PROCESSORS

NetLogic Microsystems has announced that its market-leading multi-core, multi-threaded processors and knowledge-based processors are powering best-in-class TD-LTE equipment from Motorola and Continuous Computing to provide TD-LTE coverage at the Shanghai World Expo 2010.

The exponential growth in global mobile traffic, IP-based smart phones, and rich applications and services is driving carriers to upgrade mobile infrastructure networks from the third-generation (3G) Wideband Code Division Multiple Access (WCDMA), High Speed Packet Access (HSPA), CDMA2000 and TD-SCDMA to fourth-generation (4G) Long Term Evolution (LTE) technology over the next several years in order to provide consumers with higher bandwidth services, to lower capital and operating expenses for carriers, and to mitigate the stress that mobile Internet services are placing on existing networks. The Global mobile Suppliers Association (GSA) recently reported that 80 operators have made firm commitments to deploy LTE in 33 countries; leading carriers who have publicly announced LTE trials include AT&T, China Mobile, KDDI, NTT DoCoMo, SingTel, Telefonica O2, TeliaSonera, Telstra CSL, T-Mobile, Verizon Wireless, Vodafone and Yota.

Motorola's WBC 700 mobility management entity (MME) is architected around unique, high performance Advanced Telecommunications Computing Architecture (ATCA) packet processing blades from Continuous Computing. These sophisticated ATCA blades feature NetLogic Microsystems' multi-core, multi-threaded processors and knowledge-based processors to deliver the highest levels of security, reliability and performance required for LTE now and in the future.

Motorola's next-generation WBC 700 portfolio - the Evolved Packet Core (EPC) component of the network - helps operators meet rapid growth in subscriber demands for mobile broadband by giving them the opportunity to increase revenue while reducing cost per bit. Motorola's WBC 700 solution is engineered with a design philosophy of a distributed architecture that can scale independently for data traffic or control messaging, giving operators the performance and capacity they will need to effectively operate their LTE networks and the flexibility to support future growth.

"We have partnered with NetLogic Microsystems, the worldwide leader in multi-core and knowledge-based processing technologies, to offer highly advanced and differentiated ATCA products to our customers," said Mike Coward, CTO and co-founder at Continuous Computing. "The combination of our superior LTE and Deep Packet Inspection (DPI) platforms with NetLogic Microsystems' best-in-class processors has led to our being selected for multiple LTE deployments worldwide."

Continuous Computing's flagship FlexPacket ATCA product line is designed to support 40G and 10G ATCA standards and is targeted at core and edge elements in 3G wireless, Evolved HSPA (HSPA+), LTE, as well as DPI applications such as security, video content delivery, lawful intercept and intelligent traffic shaping. Continuous Computing's FlexTCA pre-integrated platforms provide the highest I/O density, the highest packet processing performance and establish a new floor for customers' cost-per-Gigabit compared to competitive ATCA solutions.

"We are proud to be part of the LTE deployment at the World Expo in Shanghai this year through our collaboration with Motorola and Continuous Computing," said Chris O'Reilly, vice president of marketing at NetLogic Microsystems. "This global showcase at the World Expo is further testament to our increasing success in leading LTE deployments at multiple carriers worldwide."

NetLogic Microsystems provides an end-to-end wireless infrastructure silicon solution with its market-leading portfolio of multi-core processors, knowledge-based processors, Layer 7 content processors and 10 Gigabit Ethernet PHY devices that offers customers unprecedented breadth, depth and scalability to develop systems from mobile edge to packet core.

NetLogic Microsystems' multi-core, multi-threaded processors offer a rich set of features and functionality with unprecedented performance and power for embedded telecommunications, enterprise, data center, security and storage applications. These processors integrate up to eight high-performance MIPS64 cores, each with four-way simultaneous multi-threading, for a total of 32 NXCPUs to mitigate latency, improve computational efficiency and throughput for network data plane and control plane processing in base stations, eNodeB, RNCs, gateways, switches, routers, ATCA and AMC service cards. The processors also offer a tri-level cache architecture and best-in-class packet management, packet distribution and network accelerator engine, an intelligent Fast Messaging Network to maximize on-chip communications bandwidth, a superior memory sub-system, high-speed interconnects, and a broad set of acceleration engines. This enables NetLogic Microsystems' multi-core processors to support billions of in-flight messages and packet descriptors between all on-chip elements. The processor family is supported by a comprehensive software development kit (SDK) that contains reference and production-ready software components, which enables customers to accelerate time-to-market.

The knowledge-based processors from NetLogic Microsystems integrate up to 128 high-performance knowledge-based processing engines, and includes an enhanced Intelligent Load Balancing Engine (ILBE) to efficiently allocate multiple tasks and communicate among all the 128 knowledge-based processing engines. The knowledge-based processing engines and ILBE are tightly coupled with integrated advanced Sahasra Algorithmic Engines (SAEs) to dramatically lower the power consumption of search processing. These industry-leading processors also integrate an innovative Range Encoding Engine (REE), which employs advanced one-hot and fence encoding algorithms to implement range encoding that allows customers to effectively double the efficiency of performing port range inspection.