ASSPs Speed Packet Search In Next-Generation Routers And Switches

Designed to accelerate the packet search process and boost the performance of next-generation routers and switches, the Chorus family of application specific standard products (ASSPs) uses a proprietary active memory technology for packet header processing at all layers to help the ASSPs achieve search rates of over 100 million/s and up to three operations per clock cycle. The head of the family is a 9M chip (MUAE64K144) that contains 9.4-million ternary data elements of content addressable memory (CAM), reportedly more than any other search engine on the market. The chip offers comparable performance in a 4.5M device (MUAE32K144) that contains 4.7 million ternary data elements.
With both devices, up to 64 chips can be cascaded to store up to 604 million ternary data elements with no loss of performance. At 66 MHz, maximum power is less than 11W for the MUAE64K144 and less than 7W for the MUAE32K144. Other features of the ASSPs include support for multiple lookup tables of different widths and searches of 36 and 144 bits in a single clock cycle; wider lookups can be performed using multiple clock cycles. Priced at $275 and $160 each/1,000, respectively, the MUAE64K144 and MUAE32K144 will sample in the third quarter of this year.