A 600 MHz NT3 network processor

A 97M transistor custom-designed network processor integrating 16 VLIW CPUs implements the Cisco Toaster instruction set at 600 MHz in a 0.18 /spl mu/m process. The chip area is 349 mm/sup 2/ and consumes 20 W at 500 MHz. The frequency is 2.5/spl times/ that of an ASIC Toaster implementation in a similar process.