Claiming it has technology that can break through
today’s current IP switching bottlenecks, Santa Clara, CA-based T.Sqware is
introducing a line of “edge” processors that borrow from super-computing
designs.
According to company representatives, T.Sqware’s chips will make it possible
to build switching equipment that can keep up with the speed of the fastest
wire connections, such as SONET and DS3, with no latency.
The company claims that its initial products, the TS704 Edge Processor and
TS518 TDM Concentrator, will provide switching performance that is 10 times
faster than the rate at which data is switched per processor instruction
today. Typical processors today can process about 1 million bits of network
traffic per million processor instructions.
T.Sqware officials say their design will eventually allow the production of
chips that can scale to speeds that are 100 times faster than today’s
switching rates. They claim the technology will be able to yield single
products which perform all required processing at the physical layer, the
data link layer, and the network layer (layers 1, 2, and 3) of the OSI
network model.
T.Sqware was spun out of Temic and Matra Semiconductor. It is funded by
$21 million in venture capital from Level One Communications, Walden, Atlas
Venture, Alta Partners, Sofinnova and others.
