A novel architecture for efficient protocol processing in high speed communication environments

Processing and scheduling components in an innovative network processor architecture

“…The necessity of specialized Network Processors to handle high-speed links and support demanding applications stems from the fact that a certain subset of the protocol processing tasks are highly resource consuming, either in terms of computational complexity or memory throughput. By properly analyzing the bottlenecks in networking applications ( [1], [2]) the set of most critical functions can be significantly accelerated with the aid of either fixed (for well-defined functions that are standardized) or programmable hardware. Thus, the same component with different configuration will be able to perform many different protocol Finite State Machines (FSMs) that require high performance execution and handling of messages with low propagation/processing delay.…”

Verification of a complex SoC; the PRO/sup 3/ case-study

“…Our approach assumes system verification and application verification as integral parts of the design process. In the following sections, we highlight aspects of this approach as was applied to the design of the PRO 3 IC [4]. The PRO 3 system operates within Gigabit backbone network devices.…”