News and New Products

TCAM engine hits 18 Mbits with dual LA-1 Interfaces

By Nicholas Cravotta -- EDN, 3/18/2004

NetLogic Microsystems' new NSE5512GLQ network-search engine operates as fast as 250 MHz, has 18 Mbits of table storage, and supports dual LA-1 (look-aside) interfaces. Many NPU (network-processing-unit) designs require network-search engines to include multiple NPUs—one for ingress processing and one for egress processing. Two LA-1 ports on the same search-engine device enable ingress and egress to share table resources. Applications for the TCAM (ternary-content-addressable-memory) NSE5512GLQ include multiservice switches, wireless infrastructure, enterprise, and edge routers that need to offload functions such as IPv4 and IPv6 packet forwarding and classification or require packet-classification and traffic-management capabilities for firewalls, intrusion-detection systems, load balancing, broadband access, and access-control lists.

The device supports arbitration of requests across the two LA-1 interfaces, optional in-band or out-of-band table management, host-based TCAM-table management, a database-parity-scan engine, and interfaces for a general-purpose host CPU and associated data SRAM. Each device can support as many as 512,000 IPv4 and as many as 128,000 IPv6 routing entries, and you can cascade it without search-latency penalty. Clock rates include 250 MHz for NPUs, 66 MHz for host CPUs, and 133 MHz for associated data SRAM.

A dual-search capability enables the search engine to execute searches on two logical tables using the same key, a feature useful for independent table searches, such as for access-control lists and quality of service, which conserves both interface bandwidth and table resources by eliminating the need to replicate commonality between look-up address tables. The device can return as much as 256 bits of associated data as two results.

With a 1V core, the search engine comes in a 900-ball FCBGA package measuring 31×31×1 mm. It is pin- and software-compatible across 4.5-, 9-, and 18-Mbit devices and footprint-compatible with the previous generation NSE4000GLQ family. The development kit includes an evaluation card that plugs directly into the Intel (www.intel.com) Angel Island and Aleutian Island development platforms, NPU microcode, an API, and simulation models.

Selling for $300 (sample quantities), the NSE5512GLQ is available for sampling and will begin volume production in the second quarter.

NetLogic Microsystems Inc, 1-650-961-6676, www.netlogicmicro.com.