ABSTRACT
The continuing growth in network bandwidth and services, the need to adapt products to rapid market changes, and the introduction of new network protocols has created the need for a new breed of high performance, flexible system-on-chip (SoC) design platforms. Emerging to meet this challenge is the network processor unit (NPU). An NPU is an SoC that includes a highly integrated set of programmable or hardwired accelerated engines, a memory subsystem, high-speed interconnect, and media interfaces to handle packet processing at wire speed [1].
