100G Network Processors Start Ramping in November
Xelerated Xpress met with Anders Ericsson, VP of Sales and Marketing at Xelerated, for a chat on the state of the 100G NPU market. He explains how the technology pushes the communications industry to better optimized solutions.
Xpress: How does the 100G NPU technology contribute to the networking industry?
AE: This new generation NPUs is changing some fundamental economics for the design of Carrier Ethernet systems and how system vendors compete. First, we have the bandwidth factor. The next wave of Carrier Ethernet line cards and systems will deliver higher capacities and packet rates within the same power budget. Second, we get more processing and features. The integrated advanced traffic manager allows system vendors to build more capable systems with higher quality and more advanced services at radically reduced dollar per gigabit. Third, the shift in favor to merchant NPU enable system vendors to compete more with software and feature velocity rather than having to depend on internal ASIC projects.
Xpress: How can Xelerated compete with in-house packet processing silicon?
AE: We are gaining experience from so many more customers, markets, sources and stake holders than an internal development group can get. Our solutions are catered for a broader task and can be used in so many more systems and applications. In comparison, Xelerated network processors are more flexible and have a higher integration factor. They include advanced traffic management and buffering, many hardware engines and huge banks of embedded memories. As our technology applies to a broad set of applications, we pay attention to R&D economics such as time to market, and re-usability of investments in software.
Xpress: What attracts system vendors to use silicon from Xelerated?
AE: We provide three fundamental benefits that no other supplier can provide today.
- Determinism through the wirespeed architecture
- Highly efficient programmability, and
- Low power consumption
It is the combination of the three that makes the big difference.
Xpress: Why is low power consumption becoming critical?
AE: Power consumption is a key design parameter in all systems today, across application types. This is driven by direct energy costs, less complex and faster installation, minimized need for forced ventilation, and compliance to state regulations for environmental protection. And on top of that you gain a more cost-effective design.
Xpress: In what type of platforms do you see the largest adoption for HX and AX chips?
AE: OTN, Transport systems, PTN, Mobile Backhaul, Carrier-Ethernet Switch Routers and PON OLTs
Xpress: Does the technology enable fundamentally new designs, or are we mainly seeing more of the same; more ports, more packets and more bandwidth?
AE: We see both new designs and more of the same. With our state of the art integrated traffic manager we enable new systems with more efficient designs. But there is of course an ongoing cry for more bandwidth and throughput. One has to bear in mind though, that not all components are in the same maturity stage. For instance, there are a lot of optical components that are too expensive to support a cost-effective roll-out of 100G solutions before 2014.
Xpress: Are there any sweet spot designs?
AE: Yes, OTN and PTN. The HX and AX product attributes fit well in these high-volume optimized designs.
Xpress: The dataflow architecture has evolved in HX and AX. How?
AE: Our core technology continuously evolves. The HX and AX with the 100G dataflow architecture is now in production. It includes enhanced service densities; higher lookup rates and more processor cores compared to the 40G generation. In addition, we have enhanced the flexibility by allowing intelligent oversubscription through advanced pre-classification.
Moving forward the dataflow architecture is already staged for 200G and 400G. We are assessing parallel pipes, and enhanced flexibility for ingress and egress processing while retaining the deterministic characteristics.
Xpress: Xelerated is making a strong push for wirespeed processing. Is this inherent to the HX and AX chips?
AE: Wirespeed is by design and inherent to all our products.
Xpress: Doesn’t wirespeed come with a flexibility tax?
AE: Not really, our software and application utilization is not dependent on traffic load. It is always deterministic to the speed and throughput that the devices are specified for.
Xpress: How are customers responding to the new integrated traffic manager? Are customers using this feature?
AE: The market response has been overwhelming, really. It is mainly used for per-user and per-service shaping in both line card and pizza box designs. This was really the primary application we had in mind. But, we also see additional interest for building chassis-based solutions solely on the integrated TM.
Xpress: When do you expect the first platforms in volume based on HX and AX chips?
AE: HX-based products are expected to ramp in November, while AX will ramp in December.
Xpress: 100G network processing is here and now. So what’s next?
AE: The industry is screaming for more bandwidth and more advanced packet services on Carrier Ethernet systems. We have a number of interesting innovations in-design, but it is a bit early still to unveil any secrets.
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