Switch Chip Startup Touts Networking Breakthrough

Barefoot Networks says its ASIC will make networks fully programmable without sacrificing performance. A team of networking industry veterans has developed a super-fast switch chip that provides data center operators and network equipment makers with the ability to program the way packets are forwarded. Their startup, Barefoot Networks, emerged out of stealth today. The company boasts record-breaking speed with its Tofino switch chip, which processes packets at 6.5 terabits per second. By making networks programmable down to the data-plane level, Barefoot Networks aims to facilitate another phase of software-defined networking.