21 November 2003 San Jose, CA Lightwave -- EZchip Technologies (a subsidiary of LanOptics Ltd.), a fabless semiconductor company providing high-speed network processors, has introduced a new evaluation system for its NP-1c 10-Gbit/sec network processor. The system is compliant with the new Advanced Telecommunications Computing Architecture (AdvancedTCA) and is provided as a blade that can be plugged into an AdvancedTCA chassis or as a standalone, self-contained box.
The NP-1c architecture enables 10 network-processor-driven 1-Gbit/sec ports on a single AdvancedTCA board. The board has been delivered to early customers, with general availability planned for December 2003.
AdvancedTCA comprises the PCI Industrial Computer Manufacturers Group (PICMG) specifications that form the basis for standards-compliant hardware for next-generation telecommunications equipment. The NP-1c AdvancedTCA evaluation board features ten 1-Gigabit Ethernet ports and a complete data plane and control plane solution. The seven-layer NP-1c provides 10-Gbit/sec data plane processing and classifying while a PrPMC mezzanine card provides control plane processing. A software environment with support for the Linux and VxWorks operating systems is provided. EZchip also provides customers with a library featuring tested source code for a wide range of applications. These include MPLS, VPLS and Draft Martini, IPv4, IPv6, Access Control Lists, Server Load Balancing, and URL filtering.
"Using the highly integrated NP-1c, EZchip has proved that AdvancedTCA-compliant hardware based on network processors is possible," said Linley Gwennap, principal analyst of The Linley Group. "This is good news for the telecommunications industry. It is also good news for independent software vendors that can now base their products on powerful, standards-compliant platforms and focus on their software applications rather than on hardware development."
The price for the evaluation system will be $14,950.