The network processor market is still in it's early stages. The capabilities provided by the network processor helps in quickly incorporating new technologies.
Every network processor is unique in fundamental ways.
Late last year, almost 10 years afterward, Motorola announced the PowerQuicc II, a 233-MHz chip with 280 mips of performance. The chip supports multiple communication protocols such as ATM, Fast Ethernetetc. Motorola claims that the PowerQuicc II family is sufficient for network processing. The white papers on the C-Port Corp. website provide more information on the details of the processor architecture. The architecture is capable of supporting bandwidth speeds of OC-192 and beyond while still maintaining the flexibility and programmability of a traditional RISC processor.