ASICs at the Edge

This post introduces the use of Application Specific Integrated Circuits (ASICs) in Cloudflare's network equipment for packet processing. It explains what ASICs are, their benefits (efficiency, power reduction, smaller form factor) and downsides (lack of flexibility, long development cycles). It details the ASIC development process, from FPGA prototyping to foundry manufacturing, and highlights the use of TCAM for fast lookups of forwarding tables, ACLs, and CoS. The post also explains the roles of switching and routing in networking and how ASICs support FIB installation, packet forwarding lookups, stateless firewalls, and advanced features like GRE encapsulation.