Cache Memory Design for Internet Processors

As a result of the exploding bandwidth demand from the Internet, network router and switch designers are designing and fabricating a growing number of microchips specifically for networking devices rather than traditional computing applications. In particular, a new breed of microprocessors, called Internet processors, has emerged that is designed to efficiently execute network protocols on various types of internetworking devices including switches, routers, and application-level gateways. We evaluate a series of three progressively more aggressive routing-table cache designs and demonstrate that the incorporation of hardware caches into Internet processors, combined with efficient caching algorithms can significantly improve overall packet forwarding performance.