Xelerated shipping HX 100G network processor in volume

Xelerated says it has begun volume production of its HX family of 100-Gbps network processors (NPUs) for packet-OTN, mobile backhaul/PTN, and Carrier Ethernet switch-routers. The company says it has 20 design wins for the HX family of NPUs, with the first systems using the devices entering production later this year.

Designed for pizza box and line card slot capacities of 20 to 200 Gbps, the HX NPUs integrate wirespeed processing and traffic management with deep packet buffering, according to Xelerated. In packet-OTN systems, the HX NPU enables Ethernet/MPLS services for 100 Gbps of traffic using a single chip. In mobile backhaul, the HX family implements Layer 2 and Layer 3 switch-router applications.

Xelerated cites the following features for the HX NPUs:

A Dataflow architecture with 448 PISC processor cores and 28 engine access points to connect to on-chip or off-chip table memory and hardware engines
Advanced traffic manager with hierarchical per-user, per-service scheduling and shaping and off-chip packet buffer fully implemented in DDR3 DRAM
Embedded switching with advanced pre-classification for intelligent oversubscription
Internet-scale forwarding of IPv4 and IPv6 through memory interfaces to off-chip TCAM, SRAM, and DDR3 DRAM
Synchronous Ethernet and support for one-step PTP IEEE-1588.

“System vendors are increasingly faced with power budget restrictions as they scale to accommodate new services and greater port densities,” said Bob Wheeler, senior analyst at The Linley Group. “Xelerated's 100G NPU is hitting a sweet spot in designs where programmability is required but footprint and power budget are scarce.”

“The high demand for the HX family of NPUs is due to its combination of low power consumption, programmable wirespeed processing and integration of advanced traffic management,” said Anders Ericsson, Xelerated vice president, sales and marketing. “We are thrilled about some of our new customer projects now going into production. These platforms have the potential to reshape the Carrier Ethernet market.”

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