This Network Processor and Smart NIC SoC is designed to accelerate firewall and VPN functions. It supports multiple 100 gigabits of Ethernet bandwidth and L2 switching.  The chip is manufactured using TSMC 28nm HPC process.

The SoC uses PLDA XpressRICH4 controller IP as the PCIe interface to the host CPU subsystem. The IP operates as a Gen4 x8 endpoint interface with SR-IOV.

PLDA IP was selected based on the following criteria:

• Robust and flexible support for Virtualization via SR-IOV
• Full support for Synopsys PCIe PHY IP with synthesizable top-level
• Quality and responsiveness of PLDA technical support (based on earlier successful projects)