IXP1200 Programming

This book shows software engineers how to program the microengines of Intel's IXP1200 network processors. Assuming no particular background or experience with the IXP1200 architecture, the book begins with an explanation of the hardware and development environment. You get an explanation of the right, and sometimes the wrong, approaches to programming the microengines through a series of expanding examples, covering topics such as:

• Receiving, processing, and transmitting packets.
• Synchronizing between hardware threads.
• Using the hash unit and cyclic-redundancy check instructions.
• Writing microACEs to help build complex network applications.
• The programming examples are written in structured microC "microblocks," with microengine assembly code used occasionally for illustration.
• IXP1200 Programming will show you how to:
• Write your first program in microengine 'C'
• Use the Developer Workbench tools for compiling and debugging
• Optimize and tune your program for the highest performance

A companion CD-ROM contains all the microengine code examples found in the book, plus a complete IXP1200 Software Development Kit (SDK) for building your applications.

Contents

Foreward
Acknowledgements

Ch. 1 So you got your first IXP12xx, now what? 1
Ch. 2 The IXP12xx Programming Environment 7
Ch. 3 "Hello World" for the Microengines 37
Ch. 4 Microblock Design Philosophy 55
Ch. 5 Receiving and Processing Basics 61
Ch. 6 Intra-microengine Programming Concepts 99
Ch. 7 Inter-microengine Programming Concepts 127
Ch. 8 Fast Data Structure Processing 171
Ch. 9 Transmitting Data 195
Ch. 10 Advanced Programming Topics 217
Ch. 11 Writing microACEs 249
Ch. 12 Tips and Tricks 277
Ch. 13 Next Generation IXP2xxx Hardware and Software 291

App. A Reading Microengine Assembly 313
Index 317