* Network processors and other chips
I don’t write much about day-to-day chip news, but several chip-related announcements have crossed my desk over the last two weeks and I think they point up some interesting trends. Chips are lowering costs and improving flexibility, all behind the scenes.
The first comes from Broadcom, which recently told the world that a chip using its 54M bit/sec 802.11g-based wireless technology is included in HP printers. Yes, network-attached printers no longer have to be attached, and Broadcom says it is the first to do this using 802.11g. The lucky recipients of the technology are the HP Photosmart 2700 All-in-One series, Officejet 7410 All-in-One and Deskjet 6840 Color Inkjet printer.
Meanwhile, EZchip Technology is saying that Allied Telesyn has shipped an IPv6 switch that contains a 10 Gigabit Ethernet network processor from a certain semiconductor company whose name is E-Z to remember. The NP-1c is the processor, and it powers Allied Telesyn’s AT-8948.
Xelerated unveiled a network processor, the X11, that supports 20G bit/sec full duplex and embeds 24 Fast Ethernet/Gigabit Ethernet MACs. This change, the company says, will cut the cost per port in half vs. Xelerated’s previous chip.
Twenty-four is also Broadcom’s (yes, them again) magic number, as the company introduced a switch chip with 24 ports of Fast Ethernet physical-layer transceivers and two Gigabit Ethernet MACs. Broadcom says that it is aiming the technology at small businesses and that “the new device integrates all of the building blocks required for a high-performance switch system at an affordable SMB price point.” Broadcom implied that Netgear would be one vendor using the switch chip in its systems.
Lastly, a company called Quake Technologies said it has shipped its 100,000th unit of 10G bit/sec Ethernet chips. Given that, it looks like 10 Gig is off to a good start.
