Broadcom Introduces Multi-core Communications Processor to Simplify NFV and SDN Deployment

LAS VEGAS, March 31, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- Interop 2014 -- Broadcom Corporation (NASDAQ: BRCM), a global innovation leader in semiconductor solutions for wired and wireless communications, today announced the expansion of its XLP®II multi-core communications processors family with the XLP500 Series. Featuring 32 NXCPUs and 80 Gbps performance, the XLP500 Series delivers up to 4X the per-core performance of competing processors. Broadcom will demonstrate the new series at Interop, Las Vegas, April 1 – 3, 2014, booth #1239. For more news, visit Broadcom's Newsroom. 

The XLP500 Series delivers the superior processing performance and agility needed to simplify Network Functions Virtualization (NFV) and Software Defined Networking (SDN) deployment. Performance is achieved with an innovative quad-issue, quad-threaded superscalar architecture with out-of-order execution.  Support for Broadcom's Open NFV platform and seamless interoperability with Broadcom's StrataXGS^® Switch Series streamlines the development process, optimizes power requirements, reduces hardware costs and improves time-to-market.

"Rapid growth in network traffic has expedited the adoption of SDN and NFV by carriers in order to cost-effectively overlay control and compute power onto their existing infrastructure," said Linley Gwennap, Principal Analyst at The Linley Group and Editor-in-Chief of the Microprocessor Report. "The combination of four-issue superscalar execution and four-way multithreading is unique among embedded processors and the XLP500 Series raises the bar for embedded processors that are optimized for communications."

"For service providers and data center operators looking to manage dynamically changing workloads and massive data requirements, the XLP500 Series provides the processing performance and flexibility required to deploy new services and cost-effectively scale the network," said Chris O'Reilly, Broadcom, Senior Director of Product Marketing, Processors & Wireless Infrastructure.  "With the addition of the XLP500 Series, Broadcom now offers the industry's broadest end-to-end portfolio of 28 nanometer multi-core communications processors, spanning 4 NXCPUs to 640 NXCPUs."

"In order to facilitate a successful industry-wide NFV rollout, HP's OpenNFV program requires an open platform to easily migrate virtual functions across systems and a new class of processors that can improve packet processing, help reduce hardware costs, simplify applications and improve time-to-market," said Vinay Saxena, Chief Architect, Network Functions Virtualization, Hewlett Packard. "We believe our collaboration with Broadcom on its Open NFV platform, and communications processors such as the XLP500 Series, are ideally suited to deliver the right balance of power, performance and workload flexibility needed to meet the requirements of NFV solutions."

Complementing Broadcom's XLP200 and XLP900 Series, the XLP500 Series provides customers with more choices within the XLPII family of products, enabling the deployment of a wide range of products, including high-end SDN control plane applications, leveraging a single common software platform.

XLP500 Series Key Features:

• Optimized driver and tight integration with Broadcom's FASTPATH^® software enables seamless interoperability with Broadcom's StrataXGS® Switch Series
• Support for Broadcom's Open NFV platform enables seamless migration of virtual functions independent of Instruction Set Architectures (ISAs)
• Full end-to-end virtualization of CPUs memory, I/Os and acceleration engines
• Integrated autonomous acceleration engines support a broad range of applications such as Deep Packet Inspection (DPI), encryption, network acceleration and storage
• Configurable pool of high performance multi-core processors along with application-specific engines accelerates advanced networking and security functions in a virtualized environment
• Supports open-source virtualization platforms such as KVM, QEMU and OVS
• Integrated high speed I/Os including 40GEs, 10GEs, GE, HiGig2 and Interlaken
• Dedicated lanes for PCIE Gen3.0 and SATA3.0

Availability:

The XLP500 Series is now sampling. See Broadcom's innovations optimized to improve performance, efficiency and security in the next-generation data center, enterprise and cloud-scale networks on the Interop show floor at booth #1239 in the Mandalay Bay Convention Center.  

For ongoing news, visit Broadcom's Newsroom, read the B-Connected Blog, or visit Facebook or Twitter. And to stay connected, subscribe to Broadcom's RSS Feed.

About Broadcom

Broadcom Corporation (NASDAQ: BRCM), a FORTUNE 500^® company, is a global leader and innovator in semiconductor solutions for wired and wireless communications. Broadcom^® products seamlessly deliver voice, video, data and multimedia connectivity in the home, office and mobile environments. With the industry's broadest portfolio of state-of-the-art system-on-a-chip solutions, Broadcom is changing the world by Connecting everything^®. For more information, go to www.broadcom.com.

Broadcom®, the pulse logo, Connecting everything^® , XLP^®, StrataXGS^®, and FASTPATH^® are among the trademarks of Broadcom Corporation and/or its affiliates in the United States, certain other countries and/or the EU.  Any other trademarks or trade names mentioned are the property of their respective owners.

SOURCE Broadcom Corporation; BRCM Infrastructure & Networking