nanog mailing list archives
Re: Vyatta as a BRAS
From: Mikael Abrahamsson <swmike () swm pp se>
Date: Wed, 14 Jul 2010 08:34:45 +0200 (CEST)
On Tue, 13 Jul 2010, Lamar Owen wrote:
Instruction issue? Execution unit? Special instructions? Sounds like a software-driven processor to me. Specialized software instruction set, yes. True hardware forwarding, no software involvement? No. More like asymmetrical multiprocessing software routing. Call it hardware accelerated if you like; PXF is to networking as a nVidia GeForce GPU is to graphics.
This is true on a lot of newer Cisco high end platforms. CRS-1 uses multicore processors (hundreds of cores) for forwarding on their linecards, and they achieve 40+ Mpps per linecard.
This is the trend in networking where you need to do intelligent things, it's easier to do multicore parallell processing than doing hugely fast FPGA forwarding (at least it seems that way, and it's faster to upgrade the software on a CPU than on a FPGA).
The lines are blurring between CPU/FPA/ASIC (well, ASIC is really a misnomer as it's just "application specific" which means packaging, not function) and since people want flexibility, general CPUs used for forwarding is the way it's headed, even though the CPUs right now have little to do with the CPUs we see in "normal" PCs.
-- Mikael Abrahamsson email: swmike () swm pp se
Current thread:
- Re: Vyatta as a BRAS, (continued)
- Re: Vyatta as a BRAS Truman Boyes (Jul 12)
- Re: Vyatta as a BRAS khatfield (Jul 13)
- Re: Vyatta as a BRAS Dobbins, Roland (Jul 13)
- Re: Vyatta as a BRAS Curtis Maurand (Jul 13)
- Re: Vyatta as a BRAS Greg Whynott (Jul 13)
- Re: Vyatta as a BRAS Daniel Senie (Jul 13)
- Re: Vyatta as a BRAS Lamar Owen (Jul 13)
- Re: Vyatta as a BRAS Christian Chapman (Jul 13)
- Re: Vyatta as a BRAS Valdis . Kletnieks (Jul 13)
- Re: Vyatta as a BRAS Lamar Owen (Jul 13)
- Re: Vyatta as a BRAS Mikael Abrahamsson (Jul 13)
- Re: Vyatta as a BRAS Dobbins, Roland (Jul 14)
- Re: Vyatta as a BRAS Truman Boyes (Jul 12)
- Re: Vyatta as a BRAS Curtis Maurand (Jul 13)
- Re: Vyatta as a BRAS Nick Hilliard (Jul 13)
- Re: Vyatta as a BRAS Tony Li (Jul 13)
- Re: Vyatta as a BRAS Dobbins, Roland (Jul 13)
- Re: Vyatta as a BRAS Dan White (Jul 13)
- Re: Vyatta as a BRAS Dobbins, Roland (Jul 13)
- Re: Vyatta as a BRAS Valdis . Kletnieks (Jul 14)
- Re: Vyatta as a BRAS Dobbins, Roland (Jul 14)
- Re: Vyatta as a BRAS Lamar Owen (Jul 14)