Highest Density, 4.7Mbit Classication CAM for High-Density Networking and Communications.

Business Editors/Technology Writers

Networld+Interop 2001 - Booth No. 8916

LAS VEGAS--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 7, 2001

Networld+Interop--

--  Sustained 100M Look-ups/Sec. for 72/144b Searches.

--  Table Width And Ternary/Binary Functions Selectable Per Bank.

--  144b Search In One Cycle.

--  Longest Match Functions Without Including Data Sorting.

--  Small form factor 324 BGA package, $98.00 /10,000 qty.

--  Evaluation board available, free upon request.

Kawasaki LSI, Inc. (KLSI) is introducing a versatile 4.7Mb classification content-addressable memory (CAM) at N+I today. The highest density CAM currently available, the KE5BCCA4M 4.7M is designed for high-speed, high-density networking and communications equipment.

An evaluation board, available for customer use at no additional charge, also makes design simulation fast and simple.

Part of KLSI's ongoing CAM product family, the KE5BCCA4M 4.7M is a flexible device designed for networking equipment such as Layer 2+ switches and routers, core and edge routers, terabit routers, fiber optic switches, digital subscriber line access multiplexers (DSLAMs), and other LAN, MAN and WAN switches and routers.

The broad range of features also makes this CAM suitable for high-end applications, such as multi-protocol label switching (MPLS), quality of service (QoS), class of service (CoS), Terabit Ethernet, ATM lookups and multi-layer network operations. A 9Mb version is planned for Q4 2001.

"KLSI's commitment to CAMs dates back to 1993. The new KE5BCCA4M 4.7M is the highest density CAM currently available. It offers fast and advanced search operations, packet classification and forwarding. These features allow core, edge and access routers and switches to perform critical tasks quickly and efficiently using the KE5BCCA4M," said Janice Ozguc, vice president of networking products at KLSI.

KLSI's CAM allows faster, more efficient design and development of future generations of networking and communications equipment. Its features can expedite market introduction of improved, high-end equipment handling the proliferation of such applications as VoIP, VPNs and policy-based networking.

The KE5BCCA4M 4.7M's capability of 100 million look-ups per second supports operations up to OC-768 and 40 Gigabit Ethernet. Searching for 144-bit wide packets in one cycle enables increased speed for IPv.4 classification and forwarding.

To manage the larger packet sizes in the emerging IPv.6 protocol, KLSI's KE5BCCA4M 4.7M provides wide tables, allowing improved support of options, such as authentication, security and privacy. It also allows for enhanced capabilities, such as QoS and CoS.

Plus, KE5BCCA4M 4.7M's per-bit global masks assist with enforcing policy, including options and classifying packets. Configuring table widths and choosing either ternary or binary operations on a per-bank basis adds flexibility by addressing several different applications. To increase table size, eight KE5BCCA4M 4.7Ms can be cascaded without penalty or up to 32 with minimal additional hardware.

The KE5BCCA4M 4.7M has a dual-port architecture with an I/O Port for data input/output and an output port for output of search results. This architecture enables pipelined operation to obtain the maximum throughput for a given clock frequency. The I/O Port can operate at a double-data rate (DDR) input so that 144-bit can be inputted in one clock cycle. The I/O Port's CNTL bus gives an instruction with each input data. Also, the registers can be accessed through the I/O Port by defining the CNYL bus.

Eighteen global mask registers can mask specified bits of an entire CAM table. The KE5BCCA4M 4.7M core can feature eight customized banks, each individually configurable. Bank configuration is selected from 72-, 144- and 288-bit, binary or tertiary, respectively. Flag logic smoothes cascade connections. Pricing and Availability

Packaged in a small 324-ball grid array, the KE5BCCA4M 4.7M is priced at US$98.00 each in 10,000-unit quantities.

A KLSI evaluation board is also available without any additional cost to aid customers in development of their system and achieve faster turn around time. The KE5BCCA4M evaluation board is a demonstration system with an on-board pattern generator to test ternary CAM in a real system environment. The board is capable of running the KE5BCCA4M at the maximum frequency. It features PC interface and pattern compiler so that users can configure the device, create the key data stream by assembler code, and run the device with the compiled key data stream. Eight KE5BCCA4M 4.7M CAMs are cascaded and run at the maximum frequency. Power consumption is measured by on-board ammeter.

About Kawasaki LSI, U.S.A., Inc.

Kawasaki LSI U.S.A. is the North American affiliate of Kawasaki LSI, which in turn is a division of Kawasaki Steel in Japan. The company provides the product development, marketing, sales and technical support for customers in the Americas in connectivity and data communications applications.