The WinPath4 continues the carrier-grade Ethernet focus of its predecessors as the fourth generation of WinPath® products. Next generation protocols have been added along with a new level of performance, all the while supporting legacy applications and continuing Microchip's proven formula as a complete networking solution.

The WinPath4 integrates control plane and enhanced data plane processing components. Control plane processing is based on two high-performance MIPS 34K multi-threaded processors. Data plane processing uses dedicated hardware accelerators for packet classification, hierarchical shaping, additional security standards and more to off-load common processing tasks. The accelerators are flexibly combined with a field-proven, fully-programmable, high-performance multi-threaded multi-core data path processor subsystem. 48 cores are available (up from 12 in the WinPath3) and operating speed has increased.
The WinPath4 leverages a broad set of supplied protocols developed over the years and hardened in production environments all over the world. These include support for interworking (MPLS, IPv4/IPv6 Routing, VLAN-aware bridging), QoS (policing, shaping, per-flow queuing, WRED), Packet Network Synchronization (IEEE 1588v2, Synchronous Ethernet, adaptive and differential clock recovery), OAM (Ethernet, MPLS, ATM), L2 and L3 termination (Ethernet, ML-PPP, IMA, CES), PWE3 (Ethernet, TDM, HDLC, ATM) and more.

• More than 4x performance, higher integration than 3rd-generation WinPath3
• Support both cut-through mode (data buffers in internal memory) or external switching mode (large number of data buffers in external DDR memory) for packet forwarding
• Up to 48 RISC processors and 320 concurrent hardware threads processing at up to 500 MHz
• 8.5 MB internal memory
• Interlaken Look-Aside for external TCAM functionality
• 24 x GbE (SGMII or QSGMII) and 4 x 10GbE MACs
• 27 multi-standard SERDES lanes shared among all interfaces
• 40mm x 40mm 1517 FCBGA with 1mm ball pitch