Application of a Multi-Processor SoC Platform to High-Speed Packet Forwarding

In this paper, we explore the requirements of emerging complex SoC's and describe StepNP, an experimental flexible, multi-processor SoC platform targeted towards communications and networking applications. We present the results of mapping an internet protocol (IPv4) packet forwarding application, running at 2.5Gb/s and 10Gb/s. We demonstrate how the use of high-speed hardware-assisted messaging and dynamic task allocation in the StepNP platform allows us to achieve very high processor utilization rates (up to 97%) in spite of the presence of high network-on-chip and memory access latencies. The inter-processor communication overhead is kept very low, representing only 9% of instructions.

• Type: Conference
• Year: 2004
• Where: DATE
• Authors: Pierre G. Paulin, Chuck Pilkington, Essaid Bensoudane, Michel Langevin, Damien Lyonnard
• Keywords: Complex Soc, DATE 2004, Hardware, Multi-processor Soc Platform, Packet Forwarding Application