Close
  • Latest News
  • Artificial Intelligence
  • Video
  • Big Data and Analytics
  • Cloud
  • Networking
  • Cybersecurity
  • Applications
  • IT Management
  • Storage
  • Sponsored
  • Mobile
  • Small Business
  • Development
  • Database
  • Servers
  • Android
  • Apple
  • Innovation
  • Blogs
  • PC Hardware
  • Reviews
  • Search Engines
  • Virtualization
Read Down
Sign in
Close
Welcome!Log into your account
Forgot your password?
Read Down
Password recovery
Recover your password
Close
Search
Logo
Logo
  • Latest News
  • Artificial Intelligence
  • Video
  • Big Data and Analytics
  • Cloud
  • Networking
  • Cybersecurity
  • Applications
  • IT Management
  • Storage
  • Sponsored
  • Mobile
  • Small Business
  • Development
  • Database
  • Servers
  • Android
  • Apple
  • Innovation
  • Blogs
  • PC Hardware
  • Reviews
  • Search Engines
  • Virtualization
More
    Home Latest News
    • Networking

    Broadcom Unveils First 28nm Multicore Network Chips

    Written by

    Jeff Burt
    Published October 2, 2012
    Share
    Facebook
    Twitter
    Linkedin

      eWEEK content and product recommendations are editorially independent. We may make money when you click on links to our partners. Learn More.

      Broadcom officials say they’ve leapt ahead of competitors like Freescale, Marvell and LSI with the launch of their 28-nanometer, low-power networking chip aimed at such environments as cloud computing, software-defined networks, 4G Long Term Evolution (LTE) service provider deployments and enterprise data centers that increasingly are demanding greater scalability, performance and energy efficiency.

      The XLP 200-Series is the first fruit from Broadcom’s $3.7 billion acquisition this year of NetLogic Microsystems, which helped expand Broadcom’s business in the $3 billion multicore communications chip market, which includes products for everything from wireless and networking offerings to storage and security. The deal gave Broadcom greater capabilities in such areas as embedded and knowledge-based processors.

      The new 28nm chips, which are sampling now and will be in volume production in the second half of 2013, come at a time when other vendors are still churning out 40nm products, according to Kelvin Khoo, senior director of business development at Broadcom. They are aimed at the data plane, control plane and heterogeneous applications, according to the company.

      The XLP 200-Series chips, which were unveiled Oct. 1, meet the growing industry demand for more performance and better energy efficiency, Khoo told eWEEK. The new chips offer 400 percent faster performance than competing products while driving down power consumption by up to 60 percent.

      “It’s a different ballgame,” he said.

      According to Khoo, the drivers fueling the need for new communications processors like the XLP 200-Series are the same ones hitting the entire networking market—including the global growth of Internet traffic (expected to grow eighteenfold by 2016), the number of connected devices (50 billion by 2020), and cloud traffic that will grow 66 percent a year between 2012 and 2015, according to numbers from Cisco Systems.

      There are other trends that are driving the need for greater intelligence in multicore networking chips, from the rise of software-defined networks (SDNs) and the migration to 4G LTE networks to greater security and higher bandwidth demands.

      Broadcom has a full range of 40nm chips, Khoo said. The NetLogic deal enabled the company to accelerate its 28nm ambitions. The XLP 200-Series is “just the first step in the 28nm process mode of which there will be many more products to come,” he said.

      The new chips offer one or two MIPS cores that support quad-threading for each, and out-of-order execution capabilities. In addition, the chip’s Autonomous Acceleration Engine enables the offloading of processing tasks, which frees up the core to perform other compute-intensive workloads, according to Broadcom. Hardware accelerators, which act independently from the MIPS cores, can help speed up such tasks as packet ordering, network management and RAID5/6 storage.

      From a security standpoint, Broadcom’s new chips offer what the company calls Total Security Acceleration Technology, which among other things includes an integrated grammar-processing engine, Deep Packet Inspection (DPI) capabilities and a fourth-generation RegEx (regular expression) engine that takes data packets and compares the content in the packet with a database of security threats, Khoo said. Such capabilities, normally done by software in general-purpose cores, can now be done on the networking processors. The chips offload the security functions—which can be compute-intensive—from the CPU cores.

      “[F]or end-users—the network administrators and IT experts—the technology that Broadcom now offers zeroes in on a subject that’s been top of mind lately: security,” Tamara Snowden, lead evangelist for the Broadcom’s Infrastructure and Networking Group, wrote in an Oct. 1 post on the company’s blog. “Protecting the network is always mission-critical, but in recent days, the subject has grabbed headlines as cloud providers, social networking sites and retail banks struggle to fend off malicious cyber-attacks on their Websites.”

      Jeff Burt
      Jeff Burt
      Jeffrey Burt has been with eWEEK since 2000, covering an array of areas that includes servers, networking, PCs, processors, converged infrastructure, unified communications and the Internet of things.

      Get the Free Newsletter!

      Subscribe to Daily Tech Insider for top news, trends & analysis

      Get the Free Newsletter!

      Subscribe to Daily Tech Insider for top news, trends & analysis

      MOST POPULAR ARTICLES

      Artificial Intelligence

      9 Best AI 3D Generators You Need...

      Sam Rinko - June 25, 2024 0
      AI 3D Generators are powerful tools for many different industries. Discover the best AI 3D Generators, and learn which is best for your specific use case.
      Read more
      Cloud

      RingCentral Expands Its Collaboration Platform

      Zeus Kerravala - November 22, 2023 0
      RingCentral adds AI-enabled contact center and hybrid event products to its suite of collaboration services.
      Read more
      Artificial Intelligence

      8 Best AI Data Analytics Software &...

      Aminu Abdullahi - January 18, 2024 0
      Learn the top AI data analytics software to use. Compare AI data analytics solutions & features to make the best choice for your business.
      Read more
      Latest News

      Zeus Kerravala on Networking: Multicloud, 5G, and...

      James Maguire - December 16, 2022 0
      I spoke with Zeus Kerravala, industry analyst at ZK Research, about the rapid changes in enterprise networking, as tech advances and digital transformation prompt...
      Read more
      Video

      Datadog President Amit Agarwal on Trends in...

      James Maguire - November 11, 2022 0
      I spoke with Amit Agarwal, President of Datadog, about infrastructure observability, from current trends to key challenges to the future of this rapidly growing...
      Read more
      Logo

      eWeek has the latest technology news and analysis, buying guides, and product reviews for IT professionals and technology buyers. The site’s focus is on innovative solutions and covering in-depth technical content. eWeek stays on the cutting edge of technology news and IT trends through interviews and expert analysis. Gain insight from top innovators and thought leaders in the fields of IT, business, enterprise software, startups, and more.

      Facebook
      Linkedin
      RSS
      Twitter
      Youtube

      Advertisers

      Advertise with TechnologyAdvice on eWeek and our other IT-focused platforms.

      Advertise with Us

      Menu

      • About eWeek
      • Subscribe to our Newsletter
      • Latest News

      Our Brands

      • Privacy Policy
      • Terms
      • About
      • Contact
      • Advertise
      • Sitemap
      • California – Do Not Sell My Information

      Property of TechnologyAdvice.
      © 2024 TechnologyAdvice. All Rights Reserved

      Advertiser Disclosure: Some of the products that appear on this site are from companies from which TechnologyAdvice receives compensation. This compensation may impact how and where products appear on this site including, for example, the order in which they appear. TechnologyAdvice does not include all companies or all types of products available in the marketplace.

      ×