Reconfigurable Network Processors Based on Field Programmable System Level Integrated Circuits

Abstract

The increasing demand of networking applications has imposed a new category of electronic circuits that integrate powerful CPU processing, networking and system support functions in a single, low cost chip. These integrated circuits, called Network Processors, are optimized for tasks such as access protocol implementation, data queuing and forwarding, traffic shaping and Quality of Service (QoS) support. This paper presents the use of Field Programmable System Level Integrated Circuits that combine the flexibility of programmable cores and the high performance of dedicated hardware, to implement network processors used for medium access protocols.