eNsemble multi-core alliance to drive best-in-class multi-core platform innovations

MOUNTAIN VIEW, USA: NetLogic Microsystems Inc. has announced the launch of the eNsemble Multi-Core Alliance to drive best-in-class innovations in multi-core parallel processing platforms and software development for next-generation enterprise, telecom and data center networks.

Supported by a broad base of world-class hardware and software providers, the eNsemble Multi-Core Alliance serves as the foundation upon which original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) can more effectively and more efficiently develop high-performance networking equipment using industry-leading multi-core processors.

“We are in the early deployment phase of what is likely to be an industry-wide, multi-decade migration to multi-core processors across multiple markets and Tier One OEM platforms,” said Linley Gwennap, principal analyst at The Linley Group.

“Some of the key challenges in this migration include the significant effort required to parallelize software code originally developed for single-core processors, as well as the need to achieve efficient hardware partitioning between control and data plane processing. The eNsemble Multi-Core Alliance is a big step in accelerating the adoption of multi-core processors by bringing together partners to make best-in-class hardware and software available to system developers. We applaud the members of the Alliance for driving this initiative.”

“The eNsemble Multi-Core Alliance brings together the very best platform and software providers who provide a wide portfolio of solutions and who are leaders in their respective areas of expertise,” said Behrooz Abdi, executive vice president and general manager at NetLogic Microsystems.

“The Alliance provides a foundation upon which developers can innovate to create new, breakthrough solutions that can take full advantage of the superior performance and functionality of multi-core processors. We are pleased to see the strong support of the Alliance from other industry leaders, and we welcome other multi-core processor vendors to be part of this Alliance to collaboratively drive innovations for next-generation platforms.”

As a founding member of the eNsemble Multi-Core Alliance, NetLogic Microsystems is committed to an open programming model for its family of market-leading multi-core, multi-threaded processors to allow greater access and tighter coupling between networking software and the XLR, XLS and XLP multi-core processors.

This enables significant improvements in the application development efficiency of software code and overall system performance. In addition, this enables the development of new enhanced services and applications for next-generation Internet networks that are highly optimized for multi-core, multi-threaded processors.

“We are committed to the development and rapid adoption of high-performance Multicore solutions," stated Glenn Perry, general manager of Mentor Graphics embedded software division. "Mentor's investment in Multicore development technologies and services is further evidenced by becoming a founding member of the eNsemble Multi-Core Alliance."

“As an early pioneer in AdvancedTCA packet processing platforms and multi-core optimized Trillium protocol software, we at Continuous Computing are excited to join forces with other technology leaders in the eNsemble Multi-Core Alliance to drive the success and proliferation of high-performance multi-core processors,” said Mike Coward, CTO and co-founder at Continuous Computing.

“As illustrated by our recent performance achievement of Trillium SCTP FastPath yielding over 1 million packets per second with 64K associations on only three cores of the NetLogic Microsystems XLR processor on our FlexPacket ATCA-PP50 packet processing blade, Continuous Computing’s multi-core hardware and software solutions deliver a superior set of scalable, best-in-class capabilities for Long Term Evolution (LTE), High Speed Packet Access (HSPA) and IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) wireless and packet processing applications.”

Multi-core hardware and software providers, which have announced participation in the eNsemble Multi-Core Alliance include:

6WIND
Abatron AG
Advantech Co. Ltd
AirHop Communications Inc.
Aricent
Axentra Corp.
BitDefender
BroadWeb Co.
Continuous Computing
CriticalBlue
D2 Technologies Inc.
Effnet AB
ENEA AB
JumpGen Systems LLC
Kaspersky Lab
Lanner Group Ltd
Macraigor Systems LLC
Mentor Graphics
NetLogic Microsystems Inc.
NEXCOM International Co. Ltd
Procera Networks Inc.
Qosmos
Sensory Networks Inc.
Silicom Ltd
TeamF1 Inc.

“Multicore processors are central to the deployment of rich-media services and the transition to all-IP networks by leading carriers and service providers worldwide,” said Mathias Båth, senior vice president of marketing at Enea. “The eNsemble Alliance is poised to play a critical role in this transition by bringing together technology leaders to innovate and collaborate in order to accelerate the adoption of multicore processors.”

“We are very pleased to be a part of the eNsemble Multi-Core Alliance, and we strongly believe this industry initiative will help drive the rapid adoption of high-performance multi-core processors,” said Eric Carmes, CEO at 6WIND. “Our 6WINDGate software maximizes the packet processing performance of networking and telecom equipment based on multi-core processors. We are committed to continuing our leadership position in multi-core software for next-generation networks.”

“Advantech has a long history of working with multi-core processors, and we are excited to continue our innovative leadership by joining the prestigious eNsemble Multi-Core Alliance,” said Eddie Lai, Director of Business Development for Advantech Network Computing Group. “By collaborating with other technology leaders, we aim to accelerate the adoption of ATCA-based multi-core blades and solutions.”

“Aricent is very enthusiastic about the opportunity to collaborate with the eNsemble Multi-Core Alliance membership,” said Rakesh Vij, assistant vice president at Aricent. “It is important for us to provide LTE software framework solutions for Multi-Core programming environments, which help to improve time to market and reduce development costs for our customers who develop the latest 4G infrastructure.”

“Being part of organizations such as eNsemble has always been valuable to Lanner’s core business,” said Jesse Chang, Senior Product Planner, Lanner. “By working with other eNsemble™ Alliance members, Lanner is able to leverage our vast experience in the networking industry to deliver power network appliance platforms for next generation network infrastructure devices.”

eNsemble Multi-Core Alliance
The eNsemble Multi-Core Alliance is an industry organization aimed at driving best-in-class innovations in multi-core parallel processing platforms and software development for next-generation enterprise, telecommunications and data center networks.

Supported by a broad base of world-class hardware and software providers, the eNsemble Multi-Core Alliance serves as the foundation upon which original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) can more effectively and more efficiently develop high-performance networking equipment using industry-leading multi-core processors.

The eNsemble Multi-Core Alliance brings together the very best hardware and software providers who offer wide portfolios and who are leaders in their respective areas of expertise. The Alliance creates a platform on which developers can innovate to create new, breakthrough applications that can take full advantage of the superior performance and functionality of multi-core processors.