SAN JOSE, Calif., July 27, 1999 -- Allayer Communications today announced the industry's first chip for the design of Layer 3 switches. The AL3000 chip is crucial for the design of this new category of switch which puts the intelligence of a router (Layer 3) into a standard networking switch (Layer 2).

The AL3000 chip will enable the design of Layer 3 switches ($100 per port) that can provide a 10-fold reduction in network costs by replacing expensive internet routers ($1,000 per port). The new chip will increase the speed of networks because it processes IP (Internet Protocol) addresses in a "hardwired" state machine instead of software. It can route 1.5 million packets per second easily outdistancing alternative software-based solutions. Network traffic will also move faster because early IP processing at the switch layer gets data started in the right "direction" sooner.

The high-integration AL3000 chip will lower the cost of Layer 3 switches and enable their widespread use in Internet backbones, enterprise networking and small-office/home-office (SOHO) applications. The new Layer 3 switches increase the speed of enterprise net-works by sending traffic over more direct routes, and the switches will improve SOHO networks by allowing them to connect to internet ports more efficiently.

The AL3000 chip contains circuits that implement in hardware the complex routing software that previously executed on an expensive microprocessor. The device includes a command interpreter, search engine, parser, memory server, two memory interfaces, six DMA channels and a 6.4 Gigabit/sec RoX-II™ bus. The RoX II™ bus allows easy interconnect to devices such as the AL126 Fast Ethernet switch IC which manage the Fast Ethernet ports on a switch. The AL3000 also contains an interface to a low-cost CPU that performs basic routing functions.

The fast processing of the AL3000 and its six channels of DMA (direct memory access) allow the device to support a wire-speed throughput of ten, full-speed 100 Mbits/second Fast Ethernet channels.

According to David Wong, Director of Marketing, "Our new device will enable the design of low-cost, Layer 3 switches that will increase the speed and lower the cost of networks. Until now, millions of office networks could not use router functions because they were too expensive. Therefore, those networks used less intelligent conventional switches as their standard building block."

"However, our new technology changes this model because router functions (i.e., Layer 3) can now be built into switches as a standard feature. These new switches are an affordable building block even for small networks. AL3000-based switches improve network performance by sending network traffic over more direct routes eliminating network overhead and reducing broadcast storms that congest networks. Our technology will also provide additional Layer 4 capabilities such as quality of service (QoS) that is important to support the transfer of multimedia information over networks."

About the AL3000

The AL3000 manages a queue of incoming data packets that arrive from Fast Ethernet or Gigabit Ethernet switch ICs connected to its RoX-II™ bus. At the same time, the chip updates and managers a dynamic router table consisting of up to 131,072 individual host route entries.

The queue manager buffers incoming packets to memory and creates packet headers for each frame. It also verifies checksums on the packet then transfers control to the on-chip memory server that passes a pointer to the parser.

The device uses its parser engine to examine the IP (Internet Protocol) address of incoming packets and calculates the most efficient route to give the outgoing packets. The stored packets are modified with the new routing addresses by the result engine. Finally, the output engine calculates new checksums for outgoing packets and send the packets to the switch ports on the RoX-II™ bus.

RoX-II™ Bus Provides Attached Network Ports

The RoX-II™ bus allows an engineer to easily attach Fast Ethernet and Gigabit Ethernet ports directly to the AL3000 with little or no system overhead. The bus can also be used to attach the AL300 network management chip for creating managed switching systems. The RoX-II™ bus, which is patent-pending, uses a 32-bit data path running at 100 Mhz. The 3.2 Gbps data rate is effectively doubled to 6.4 Gbps since each chip on the bus operates in full-duplex mode, simultaneously transmitting and receiving.

Availabilty and Price

The AL3000 is in sampling in July and will be in production in September. The chip is priced at $85 in a 456-pin BGA (Ball Grid Array) package in quantities of 1,000.

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Company Background

Allayer Communications designs, manufactures, markets and supports advanced semiconductor products that improve the edge network system by providing silicon solutions that make switches smarter and links between workgroups faster. The corporate name -- pronounced "All-layer" -- represents the company's long-range intention to provide silicon solutions for all levels of the OSI networking model.

Founded in 1997, Allayer uses a Modular Systems Standard Product or MSSP approach to design the most flexible, high performance, and scalable ICs for Ethernet LAN switching and fiber optics applications. Allayer products are used by systems OEMs who manufacture local area networking equipment in the edge network that provides the interface between individual workstations or workgroups and the enterprise network backbone system.

Founded and managed by an experienced team of engineers and managers from Allied Telesyn, Rockwell, Level One, Exar, Cypress, Chipcom, LANart, Oak Technologies and Cabletron, Allayer is well positioned to lead the edge network systems market. Allayer possesses advanced engineering expertise in network system design, analog and digital ASIC design, and mixed-signal CMOS and fiber optics technologies.

The company is headquartered in San Jose, Calif.