Table of Contents

Supported Platforms
NPE-300 Description

Components
System Management Functions

NPE-300 Memory Information

Terms and Acronyms

NPE-300 Overview

This chapter describes the network processing engine (NPE) model NPE-300 and contains the following sections:

• Supported Platforms

• NPE-300 Description

• NPE-300 Memory Information

Supported Platforms

The NPE-300 supports the Cisco 7200 VXR and Cisco uBR7246 VXR routers only, and the Cisco 7206 VXR as a router shelf in the Cisco AS5800.

Note   The NPE-300 is keyed to prevent insertion in the Cisco 7200 series routers (7202, 7204, and 7206) and the Cisco uBR7246 and Cisco uBR7223 universal broadband routers.

NPE-300 Description

The information about the network processing engine components and the system management functions are in this section. The network processing engine maintains and executes the system management functions for the routers. The network services engine also shares the system memory and environmental monitoring functions with the I/O controller.

Components

The network processing engines consist of the following components:

• Reduced instruction set computing (RISC) microprocessor

  The NPE-300 uses an RM7000 microprocessor that operates at an internal clock speed of 262 MHz.

• System controller

  The system controller provides hardware logic to interconnect the processor, DRAM, and the PCI-based system backplane bus. The NPE-300 has two system controllers that provide processor access to the two midplane and single I/O controller PCI buses. The system controllers also allow port adapters access to SDRAM using any of the three PCI buses.

• Upgradable memory modules

  The NPE-300 uses SDRAM for storing all packets received or sent from network interfaces. The SDRAM also stores routing tables and network accounting applications. Two independent SDRAM memory arrays in the system allow concurrent access by port adapters and the processor; however, only one is upgradable.

• Cache memory

  The NPE-300 has cache SRAM that functions as the tertiary cache for the microprocessor. (The primary and secondary caches are within the microprocessor.)

• Two environmental sensors for monitoring the cooling air as it leaves the chassis

• Boot ROM for storing sufficient code for booting the Cisco IOS software

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Note   The NPE-300 does not have packet SRAM.

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System Management Functions

The network processing engines and network services engine perform the following system management functions:

• Sending and receiving routing protocol updates

• Managing tables, caches, and buffers

• Monitoring interface and environmental status

• Providing Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) management through the console and Telnet interface

• Accounting for and switching of data traffic

• Booting and reloading images

• Managing port adapters (including recognition and initialization during online insertion and removal)

NPE-300 Memory Information

To determine the memory configuration of your NPE-300, use the show version command.

The following example of the show version command identifies an NPE-300 installed in a Cisco 7206VXR router:

Router# show version
Cisco Internetwork Operating System Software 
IOS (tm) 7200 Software (C7200-JS-M), Released Version 12.0(19980705:021501) 
Copyright (c) 1986-1998 by cisco Systems, Inc.
Compiled Tue 25-Aug-98 04:01 by biff
Image text-base: 0x600088C4, data-base: 0x60FA6000
 
  (display text omitted)
 
cisco 7206VXR (NPE300) processor with 44x1024K/20480K bytes of memory.
R7000 CPU at 262Mhz, Implementation 39, Rev 1.0, 265KB L2, 2048KB L3 Cache
Six slot VXR midplane, Version 2.255
 
  (display text omitted)
 

Table 3-1 provides memory specifications, and Table 3-2 provides user replaceable memory configurations for the NPE-300.

Terms and Acronyms

• DIMM—dual in-line memory module

• DRAM—dynamic random-access memory

• OTP—one time programmable

• RAM—random-access memory

• RISC—reduced instruction set computing

• ROM—read-only memory

• SIMM—single in-line memory module

• SDRAM—synchronous dynamic random-access memory

• SDRAM-fixed—SDRAM of a fixed size or quantity; can be replaced, but not upgraded

• SRAM—static random-access memory

• Cache—Memory with fast access and small capacity used to temporarily store recently accessed data; found either incorporated into the processor or near it.

• Primary, secondary, tertiary cache—Hierarchical cache memory storage based on the proximity of the cache to the core of the processor. Primary cache is closest to the processor core and has the fastest access. Secondary cache has slower access than primary cache, but faster access than tertiary cache.

• Instruction and data cache— Instructions to the processor, and data on which the instructions work.

• Unified cache— Instruction cache and data cache are combined. For example, a processor may have primary cache with separate instruction and data cache memory, but unified secondary cache.

• Integrated cache—Cache that is built into the processor; sometimes referred to as internal cache. Cache memory physically located outside the processor is not integrated, and is sometimes referred to as external cache.

Table 3-1: NPE-300 Memory Specifications

Memory Type	Size	Quantity	Description	Location
SDRAM-config-urable	32 to 256 MB	1 configurable bank with 2 SDRAM slots	32-, 64-, or 128-MB DIMMs (based on maximum SDRAM required)	Bank 1: U45 and U44
Boot ROM	512 KB	1	OTP ROM for the ROM monitor program	Socket U11
SDRAM-fixed	32 MB	1	32 MB DIMM	Bank 02: U16
Primary cache	16 KB (instruction), 16 KB (data)	—	RM7000 processor, integrated cache	U49
Secondary cache	256 KB-fixed	—	RM7000 processor; unified, internal cache	U49
Tertiary cache	2 MB (fixed)	—	RM7000 processor, external cache	U7, U8, U9, U10, U17

1Located on the processor engine board. 2Socket U15 is never populated, although it is part of Bank 0.

Posted: Mon Sep 18 10:01:18 PDT 2000
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