About Network and Communication Processors
"A maxim among analysts and executives is that only one network processor so far - Agere Systems Inc.'s Fast Packet Processor - is truly capable of handling live OC-48 traffic." - EE Times.
"The FPP programming language is brilliant. My boss says, 'We need Layer 4 routing,' and I answer, 'Ready in 10 minutes.' With Agere's development system, we were able to accomplish in a few hours what would normally take months using hard-coded processing systems." - Aaron Williams, a SCREAM development engineer for net.com.
Agere System's Payload Plus is a breakthrough OC-48c Network Processor Solution. The 3 chip solution performs all of the classification, policing, traffic management, QoS/CoS, traffic shaping and packet modification functions needed for a carrier class network platform. The PayloadPlus product family represents a technology revolution in the construction of intelligent communication equipment with layer 2-7 processing capabilities. These products focus on the wire-speed data stream, and work in conjunction with physical interface devices, low-speed microprocessors, and backplane fabric offerings to provide a complete solution for networking and communication applications.
The PayloadPlus processor family includes the Fast Pattern Processor (FPP), the Routing Switch Processor (RSP), and the Agere System Interface (ASI). The FPP and RSP process the wire-speed data stream. The ASI provides an industry-standard Peripheral Component Interconnect (PCI) interface between a host processor and Agere's high-speed processors for control and management functions, including routing table and virtual circuit updates, hardware configuration, and exception handling. The ASI also assists the FPP in policing ATM and Frame Relay traffic at up to OC-48c rates, maintaining state information on data flows, and capturing statistics. In addition, Agere has announced the Voice Packet Processor (VPP) co-processor capable of AAL2 SAR and switching functions supporting up to 32,000 conversations.
Unique Breakthrough Architecture Designed for Networking Applications and Scalability
Agere's functional processor truly combines the flexibility of RISC with the performance of ASIC. The unique "Payload Plus" architecture uses a patented technology called "Pattern Matching Optimization" to achieve greater than 5x performance improvement over even advanced RISC processors. This performance reaches the level of fixed function ASICs while allowing the flexibility and programmability of RISC. The Payload Plus architecture is able realize these performance gains by using less overhead, fewer clock cycles, and more data processing per clock cycle than augmented RISC. Agere's Payload Plus architecture is capable of supporting bandwidth speeds of OC-192 and beyond while still maintaining the flexibility and programmability of a traditional RISC processor. The Agere functional processor is segmented into two components, the "Fast Pattern Processor" and the "Routing Switch Processor." "The Fast Pattern Processor" (FPP) takes data from the PHY chip and performs protocol recognition and classification as well as re-assembly. The FPP can classify traffic based on information contained at Layers 2 through 7. From the FPP, traffic moves to the Routing Switch Processor (RSP) which handles queuing, packet modification, traffic shaping, application of quality of service tagging, and segmentation. The FPP and RSP interface with the "Agere System Interface" (ASI).
Agere's Payload Plus is directly scaleable to higher levels of integration and speeds beyond 2.5Gbps including 10Gbps and 40Gbps.
Company-wide Focus on Networking and Communications
Agere Systems, formerly the Microelectronics division of Lucent Technologies, is the world leader in sales of communications semiconductors. We design, develop and manufacture optoelectronic components for communications networks, and integrated circuits for use in a broad range of communications and computer equipment. Agere a full line of communications Ics including: DSP, Network Processor, Switch, framer, Sonet, SDH, PDH, High speed physical layer and FPGA products.
