Cavium Networks Launches Single and Dual Core OCTEON Network Processors

Cavium Networks unveiled ten new highly integrated single and dual core MIPS64 processors starting at under $20 price points. The new SoC (system-on-chip) processors integrate a custom MIPS64 processor core with the advanced multi-layer application acceleration and security processing hardware, along with a wide range of networking I/O options. The new OCTEON CN31XX and CN30XX family of processors are fully software compatible with the OCTEON CN38XX family of multi-core processors. The OCTEON family now delivers industry's most scalable line of compatible MIPS64 processors from single core to sixteen cores. The OCTEON processor family is being designed into a wide array of networking equipment, including routers, switches, unified threat management (UTM) appliances, application-aware gateways, triple-play gateways, WLAN and 3G access and aggregation devices and storage networking equipment.

The OCTEON CN31XX and CN30XX processors are based on the same custom cnMIPS64 CPU core as in the currently available CN38XX and CN36XX family of processors. The core has been developed from the ground up with very low power consumption. The cnMIPS core is the industry's first implementation of MIPS64 Release 2 instruction set with a 5-stage, dual-issue superscalar architecture, sophisticated pre-fetching and optimized cache and memory latencies. Each processor has 1 or 2 cnMIPS cores, along with up to 256KB L2 cache and features an extensive set of I/Os including Gigabit Ethernet networking interfaces, PCI/PCI-X, DDR2, USB 2.0 with PHY, TDM/PCM for Voice applications, and other standard I/O such as GPIO, SPI, UARTs and Expansion bus. The processors vary in frequency from 300MHz to 550MHz. Maximum power consumption of the parts ranges from under 2 Watts to 7 Watts while application performance ranges from several hundred Mbps to 2Gbps.

The CN31XX and CN30XX processors are available with a set of hardware acceleration options. Each processor is available in CP (Communication Processor), SCP (Secure Communication Processor) and NSP (Network Services Processor, available on CN31XX only) versions. The CP version includes hardware acceleration for Packet Processing, TCP, Queuing/Scheduling and QoS. The SCP version adds acceleration for IPsec/SSL, SRTP and WLAN security. The NSP further adds acceleration for Deep Packet Inspection and Compression /Decompression. Details of application acceleration features are:

• Extensive L2-L4 hardware based packet processing and buffer management engines for IPv4 and IPv6 packets
• TCP hardware acceleration includes comprehensive checks, tag-generation, checksums, timer and buffer management
• Queuing/Scheduling and QoS hardware implements packet input queuing/scheduling based on diffserv, QoS/ToS, Input ports or a combination. Output packet queuing and scheduling based on fixed prioritization and or weighted fair queuing (WFQ)
• Future-proof security hardware acceleration includes full offload for IPsec, SSL, SRTP and WLAN 802.11i security and support for all standard algorithms including DES/3DES, AES up to 256bit, AES-GCM, AES-XCBC, ARC4, MD5, SHA-1, SHA-2 up to SHA-512, RSA up to 4096 bit, Diffie-Hellman and a true hardware random number generator
• Compression/decompression hardware acceleration implements GZIP, PKZIP and variant protocols to deliver industry’s best compression ratio at multi-gigabit throughputs
• Deep Packet Inspection is enabled through 8 Pattern matching hardware acceleration engines. These engines perform stateful pattern analysis for intrusion detection, anti-virus and content based switching, routing and filtering applications

The OCTEON CN31XX Processor Family includes the CN3110 and the CN3120 Processors. The CN3120 features dual cnMIPS64 cores while the CN3110 features a single cnMIPS64 core at up to 550MHz with 256KB L2 cache. The I/Os include 3 GE interfaces, 64 bit DDR2-667, optional second 16 bit DDR2 for pattern storage, TDM/PCM, 32/100 PCI-X, USB 2.0 in an 868pin BGA package with 4 – 7W power consumption. Each processor is available in CP, SCP and NSP versions. These processors can be used in Enterprise Routers, Gateways, UTM appliances, Service cards and Triple Play gateways.

The OCTEON CN30XX Processor Family includes the CN3005 and CN3010 Processors. The CN3005 processor includes a cnMIPS core at up to 400MHz, 64KB L2 cache, 16 bit DDR2, two GE interfaces, 32/66 PCI, USB 2.0 in a 350pin BGA package with a low power consumption of 2-3W. The CN3010 processor include a cnMIPS processor core at up to 500MHz, 128KB L2 cache, 32 bit DDR2, 3 GE interfaces, TDM/PCM, 32/66 PCI, USB 2.0 in a 525pin BGA package with a very low 2-4W power consumption. Each processor is available in CP and SCP versions. These processors can be used in Wired and Wireless (802.11a/b/g/n) Broadband Routers and Gateways, Wireless Access Points and Home NAS products.

OCTEON processors support standard operating systems including Linux, MontaVista Linux and Wind River VxWorks along with a thin executive for fast-path data-plane software. Cavium Networks provides a complete Software Development Kit with Linux, GNU tool-chain, GDB development environment and popular third party tool-chain and development support that enables thousands of MIPS32, MIPS64 and other C/C++ applications to be easily ported to OCTEON. Additionally, Cavium Networks provides APIs, L2 to L4 reference software, WLAN drivers and software toolkits for IPsec, SSL, SSL-VPN and TCP stacks, to enable quick time to market.

Samples for OCTEON CN31XX will be available in Q1'06 and those for OCTEON CN30XX will be available in Q2'06. Pricing for CN31XX ranges from $49 to $125 for 10K unit quantities and pricing for CN30XX ranges from $19 to $39 in 50K unit quantities.

Source: Cavium Networks

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