the Jato and Acclaim technologies are aimed at enterprise applications. Intel will target its network-processor business at large carrier-class OEMs, because Intel itself sells system-level products into enterprise LAN-switching and small-business WAN-access markets.
Intel will offer a development environment that will provide OEMs with high-level modules for adding such functions as QoS differentiated service and voice-over-Internet Protocol packet processing, though the company will allow enough programming flexibility to place most service-provisioning differentiated feature sets in the hands of OEMs designing router and switch systems.
That is also the stated goal of TI's Digital Thunder development program, which will leverage existing DSP development tools for the C6000, such as the Code Composer Studio. Mike Hogan, general manager of the enterprise-network business unit of TI (Dallas), said that the tools developed for the C6000 family will jump-start TI in the network-processing space, though they will be augmented with middleware that is appropriate for networking.
TI is targeting small-office/home-office and residential applications, such as gateways, but communications marketing manager Gary Reichmuth said the C6000 is also ideal for multichannel backbone router and switch apps.
TI has a broad packet- and cell-switching architecture family in its ThunderCell and ThunderSwitch lines, but Hogan said that the use of Digital Thunder does not assume the use of TI switching architectures. The company looked at hardwired adjuncts for the C6000, similar to the traffic-management chips TI developed for ATM, but learned that customers are asking for the maximum amount of programmability possible.
In addition to Telogy, Wind River, Sun Microsystems and Novell, RAD Data Communications Inc. will serve as a software third-party partner for the Digital Thunder program. The company is shipping comprehensive software-development kits for Digital Thunder this month priced at $10,000.
