Netcope’s NP4, a cloud-based programming tool allows you to specify networking behavior using declarations written in the P4 network-specific, high-level programming language for the company’s high-performance, programmable Smart NICs based on Xilinx Virtex UltraScale+ and Virtex-7 FPGAs. The programming process involves the following steps:

1. Write the P4 code.
2. Upload your code to the NP4 cloud.
3. Wait for the application to autonomously translate your P4 code into VHDL and synthesize the FPGA configuration.
4. Download the firmware bitstream and upload it to the FPGA on your Netcope NIC.

Netcope calls NP4 its “Firmware as a Service” offering. If you are interested in trying NP4, you can request free trial access to the cloud service here.

Netcope Technologies’ NFB-200G2QL 200G Ethernet Smart NIC based on a Virtex UltraScale+ FPGA

For more information about Netcope and P4 in Xcell Daily, see:

• Half-hour OFC 2017 video discusses the status of the P4 network programming language for SDN applications

For more information about Netcope’s FPGA-based NICs in Xcell Daily, see:

• What’s the secret to achieving true 200Gbps Ethernet traffic in a Smart NIC? Netcope says: two PCIe slots and a Virtex UltraScale+ FPGA

• Netcope breaks 100GbE record @ 148.8M packets/sec (the theoretical max) with NFB-100G2Q FPGA-based NIC, then goes faster at 200GbE

• Brief demo at SC15 by NetCOPE shows the company’s 100G Ethernet boards in action