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IXP400 Software
Programmer’s Guide IXP400 Software Version 2.0 April 2005
Document Number: 252539, Revision: 007 219
Access-Layer Components:
NPE-Downloader (IxNpeDl) API 14
This chapter describes the Intel
®
IXP400 Software v2.0’s “NPE-Downloader API” access-layer
component.
14.1 What’s New
The following changes and enhancements were made to this component in software release 2.0:
• New NPE microcode images for NPE A were added to support the NPE-based Ethernet
interface available on NPE A of the Intel
®
IXP46X Product Line. NPE A supports the same
Ethernet-subsystem features as NPE B and NPE C.
• The NPE microcode images can now be built into a single binary file that can be placed on the
target filesystem in Linux. This file can be loaded via a provided character device driver.
14.2 Overview
The NPE downloader (ixNpeDl) component is a stand-alone component providing a facility to
download a microcode image to NPE A, NPE B, or NPE C in the system. The IxNpeDl component
defines the default library of NPE microcode images. An NPE microcode image is provided to
support each IXP400 software release, and will contain up-to-date microcode for each NPE.
The IxNpeDl component also enables a client to supply a custom microcode image to use in place
of the default images for each NPE. This “custom image” facility provides increased testability and
flexibility, but is not intended for general use.
14.3 Microcode Images
All microcode images available for download to the NPEs are contained in a microcode image
library. Each image contains a number of blocks of instruction, data, and state-information
microcode that is downloaded into the NPE memory and registers. Each image also contains a
download map that specifies how to extract the individual blocks of that image’s microcode.
Given a microcode image library in memory, the NPE Downloader can locate images from that
image library in memory, extract and interpret the contained download map, and download the
code accordingly.
Loading NPE Microcode from a File Versus Loaded from Memory
The NPE microcode library contains a series of NPE images. This microcode library can be
compiled into the IXP400 software object code at build time, or it can take the form of a single
binary file. The method of operation is defined at build time.