Customers throw tough questions at net processor vendors

Customers throw tough questions at net processor vendors
LAS VEGAS — If this is nuclear winter in telecom spending, network processor vendors are the shell-shocked survivors, emerging from shelters to find a bleak world outside. OEMs and startup carriers have vanished and incumbent carriers are trimming capital expenditures to almost nothing.

But behind the obvious bad news are some encouraging signs that the network processor market is maturing. Vendors at this week's Networld+Interop conference here gathered at the Network Processor Summit not just to commiserate, but to show that they and their customers are getting the hang of this business.

"The hype is down and customers are starting to ask tough questions," said Hemant Trivedi, chief executive officer of Terago Communications Inc.

Those questions are important, because network processors are difficult to quantify. While memory and microprocessors can be explained in densities and clock speeds, no single number sufficiently describes a network processor. Most are categorized as running at OC-192 (10 Gbits/second) or OC-48 (2.5 Gbits/s), but their effectiveness depends on the application. Different systems might require deeper inspection of packets. Moreover, particular network processor architectures have their strong and weak points for handling particular functions.

In short, almost every question about network processors has the same answer: "It depends."

So developing a savvy customer base is critical to growing this market, since customer advice can help in designing products. EZchip Technologies incurred extra delays on its debut processor, the NP-1, to add customer-requested features, chief executive officer Eli Fruchter said.

For those vendors already shipping chips, customer experience is being codified into next-generation parts. Fast-Chip Inc. added configurable I/O to its next-generation Policy-Edge chips, introduced this week, after finding the devices are well-suited for protocol conversion.

"One of the difficulties of these network processing blocks so far is that everybody has different interfaces," said Charlie Jenkins, vice president of marketing at Fast-Chip (Sunnyvale, Calif.). The new parts, the FC6402 and FC6302, have I/Os that can handle the SPI-4.1, SPI-4.2 and XGMII protocols. And because the chips can manipulate packet headers at bit granularity, they can alter headers to conform to particular companies' I/O implementations. In other words, Fast-Chip can take care of the logical side of the protocol not just physical aspects like pin layout, Jenkins said.

Features trump speed

Experience has also taught network processor executives to stop obsessing over speed. It was clear by last fall's N+I that OEMs' needs lie less in speed than in features, particularly for lower-speed boxes at the network edge, where thousands of subscribers are transferring data over multiple protocols.

That's particularly true as spending has evaporated for the network core, where pure speed comes in handy. Earlier this year, the lack of high-end demand prompted Vitesse Semiconductor Corp. to postpone its OC-192 network processor, joining IBM Corp. and Motorola Inc. in planning a 2003 launch.

"It was always easy to get a conversation started [about OC-192]," said David Dubois, director of product strategy at Vitesse. "But when it came to asking when they would need the product in volume, the answer was: no earlier than the second quarter of 2004."

Still, many chip vendors are banking on OC-192 network processors to find a home in OC-48 systems. It would parallel the experience of OC-48 processors, which couldn't actually meet OC-48 line speed while juggling complex functions; instead, those parts found homes inside OC-12 (622-Mbit/s) boxes, where they could keep up easily.

Product announcements at N+I reflected the focus on lower speeds. Azanda Network Devices Inc. unveiled its Scimitar AZ61100 traffic manager, running at OC-48. The chip originally was intended for OC-192, but Azanda announced earlier this year that it would target OC-48 instead, citing a weak high-end market.

Similarly, Vitesse (Camarillo, Calif.) announced a low-speed version of its traffic manager at N+I. The OC-48 Oscar chip, sequel to the PaceMaker device introduced last year, is sampling now, with production volumes expected in the summer, said Hugh Thomas, vice president of marketing.

Future shock

There's still that nuclear winter to worry about, however. Given the rough economy and the overabundance of companies in this space, many executives at N+I agreed that consolidation appears inevitable. Terago's Trivedi called it part of the natural cycle for new markets, pointing to 3-D graphics controllers as an example.

Many network processing executives expect a major shakeout in the coming year, but others were less pessimistic.

"Looking at today's market and extrapolating from that is probably a mistake," said Chris Hoogenboom, chief executive officer of Internet Machines Corp. "There is enough market demand for the high-end products to sustain the companies spending a significant amount of R&D."