Path: utzoo!yetti!geac!daveb From: daveb@geac.UUCP (David Collier-Brown) Newsgroups: comp.protocols.tcp-ip Subject: Re: IP protocol on a chip(s) Summary: Its been done for other protocols... Keywords: Faster IP? MNP chip Message-ID: <1969@geac.UUCP> Date: 14 Dec 87 13:33:21 GMT Article-I.D.: geac.1969 Posted: Mon Dec 14 08:33:21 1987 References: <4994@elroy.Jpl.Nasa.Gov> Reply-To: daveb@geac.UUCP (David Collier-Brown) Organization: The little blue rock next to that twinkly star. Lines: 45 In article <4994@elroy.Jpl.Nasa.Gov> david@elroy.Jpl.Nasa.Gov (David Robinson) writes: > >I frequently hear that TCP/IP is too slow of a protocol. I have seen >good ethernet boards on a Sun push packets as fast as 5Mbps and claims >of Crays pushing > 10Mbps on hyperchannels. >... >To increase TCP/IP performance has anyone looked into making an IP >protocol chip or chipset? I don't know about IP, but several protocols have been put into modem controllers. One I know of in some detail is MNP, an combined sync/async facility with Network, Host-host and Applications layers (ie, it fits the ARM). It explicitly does **not** consider routing or network management, as it is restricted to running on a circuit-switched line. Another is the telebit "UUCP emulation" facility in their high-speed modems. >... Would this be practical to do given >the complexity of IP? IP on a chip would also be interesting from >a routing point of view. Neither of the above runs on an unprogrammable chip: even the chip-level MNP being developed by two people on this net has a z80 as part of the silicon. If one restricts the chipset to doing what it is good at and passing the administrivia off to a large host to do what **it** is good at, you have a viable project. Deciding exactly what to put on the chip is a design/marketing (ie $) issue. > >Any comments on the idea and potential problems that I may not >have thought of? > David Robinson elroy!david@csvax.caltech.edu ARPA > david@elroy.jpl.nasa.gov ARPA > {cit-vax,ames}!elroy!david UUCP I think its a **good** idea. I also think it can be done "inexpensively". --dave (It's almost an old idea...) c-b -- David Collier-Brown. {mnetor|yetti|utgpu}!geac!daveb Geac Computers International Inc., | Computer Science loses its 350 Steelcase Road,Markham, Ontario, | memory (if not its mind) CANADA, L3R 1B3 (416) 475-0525 x3279 | every 6 months.