NEC’s New TCP/IP Offload Engine Powered
by 10 Tensilica Xtensa Processor Cores
Highly Optimized
TOE Speeds the Throughput of IP-Based Storage
Systems
Santa Clara, Calif., May
12, 2003 – Tensilica®,
Inc., the leading provider of configurable and
extensible processors, today announced that NEC
Corporation has developed its first TCP Offload
Engine (TOE) integrating 10 Xtensa® processor
cores on a single chip. NEC’s TOE (TCP
offload engine) chip has been implemented in
NEC NAS system called iStorage NV Series, also
announced and made available today by NEC, and
has been designed to speed the throughput of
storage area network (SAN) and network-attached
storage (NAS) systems.
“The market shift toward Ethernet-over-IP
and iSCSI as the preferred transmission protocols
for storage systems is putting new demands on server
and storage subsystem designs,” said Mr.
Hirooto Ono, Engineering Manager, System File Products
Division, NEC Corporation. “A general-purpose
CPU – even a monolithic IC running at several
GHz – does not have the necessary horsepower.
So application-specific TCP/IP offload engines
are required. However, designing a multi-million-gate
ASIC completely from hardwired state machines for
such a diverse protocol as TCP/IP is a monstrous
challenge. Tensilica’s Xtensa core offered
us a superior design alternative – the benefits
of a programmable, processor-based solution with
the performance of a dedicated, rigid logic solution.
By designing the TOE processor around 10 Xtensa
processors optimized with storage networking specific
instructions of our own design, our device is both
highly optimized and programmable.”
“Having established itself as a premier
supplier of both high-performance networking chips
and equipment, NEC brings a well-rounded perspective
to the design of advanced storage SOCs,” said
Bernie Rosenthal, senior vice president of sales
and marketing for Tensilica, Inc. “By using
our automated process to generate Xtensa cores
matched exactly to each part of the application,
NEC achieved the performance this product required.
Additionally, they were able to create this chip
with significantly reduced engineering resources
and design time.”
About the TOE Chip
NEC’s new TOE chip handles
many of the basic functions required to terminate
a TCP connection including classification, search,
management, configuration and processing. One Xtensa
core is configured for control management; another
core is tasked with dispatching, and the eight
remaining Xtensa cores take care of TCP and UDP
protocol processing tasks in parallel.
Starting with the Xtensa processor’s base
instruction set, NEC added storage-networking-specific
instructions, using the Tensilica Instruction Extension
(TIE) language to create an even more optimized
instruction set that performs powerful compute-centric
acceleration in very few cycles.
About Tensilica’s Xtensa Architecture
Xtensa
continues to be the only configurable and extensible
processor with comprehensive and automatic software,
modeling and EDA support. Changes made by the
designer to extend the Xtensa processor hardware – adding
instructions, registers, processor state and custom
execution units - are immediately and automatically
reflected in the entire software tool chain, significantly
reducing design complexity and time-to-market.
Using the Tensilica Instruction Extension (TIE)
Language, customers are able to add an unlimited
number of user-defined instructions to the processor.
Tensilica’s processor generator technology
creates a complete, correct-by-construction processor
solution – hardware, software environment,
modeling and EDA tools – in just over an
hour. Each core can be optimized for virtually
any application. This has made the Xtensa platform
an attractive alternative to custom logic blocks,
which were traditionally designed to accompany
off-the-shelf, hard-wired processor cores in order
to optimize the SOC for the target application.
About NEC Corporation
NEC Corporation (NASDAQ:
NIPNY) (FTSE: 6701q.l) (TYSE: 6701). NEC is one
of the world's leading providers of Internet,
broadband network and enterprise business solutions
dedicated to meeting the specialized needs of its
diverse and global base of customers. Ranked as
one of the world's top patent-producing companies,
NEC delivers tailored solutions in the key fields
of computer, networking and electron devices, by
integrating its technical strengths in IT and Networks,
and by providing advanced semiconductor solutions
through NEC Electronics Corporation. The NEC
Group employs more than 140,000 people worldwide
and had net sales of approximately $39 billion
in the fiscal year ended March 2003. For additional
information, please visit the NEC home page
at: http://www.nec.com
About Tensilica
Tensilica was founded in July
1997 to address the growing need for optimized,
application-specific microprocessor solutions
in high-volume embedded applications. With a configurable
and extensible microprocessor core called Xtensa,
Tensilica is the only company that has automated
and patented the time-consuming process of generating
a customized microprocessor core along with a
complete software development tool environment,
producing new configurations in a matter of hours.
For more information, visit www.tensilica.com.
# # #
Editors’ Notes:
- “Tensilica” and “Xtensa” are
registered trademarks belonging to Tensilica
Inc. All other trademarks are the property of
their respective holders.
- Tensilica’s announced
licensees are Agilent, Astute Networks, Avision,
Bay Microsystems, Berkeley Wireless Research
Center, Broadcom, Cisco Systems, Conexant Systems,
Cypress, ETRI, FUJIFILM Microdevices, Fujitsu
Ltd., Hudson Soft, Hughes Network Systems, IC4IC,
Ikanos Communications, JNI Corporation, Marvell,
Mindspeed Technologies, National Semiconductor,
NEC Networks, NEC Solutions, Nippon Telephone
and Telegraph (NTT), Olympus Optical Co. Ltd.,
ONEX Communications, OptiX Networks, Osaka & Kyoto
Universities, S2io, Sony, TranSwitch Corporation,
Trebia Networks, Victor Company of Japan
(JVC) and ZiLOG.
|
