Who will hollow out the router?
Such a breather might appear to confirm Andrew Schmitt s recent response to Telecosm Ten s net processor session. The analyst at Nyquist Capital implied that the need for interoperability will quickly drive uncertainty out of the metro Ethernet market. Today, carriers have only a vague idea what features will be required in these new networks, and therefore flexibility rules. Soon, however, the market will become well understood and common features will be codified in silicon. Thus, Schmitt believes the router will be hollowed out not with NPUs, which will handle some 10% of exception traffic, but by ASSPs (application-specific standard products) from the likes of Broadcom. Overlooked by Schmitt is that with every turn of the technology ratchet, the network processor market changes. So much so, in fact, that many in Silicon Valley believe that the demands are too exacting and specialized to support a general purpose NPU comparable to the Pentium. Thus, they disparage EZchip using preci
