Agere Unveils 5 Gbps Network Processor

Agere Systems has integrated four separate chips to create what it describes as the world’s fastest network processor. The 5 Gbps PayloadPlus APP540 combines four previously separate devices — a programmable traffic manager, a multi-field classifier search engine, a network processor, and an Ethernet media access controller (MAC). Agere’s chip uses external dynamic random access memory (DRAM) chips to house classification tables and rules. Competitors use more expensive content addressable memory (CAM) or static random access memory (SRAM) chips. Agere Systems is also announced a separate PayloadPlus APP520 chip, which is essentially the same device as the APP540 yet targeted at lower-cost platforms. Korea’s Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute (ETRI) is using the APP540 network processor as the key engine for creating a countrywide next generation network.
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