EZchip Semiconductor has begun sampling its NP-4 100-Gigabit network processor (NPU) for Carrier Ethernet equipment. The NP-4 is designed for the next generation of high-density switch/router line cards that feature 200-400 Gbps throughput and 20-40 10-Gigabit ports. 
EZchip confirmed that its NP-4 has already been selected for use by multiple customers, including Tier-1 vendors, in a variety of applications.
NP-4 highlights include:
- 100 Gbps throughput for building 40-400 Gigabit line-cards and pizza boxes
- Integrated traffic management providing granular bandwidth control
- Enhanced support for video streams and IPTV
- On-chip control CPU for host CPU offload
- Power management for minimizing line card and system power dissipation
- Operations, Administration and Management (OAM) processing offload
- Synchronous Ethernet and IEEE1588v2 offload for Circuit Emulation Services
- IP reassembly for advanced packet processing offload
- Integrated serial ports with support for 1, 10, 40 and 100 Gigabit Ethernet
- On-chip Fabric Interface Controller for interfacing to Ethernet-based as well as proprietary switch-fabric solutions
- Utilizing DDR3 DRAM memory chips for minimizing power and cost
- Software compatible with EZchip's NP-2, NP-3 and NPA network processors
http://www.ezchip.com/p_np4.htm
