EZchip's NP-1c network processor is certified by the Tolly Group for passing IPv6, IPv4 and MPLS industry benchmarks

EDP Weekly's IT Monitor, June 14, 2004

EZchip Technologies, a fabless semiconductor company providing high-speed network processors, has announced that its NP-1c 10-Gigabit network processor has completed three industry performance benchmarks for key applications: the LinleyBench network processors benchmark, the Network Processing Forum (NPF) MPLS Forwarding Benchmark and the NPF IP Forwarding Benchmark for IPv6 and IPv4. NP-1c is the only 10-Gigabit network processor to complete the NPF MPLS Forwarding and the demanding LinleyBench benchmarks. The third benchmark, the NPF IP Forwarding, was performed by NP-1c using very large routing tables, two orders of magnitude larger than those used by the only other 10-Gigabit network processor to perform this benchmark. NP-1c exhibited wire-speed throughput and low latency for all test scenarios. All tests were conducted at The Tolly Group, selected by the NPF and The Linley Group as the independent certification authority.

"The tests performed by The Tolly Group demonstrate NP-1c supremacy," said Amir Eyal, VP Business Development at EZchip. "We chose to perform the tests with large routing tables to simulate a real life environment. For other network processors to execute the same tests using routing tables of similar size would require dozens more chips, resulting in significantly higher cost and power dissipation."

"We congratulate EZchip on completing the LinleyBench benchmark, including the most difficult options," said Linley Gwennap, principal analyst of The Linley Group. "This certification proves that NP-1c can operate at 10Gbps wire speed under demanding real-world conditions, including Layer 4 classification and large route tables with high update rates. No other 10Gbps NPU has taken on this challenge."

EZchip's NP-1c is the only 10Gbps network processor to date to pass The Linley Group's rigorous LinleyBench. This benchmark adds DiffServ classification and marking beyond IPv4 forwarding as required by the NPF benchmark and therefore provides a more real-life environment and further strains network processor capabilities. NP-1c is also the only 10-Gigabit network processor to complete the NPF MPLS Forwarding Benchmark. MPLS (Multiprotocol Label Switching) is one of the key technologies used by carriers in next generation IP networks.

For the NPF IP Forwarding Benchmark, the single-chip NP-1c demonstrated IPv6 and IPv4 forwarding at 10-Gigabit line-rate while performing lookups in very large IP route tables with 1,048,576 IPv4 routes and 524,288 IPv6 routes. This contrasts with the only other 10-Gigabit network processor to complete the IP Forwarding Benchmark to date, which performed with a two-chip solution and far smaller routing tables, 135,432 routes for IPv4 and 1,200 for IPv6. While large routing tables are required for many networking applications, NP-1c with its integrated search engines uses only four low-power, low-cost DRAM chips for storing routing and other lookup tables. Other network processors require numerous power-hungry and expensive CAM and SRAM chips.