From: Vadim Antonov <avg@exigengroup.com>
Date: Sat, 21 Sep 2002 03:06:56 -0700 (PDT)
:> The CPUs are quite faster nowadays, and you can get things like _quad_
:> 300MHz PPC core on an FPGA plus 20+ 3.2Gbps serdes I/Os - all on one chip.
:> So building multigigabit software router is a no-brainer.Usual PCs don't have such fancy hardware...
They have quite fancier stuff inside, actually, from a technology point of
view. Your run-of-the-mill Pentium IV requires a lot more advanced
technology for design and manufacturing than the "platform FPGA" I
referred to. The enormous design costs for those marvels of engineering
are only bearable because of high volume.
If you call it software router, then all "network processor based
router" should also be called software router, right?
"Software router" in my book is something which relies on programmable
general-purpose devices for implementing packet routing functions.
Network processors do not qualify (though they're nice, when they are
actually available, which is not often - because chip vendors tend to drop
niche products pronto when in a bind). One thing I learned well is to
keep exotic stuff out of designs, because it never seems to be available
w/o high-volume commitments, and even then tends to come a year later and
full of "design features".
--vadim