LSI launches 16 core parts to address mobile network challenges

According to LSI, Axxia devices allow networking service providers to offer improved capabilities through basestations, cell site routers, gateways, and mobile backhaul equipment. Devices in the Axxia 5500 family will feature a range of communication processors with different core counts and throughput capabilities. LSI says the parts are the first to deliver 16 ARM Cortex-A15 cores using ARM's CoreLink CCN-504 low latency interconnect in 28nm process technology. Marketing director Troy Bailey said LSI has designed the devices to 'take things up a notch' in terms of performance within a given power and heat footprint and to address some other challenges in mobile networks. "One challenge that companies face is developing multiple new products," he claimed. "They don't have the resources to do this in parallel, but can't afford to do it serially because of time to market issues. We're looking to provide a hardware architecture which can scale and allow them to reuse hardware and software, making it easier to manage the process and deploy products." Initially, Axxia 5000 will be available with 12 and 16 cores, but Bailey said this can be scaled down to four cores if necessary. "We're improving control plane performance by a factor of four," he continued, "and data plane performance by a factor of 2.5, both on a per Watt basis." Axxia 5000 parts also integrate high capacity Ethernet, which Bailey says will represent a saving of $100 compared to a discrete approach.