The Linley Group

At Hot Chips, processor startup Tilera emerged from stealth mode, announcing that it is sampling a powerful processor that combines 64 CPUs on a single chip. Each VLIW CPU can execute four instructions per cycle at 1GHz, producing a massive 256 billion instructions per second (256,000 MIPS). The 64 CPUs dissipate a total of 20W, allowing the chip to be used in many high-speed embedded applications.

Traditional bus architectures do not scale well beyond 16 CPUs. Tilera's key innovation is a mesh architecture that connects the CPUs with I/O, main memory, and each other. Each "tile" in the mesh contains one CPU, 80KB of cache, and a switch to move data across the mesh. Data may require several hops to get across the mesh, but the mesh can conduct many transfers in each cycle. In this way, throughput scales with the number of CPUs. The chip also includes four DDR2 memory controllers, two Gigabit Ethernet MACs, and a multitude of high-speed I/O, supporting a variety of system configurations.

Programming has been the biggest challenge for large multicore processors. Although Tilera still requires programmers to divide their code into individual threads, the company provides tools that help identify threads, map them to CPUs, and debug a multithreaded application. Each Tilera CPU can execute a complete operating system, supporting SMP Linux and other operating systems as desired. One drawback is that Tilera implemented its own instruction set, so its chip is not compatible with third-party compilers and development tools.

The raw performance of the chip can be deployed in various ways. Tilera has measured the chip at 10Gbps running the complete Snort database for intrusion detection, roughly double the performance of Cavium's Octeon processor. Using its DSP-enhanced CPUs, the Tilera chip can encode a full 1080p HDTV stream in real time, or it can simultaneously encode 40 H.264 video streams at CIF resolution. With this power and flexibility, Tilera is ready to shake up the high end of the embedded-processor market. —Linley

The leading supplier of Ethernet switches, Broadcom recently announced a new product line within its StrataXGS switch family, streamlining the StrataXGS 200 for the cost-sensitive enterprise market. To do so, the company has migrated the popular StrataXGS from 130nm to 65nm, reducing cost and power. The 65nm shrink also increases integration, reducing system cost by eliminating external components.

The StrataXGS 200 product consists of a 24xGbE switch, a 12xGbE switch, and an 8xGbE switch (BCM56224, BCM56226, BCM56228, respectively). Each switch integrates four uplink ports, which can be configured as 2.5Gbps for uplinks or as additional GbE ports. Although the uplink data rate is less than the 12Gbps on earlier StrataXGS switches, it enables designers to use lower cost Cat7 wiring instead of CX-4 cables.

These 65nm products integrate a 32-bit MIPS CPU, a denial-of-service engine, TCAM, and tables for Layer 2 and Layer 3 headers. The integrated CPU performs traffic management, eliminating the cost of an external TM. The TCAM works with the classification engine to implement policy-based routing, ACL management, and security. With eight classes of service per port, the BCM5622x has enough traffic management and QoS to support voice, video, and data traffic.

An OEM can design a 24-port stackable switch using only the BCM56224, DDR SDRAM, and Flash. For greater flexibility, designers can connect an external CPU to the BCM56224's PCI interface or 16-bit external bus. With features such as Q-in-Q and VLANs, these devices should also be attractive for IP DSLAMs. A common API across all StrataXGS products enables OEMs to port software across platforms and reduce development time. With the StrataXGS 200 products, Broadcom has defined a new market segment and further entrenched its position as the Ethernet market leader. —Jag

In early 2006, NetLogic acquired the merchant search-engine business from Cypress. Excluded from this transaction was the custom TCAM2 product line, which Cypress developed for Cisco. Cisco insisted that Cypress maintain the TCAM2 product line and guarantee the supply. At the time, Cypress had long stopped the development of new TCAMs.

Last month, NetLogic completed its acquisition of search engines from Cypress by purchasing the TCAM2 product line. In the past 18 months, NetLogic has become a proven supplier, alleviating Cisco's concerns. NetLogic paid $12 million for the TCAM2 business, which generates about $10 million per year.

