re;: ALU network processor (NPU)
Sam,
the more you bring up news about Alcatel Lucent (ALU) the better I like the company. Looks like they re-priroritized their R&D to where's actually a market and a growing one. Good to hear. NPUs are notoriously difficult. This is a very high value niche. Broadcom (BRCM) and a couple of other players (could be MSPD, AMCC etc..) compete here.
You need brute-force power here. Another issue: Routing (at Layer 3 and above) is EXPENSIVE contrasted to switching and pure transport media (fiberoptic connection). There's the 1:10:100 figure (taken from COOK Report on the Internet) from Layer 1 to Layer-3. (A L1 connection - the mere media - fiberoptics - at a defined speed costs 1 unit. An L2 connection, say Carrier Ethernet - costs 10 units. Layer 3 connections, say TCP/IP over said topology costs 100 units). For the same reason, dark fiber is so much cheaper than lit fiber..
So if you have a way to manipulate at L3 faster - which is what the NPU does - this is your gateway to high margin offerings. Good to see this. This might ALU turn (again) into a player in the routing segment - even core routers - where currently CSCO, JNPR, BRCD(Finisar), EXTR rule. If my memory is correct, ALU should be able to come up with good routers as they acquired Riverstone Networks (Cabletron/Enterasys spinoff) from bankruptcy. For experimentation purposes, I got some carrier grade managable Riverstone Routers (RS-2000 series) from Ebay for cheap - they are really sturdy and they perform like nothing of the SOHO or "consumer" grade machines would (the Netgears of the world). Great if you have a server/network cabinet in your study or at your office premises.
take care
CROSSY |
