Netronome, a developer of network flow processors, is shipping NFP-3240 processor, which it claims to be designed for tight coupling with multicore Intel processors to accelerate network, security and content processing to 40Gbps and 100Gbps.
According to Netronome, the NFP-3240 includes an array of 40 1.4GHz microengine RISC processors, with each microengine core supporting eight simultaneous computing threads, enabling the processor to deliver 56 billion instructions per second (BIPS). Additional hardware acceleration engines provide line-rate processing for PKI, bulk cryptography and deep packet inspection.
The company said that the new processor features an 8 lane PCIe 2.0 interface, dual 25Gbps Interlaken, dual 10GigE and 8×1 GigE MACs, dual 10Gbps XAUI, and SPI 4.2. Enhanced PCIe I/O virtualisation support makes the NFP-3240 processor to integrate with multicore Intel Architecture processors. The memory management system offers over 80% effective utilisation of dual DDR3 1333MHz and dual QDR SRAM channels that operate at up to 350MHz.
Netronome said that the NFP-3240 microengine cores are designed specifically for flow-based network and security processing, and enables high BIPS per watt when operating under full load at 30W. In addition, the NFP-3240’s microengine cores also offer source-code compatibility with Intel’s IXP28XX network processors.
The NFP-32xx family is available in a range of price and performance options for 10, 40 and 100Gbps designs. Configuration options span from 16 to 40 cores, operating at 1.0 or 1.4GHz, with optional cryptography support. With prices starting at $275, the NFP-32xx family of network flow processors are sampling now with general availability in mid-2010.
