Linux networking stack scales to 64 virtual MIPS64 cores
May 3, 2007 — by LinuxDevices Staff — from the LinuxDevices Archive — 2 views[Updated May 4] — 6Wind says its commercial Linux networking stack supports a Continuous Computing (CCPU) ATCA board powered by two MIPS64-compatible multi-core CPUs. The stack is available in an “ADS” symmetrical multiprocessing variant for computationally intensive applications, or an “SDS” symmetrical multiprocessing variant with a fast data path.
The ATCA PP50 board is based on a pair of Raza Microelectronics (RMI) XLR732 processors and can be configured with up to 64 virtual CPUs, according to 6Wind. The company describes its networking software as “the only Linux architecture that scales on these multi-core systems.”
ADS and SDS compared
(Click to enlarge)
6Wind said its symmetrical multiprocessing stack, ADS, delivers high throughput, since computationally intensive tasks such as IPSec processing and L3 packet forwarding can be “dispatched into many threads and cores simultaneously.”
Meanwhile, the company's 6WindGate SDS stack is said to offer a fast data path by dedicating some cores specifically to data plane processing, and others to control plane tasks (i.e., running Linux).
Another touted benefit is that “the OCF APIs of the 6WINDGate allow sharing the security engines of the XLR with the SSL userland application and the Kernel IPsec stack.”
Availability details were not disclosed.
6Wind previously said its stack supported a 32-CPU MIPS64 Lanbird board
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