Freescale Semiconductor has unveiled QorIQ LS1043A communications processor, the new power-efficient 64-bit ARM-based processor for the new virtual network.
Based on the core-agnostic, software-aware Layerscape system architecture, the QorIQ LS1043A device integrates four 64-bit ARM Cortex-A53 cores, delivering 10+ Gbps and an estimated 16,000+ CoreMarks of CPU performance.
The device features advanced virtualization hardware, supports flexible, secure cloud application updates with Freescale’s trust architecture, and offloads latency sensitive applications for optimized local performance with proven classification and traffic management hardware, the company said.
The system-on-chip helps edge network equipment manufacturers easily scale power and performance to meet the changing needs of the world’s highly virtualized, software-defined networks, Freescale said.
With network functions migrating from routers to virtual and third party providers, new, edge platforms must have the intelligence to determine which users and applications are best delivered locally, and which are less latency dependent.
Likewise, edge platforms must support highly secure, performance-optimized virtual machine environments and be able to authenticate new software delivered from corporate and service provider administrators.
Freescale’s new QorIQ LS1043A quad-core processor is engineered to address these dynamics, delivering precise blends of intelligence, integration, security and performance to enable the new “intelligent edge,” the company said.
The fanless SoC delivers 1.5 GHz of performance and requires power as low as just 6 W to operate. This remarkable combination of performance and energy efficiency is ideal for affordable vCPE products and other next-generation edge networking equipment, such as branch routers, security appliances and SDN/NFV edge platforms.
The QorIQ LS1043A includes a wide range of high-speed I/O for wired and wireless systems including 10 GbE plus 5x 1GbE, 3x PCI Express, 3x USB 3.0 with PHYs and SATA 3.0. Freescale’s multi-protocol QUICC Engine module is also incorporated for integrated support of legacy wide area and industrial interfaces.
Samples of the QorIQ LS1043A communications processor are planned for availability in 1Q15.