The deal is good for both companies. Cypress drops a product line that is no longer strategic to the company's direction. NetLogic immediately increases its total revenue by 10% with the potential of future gains as it competes for TCAM2 business against Renesas and IDT. We expect NetLogic to win share from Renesas, which has a limited commitment to search engines but greater TCAM2 revenue than Cypress had. —Jag

Last week, LSI announced it is acquiring Tarari for $85 million in cash, about twice what the startup had raised in three rounds of venture funding. Tarari has established itself as the leading vendor of content-inspection accelerators, which are principally used to accelerate network-security functions such as antivirus scanning and intrusion detection. Although Tarari had significant design wins at Tier One OEMs, the company's revenue remains small. But LSI viewed content inspection as a strategic technology that it needed in its networking portfolio alongside network processors and DSPs. By joining LSI, Tarari will enjoy greater sales and chip-design resources and lower cost manufacturing. LSI can integrate Tarari's technology into future processors to create highly integrated products. As the latest in a string of strategic moves, this acquisition signals LSI is serious about investing in its networking business. —Bob

Complete coverage of Tarari appears in our report A Guide to Security Processors and Accelerators.

New Report on 10G Ethernet Adapters and Controller Chips

The Linley Group is pleased to announce a new report focused exclusively on the emerging 10GbE controller and adapter market. A Guide to 10G Ethernet Adapters and Controller Chips builds on our previous coverage of Gigabit and 10G Ethernet chips in this important market. It provides detailed coverage of the leading 10GbE NIC and controller vendors. Because OEMs buy both board-level and chip-level products, we now include full coverage and comparisons for both 10GbE NICs and 10GbE controller chips. Also covered are GbE controller chips designed for server NIC/LOM applications. Finally, we include coverage of PCI Express switch chips that can be used in server fan-out, modular-backplane, and multiport-NIC/HBA designs.

With the transition to 10GbE, many new technologies are being added to Ethernet-controller designs. Most of these new features are designed to offload processing from the host CPU and therefore increase throughput or lower CPU utilization. These offloads are divided into three basic categories: stateless offloads that work with traditional operating system stacks; stateful offloads such as TOE that require stack changes; and virtualization offloads for environments such as VMware and Xen. For converged networks, new protocols such as iWARP (RDMA) and iSCSI also come into play. With all of this complexity, no single vendor can satisfy the requirements of all potential customers. We help you sort out which vendors meet your specific needs.

"A Guide to 10G Ethernet Adapters and Controller Chips" begins with an extensive overview of this fast-growing market and provides tutorials that help you plow through the alphabet soup of acronyms and standards. We explore the market and technology trends for 10GbE server connections, followed by an explanation of the common attributes of these products.

The report delivers detailed coverage of seven major vendors offering 10GbE NICs and/or controller chips: Broadcom, Chelsio, Intel, Myricom, NetEffect, Neterion, and NetXen. For each of these vendors, we provide company background information, full details of announced products, and our conclusions about the vendor and its products. The report also covers vendors that offer only GbE NIC/LOM products as well as new entrants into the server NIC/LOM market: Alacritech, Brocade, Marvell/Sun, Mellanox, Nvidia, QLogic, ServerEngines, Solarflare, Sony, and Tehuti. The report includes detailed head-to-head comparisons of the many available NIC/LOM products.

Because PCI Express is the critical interconnect technology for servers, we include coverage of products from IDT, PLX, Pericom, and NextIO. We compare switch chips for fan-out and chips for backplane applications, which are precursors to future MR-IOV designs. The report concludes with our outlook for the server Ethernet market and its leading vendors.

Order by October 15 and take $300 off the list price. For greater savings, order this report with A Guide to Ethernet Switch and PHYs and take $1,500 off the combined list price. For more information on this report, visit our web site.