FROM EDN EUROPE: Code in C for network processors
By Graham Prophet -- EDN, October 12, 2000
Network-processor maker MMC Networks has introduced a C/C++ compiler for its nP7000 range of network processors. The nP7000s are for use in switching and routing traffic in fast Ethernet, Gigabit Ethernet, and optical streams, currently up to OC-48 speeds. Based on a custom architecture optimised for packet-data handling, previously you would have programmed in the processors' own assembler language. Now, you can develop routines in standard C, with extensions and special function calls appropriate to the processors' functions. Marketing director Robin Melnick concedes that as with all performance-critical embedded code, key sections will still be written in assembler, but he believes that through the use of a high degree of compiler optimisation, the inefficiencies of programming in high-level language have been kept to a low level. According to Melnick, you will be able to prototype and test code for new applications much more quickly with the new software.
MMC Networks , +1-408-731-1600, www.mmcnet.com.
