Paul and thread, Networking Breakthrough -- Intel, IBM target chip technology
August 31, 1999
COMPUTER RESELLER NEWS : San Francisco - The age of the software-programmable communications processor is here. Technology road maps coming from Intel Corp. and IBM Corp. next week will leave little doubt that the networking industry is on the cusp of a radical change.
Intel will extend its reach into the carrier and enterprise networking market using packet processing technology from two of its recent acquisitions: Softcom Microsystems Inc., Fremont, Calif., and Level One Communications Inc., Sacramento, Calif., sources briefed by the company said. Intel, Santa Clara, Calif., is expected to reveal its game plan at a developer's conference in Palm Springs, Calif., next week, the sources said.
Intel plans to introduce the Internet Exchange Architecture, a set of hardware and software building blocks that includes a processor and accompanying chips, sources said. The product's processor, based on its Strong-ARM core, is not expected to ship until later this year, they said.
For its part, IBM, Armonk, N.Y., is reinventing its own processor strategy. IBM and C-Port Corp., a North Andover, Mass., maker of a communications processing platform, will reveal an alliance with the hope of kick-starting a standards forum that defines programming interfaces for these platforms. The forum, still nameless, will be launched at Networld+Interop in Atlanta in two weeks.
For IBM, the new strategy is part of a push to bundle its technology into the communications market. "We see the communications market growing tremendously fast," said Steve Longoria, marketing director for IBM's Wired Technology unit. "The need for technology that brings to our market both performance and flexibility is a key to our customers' future success. "
The shift from hard-wired application specific integrated circuit (ASIC) processors in networking gear such as routers, switches and hubs to general-purpose, software-programmable processors is far-reaching, analysts said. ASICs are custom-built for individual functions so, if a vendor ships 100 different types of products, it might need the same number of ASICs.
By replacing ASICs with these processors, it could drastically cut the total number of processors a company needs to build its products, analysts said. This speeds time to market and also helps cut costs associated with requiring multiple ASICs to do various networking functions, said Tom Nolle, president of CIMI Corp., a Voorhees, N.J., consulting firm.
"It sounds like we'll get new products and corrections to design flaws in these products a bit faster," said Lou Artale, a consultant and former president of PC Strategies, a Canton, Ohio-based VAR.
For Intel, the network processor market is also key because of the shrinking prices on PC processors, analysts said.
"Intel is good at doing relatively complicated designs, manufacturing them at high volume, and they like to sell their stuff at high prices," said Nathan Brookwood, an analyst at Insight 64, Saratoga, Calif.
Start-up companies have thus far owned the budding network processor market. C-Port earlier this month unveiled its first product, a universal communications processor platform. The C-5 Digital Communications Processor lets network vendors add key features in software rather than burn them in hardware.
Technologies used on network edge devices such as routers and switches are largely unsophisticated, and because there is a need for many ASICs on an individual product, there is a mandate that this technology be inexpensive, analysts said. But new handling requirements based on emerging networking features, such as quality of service and policy management, may jack up product prices because it loads extra functions on those devices, they said.
The shift to packet processors in networking also comes as edge devices need programmable features. Semiconductor vendors are looking for ways to expedite the handling of complicated routing decisions, Nolle said.
If a processor comes to market with communications functions, such as forwarding table look-ups, protocol handling, DNS, H.323 or TCP/IP sessions, it makes a big difference by cutting a vendor's development time, Nolle said.
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