The x-chip: an experiment in hardware demultiplexing
Mary L. Bailey, Michael A. Pagels, Larry Peterson · 1992
This paper introduces another point in the design spectrum: the x-chip. Rather than implement one or more protocols on the network device, the x-chip implements a collection of protocol-independent functions on the network device. The x-chip does not replace the software implementations of protocols; it just provides hardware assist to these protocols. The functions provided are simple enough that they can be implemented by specialized chips; general purpose processors are not used in the design.