NSE ups TCAM ante to 266 million searches/sec
By Nicholas Cravotta -- EDN, September 18, 2003
The Ayama 10000 NSE (network-search-engine) family from Cypress Semiconductor increases TCAM (ternary-content-addressable-memory) search rates for multiprotocol-packet classification and forwarding to 266 million searches/sec for applications requiring wire-speed packet-search capabilities at 10 Gbps or greater (Picture).
Leading the Ayama 10000 NSE family is the CYNSE10512, a 512k-entry, 18-Mbit device. Other members include the 256k-entry, 9-Mbit CYNSE10256 and 128k-entry, 4.5-Mbit CYNSE10128 devices. Mini-Key power-management capability reduces power consumption by engaging only those portions of the NSE array that contain entries of interest. The Soft Priority table-management feature helps maintain data integrity at wire speeds by dynamically prioritizing entries for LPM (longest prefix matching) in Layer 3 applications, thus eliminating the latency associated with routing table updates. Additional features include per-bit masking and parity at the core and I/O to ensure data integrity throughout the device.
Cypress’ new software platform, Cynapse, provides a unified software environment for application simulation and development across all Cypress network search engines. Diagnostic tools aid in the development of reliable code. The platform also provides reference applications, simulation models, APIs, and drivers.
All Ayama 10000 devices are currently available for sampling. The CYNSE10512 costs $275 (10,000), and volume production is slated for the first quarter of 2004. The CYNSE10256 costs $135 (10,000), and the CYNSE10128 costs $75 (10,000), and volume production is slated for both these devices in the second quarter of 2004. The Cynapse software-development platform is free to silicon customers.
Cypress Semiconductor, 1-408-943-2600, www.cypress.com.
