Converged Wireless Base Stations Hardware Platforms
Today the wireless infrastructure consists of a variety of different technologies such as 3G, EVDO, HSDPA and WiMax. These wireless technologies are based upon different base-station architectures and distinctive transport links such as ATM, SONET and IP. Moving forward, next generation wireless technology called LTE is uniting the fragmented wireless network into a common base-station hardware platform that uses a common IP-based transport link with security using the IPsec protocol. The backend networks behind base-stations are converging into a single access gateway (AGW) before connecting to the core Internet or existing PSTN telephone networks. With 4G deployment on the horizon, wireless communication equipment vendors are looking to build scalable hardware platforms that support today’s wireless standards and at the same time can be upgraded via software to support the next generation LTE, UMB (Ultra Mobile Broadband), or WiMAX.standard. The common base station hardware platform requires a high-performance host and transport processor that can support wireless protocol processing and line-rate security to support wired transport links. Cavium Networks’ new OCTEON CN52XX wireless Processor family provides an ideal processor solution that enables a software upgradable hardware platform within the stringent power and cost budget of wireless base stations.

“Wireless network standards for voice and data are evolving and converging with 3G, 4G and WiMax. This next generation of wireless networks will offer high-speed connections that support high speed broadband data rates, multiple voice-channels with simultaneous video streaming ,” said Linley Gwennap, Principal Analyst at The Linley Group. “To meet the exacting demands of next generation wireless infrastructure, vendors need high-performance and integrated processors like the OCTEON CN52XX Wireless family with performance, power and cost that enables widespread deployment.”

OCTEON CN52XX Wireless Multicore MIPS64 Processor
The new OCTEON CN52XX Wireless processor family provides a highly scalable and integrated Layer 2 to Layer 7 solution with hardware acceleration that supports both wireless and wired networking functions. The CN52XX wireless processors deliver over 1Gbps of WiMax Base Station protocol performance, AAL2, 4Gbps+ of min packet routing, robust header compression (RoHC), Kasumi for over-the-air encryption and IPsec for wired links. The CN52XX wireless processor family consists of six different software- and pin-compatible parts with 2 to 4 cnMIPS-plus cores, running at clock speeds from 500MHz up to 900 MHz. All CN52XX wireless processors integrate 512KB of L2 cache, a 72bit DDR2-800 memory controller, up to 4x Gigabit interfaces (SGMII) or one 10 Gigabit interface (XAUI), two MII management interfaces and two PCI-Express controllers each with 2-lanes or one controller with 4-lanes. Additionally the CN52XX wireless processors incorporate existing and proven OCTEON processor family hardware acceleration for packet processing, Quality of Service, TCP and multicore acceleration. This high-level of integration and hardware acceleration provides three to five times the performance in wireless applications when compared to alternative solutions with the same price and power ranges. The CN52XX is comprehensive solution that addresses all the L2-L7 requirements for Pico, Micro and Macro Basestations, and joins the currently available CN54XX/56XX product family which addresses all the requirements for Macro basestations, RNC, and xGSN core transport.

“Cavium Networks is providing a wide range of performance processors at unprecedented power and price points for the high volume segments of the networking, wireless and storage market,” said YJ Kim, Director of OCTEON Marketing at Cavium Networks. “The new OCTEON CN52XX wireless processor provides a compelling new performance and power cost point targeted for wireless Base Stations and other wireless WAN & LAN technologies.”

The CN52XX wireless processor is fully software compatible with the entire OCTEON and OCTEON Plus Multicore MIPS64 processor family. The OCTEON family consists of over 30 different processors that address the broadband, enterprise, data center and service provider networks. Networking, Wireless and Storage networking OEMs can choose from OCTEON processors with one to sixteen MIPS64 cores with cost points starting under $20 and top performance reaching over 20Gbps.

The CN52XX wireless processor is supported by Cavium’s feature-rich software development kit with SMP Linux 2.6, GNU Toolchain, debugger tools, co-processor acceleration APIs, reference software and a comprehensive eco-system for a range of wired and wireless networking, storage and service provider applications. For more information about OCTEON processors
please visit: http://www.caviumnetworks.com/OCTEON_MIPS64.html

Pricing and Availability
Pricing for the OCTEON CN52XX wireless processor family starts at $49 in 10K quantities. Evaluation boards and general samples will be available in Q2, 2008.

About Cavium Networks
Cavium Networks is a leading provider of highly integrated semiconductor products that enable intelligent processing in networking, communications, storage and security applications. Cavium Networks offers a broad portfolio of integrated, software compatible processors ranging in performance from 10 Mbps to 10 Gbps that enable secure, intelligent functionality in enterprise, data-center, broadband/consumer and access & service provider equipment. Cavium Networks processors are supported by ecosystem partners that provide operating systems, tool support, reference designs and other services. Cavium Networks principal offices are in Mountain View, CA with design team locations in California, Massachusetts and India. For more information,
please visit: http://www.caviumnetworks.com


Cavium Networks Contact:
Angel Atondo
Marketing Manager
Cavium Networks
805 East Middlefield Road,
Mountain View, CA 94043
Telephone: 650-623-7033
Email: angel.atondo@caviumnetworks.com