Intel Corp will launch itself into the network processor market with a bang today (Wednesday) unveiling 13 networking products based on a brand new chip architecture and a $200m VC fund. The products will include its flagship processor – the IXP1200 – and include switching products, formatting engines and physical layer devices. The company wants to sell products to every sector of the market from small business LAN devices to carrier class products. We want to be a building block supplier to the internet economy, said Mark Christensen, VP of the network products group.
The Intel Internet Exchange Architecture has been two years in development and Christensen described it as a snap-together modular environment with a single programmable interface. The IXP1200 features six custom RISC cores – capable of handling 24 multi-threaded instructions, combined with a StrongARM controller. The cores deal with all packet voice/video/data processing, while the StrongARM handles all non-real time operations and memory functions. The processor features a PCI bus and an ‘IXP’ bus that allows the RISC processors to be used in parallel and a static RAM and DRAM interface. Christensen said that each IXP1200 could process two and a half million packets per second with no delays caused by the hardware.
Eight different third party companies are announcing products based on the architecture. Intel didn’t name names but expect Cisco Systems Inc, Lucent Technologies Inc, Nortel Networks, Nokia Oy and LM Ericsson AB to feature prominently in the company’s major push into the networking market. Among the products forthcoming will be a switching fabric that allows up to 200 of the processors to linked together. Wind River is also supporting Intel – porting its Tornado and VXWorks OS and tools to the new architecture. Christensen said that the Intel network software architecture would allow for updates to networking protocols without having to replace chips in existing network equipment.
The venture capital fund that Intel is announcing is similar to the strategy that Intel took with its IA-64 fund. It will typically invest between $1m and $5m in start-up companies and companies working on products based on the IXP products. Christensen said that the company was getting into the network processor market now because it expected the sector to become a multi-billion dollar sector within a few years.
Intel’s move is bad news for a slew of custom network processor designers and companies such as MIPS Technologies Inc and ARM Holdings Ltd – which design the cores for custom ASICs. The breadth of Intel’s product line will also see it encroaching on Motorola Inc’s territory. Christensen wouldn’t make comparisons between Intel’s IXP1200 and the Rainier network processor from IBM Corp, saying that nobody had seen the chip, although he said he thought it would be aimed solely at the high-end of the market. The IXP1200 is sampling now and will be available by year-end. It will start at around $200 per chip.
