The Linley Tech Processor Conference attracted 300 attendees.

In the first day’s sessions, one could easily get the impression that multicores are up to the task of network processing. Thanks to Mike Coward of RadiSys, however, the bold marketing claims got a good reality check. RadiSys build systems based on multicore technology. Today, they do 10G per line card. In two, years, they expect to run up to 100G, and 100G in a single chip is likely four years out, all according to his estimation.

For those that don’t want to wait this long, you are welcome to Xelerated. Our 100G wirespeed NPU is here, and now going into production. And in addition to any of the multicore processors in the market, it also includes an advanced traffic manager.

Update: Xelerated’s presentation on ‘Uncompromised throughput at low power’ can be found here.

There is a huge potential for the industry to reduce power. Right there.

While the industry had some debate last year on how to migrate to Ethernet-based backhaul, the transition is likely to be faster and simpler than anyone expected. Because challenges with packet-based synchronization services have been solved with PTP and Synchronous Ethernet, operators can now modernize networks quickly. Once all mobile traffic runs on IP/Ethernet, operators can stop spending on legacy equipment, and further cut operational expenses. According to Michael Howard, more than 100 operators are now deploying ‘a single IP-Ethernet backhaul.’

Infonetics’ findings are in line with what Xelerated sees in the market place. In China for example, the move to Packet Transport Networks (PTN) represents an even more aggressive backhaul investment than seen elsewhere. Here in Sweden, fiber is deployed to cell sites and Ethernet is the transport protocol for all services; they are now in the second phase of the roll-out.

I wonder: Will other markets learn from this model, and if so, what impact will we see on the market figures?

One key observation is that an NPU has an enormous amount of service density and could, when used together with a multicore processor, increase the overall performance and transaction rate while lowering the power significantly. The number of instructions per packet is 23 times (yes, you read that correctly!) over a state-of-the-art Intel Core 2 Extreme QX9770 multicore processor. Combining the strength of a state-of-the-art multicore processor and an Xelerated NPU can dramatically improve the overall solution.

It is interesting to see that the data center server players are adding switching functionality, and at the same time, the router and switch vendors are adding server functionality. They end up competing with each other. When the switch becomes a server, and the server becomes a switch, it opens up for a period of strong innovations.  Which architecture model will prevail in the future?