TCAM / BCAM hobbyist availability

[paigeadele]

Hey yall, was just hanging out here at metrix create space and as usual I can't think of a single damn thing I could do here that I'm really all that interested in. Nothing bad on the place, there's definitely a lot of really really cool stuff here but it just doesn't catch my interest always. I started thinking about some things that I learned about recently, specifically with regards to BGP routers, and the cost of Juniper and Cisco gear. I can't say much on that note except that I know that RIB/FIB data is stored in TCAM memory (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Content-addressable_memory)

I can't find any of these chips easily first hand, was wondering if anybody had ever considered using TCAM in any DIY networking projects (eg: something cost effective for the average person and running OpenFlow?)

[paigeadele]

A few notes and findings:

http://www.renesas.com/media/products/memory/TCAM/r10pf0001eu0100_tcam.pdf

[westfw]

A somewhat modern x86 can do IP header verification/fixup and route lookups at about 4MP/s without any hardware assist (about full Gig-E capacity with minimum sized packets * 3)  You probably don't need TCAMs till you start looking at large numbers of 1G+ interfaces.  Buses and memory speed are more of a limitation than route lookup.  (now, cut-through ethernet switching might have more use for TCAMs, and there's always the 10GE and really fast fiber, but not exactly the stuff I have in my home network.)