The NPE-300 uses an RM7000 microprocessor that operates at an internal clock speed of 262 MHz. The NPE-400 uses an RM7000 microprocessor that operates at an internal clock speed of 350 MHz. The system controller provides hardware logic to interconnect the processor, DRAM, and the PCI-based system backplane bus. The NPE-400 has a single system controller that provides system access. On the NPE-400, one memory array is shared by port adapters and the processor.
Primary cache is closest to the processor core and has the fastest access.
Secondary cache has slower access than primary cache, but faster access than tertiary cache. For example, a processor may have primary cache with separate instruction and data cache memory, but unified secondary cache. Cache memory physically located outside the processor is not integrated, and is sometimes referred to as external cache. To determine the memory configuration of your NPE-300, use the show version command. Located on the processor engine board.