When I worked for Lexra, a start-up since sold to its rival MIPS Technologies several years back, we were faced with the challenge of explaining in easy-to-understand terms the operation of Lexra’s network processor unit (NPU), the LX8000, nicknamed NetVortex. If the Lexra NPU were an internal combustion engine, its equivalent would be the BMW S70/2 V-12 power plant inside the McLaren F1, which on March 31, 1998 set the record for the fastest production car in the world at 240.1 mph (386 km/h). In other words, the LX8000 was flat out fast.
It was in 2000 and ST Microelectronics was in the process of building a network processor chip to compete with every other chip company hoping to cash in on the Internet build out happening at the end of the last decade. In addition, several high-profile billion-dollar acquisitions of network processor design companies were creating urgency among major semiconductor companies to build or acquire an NPU solution. Even Intel was rushing its XScale line of network processors into production. We saw the potential for a big time buyout if we got the right deal and we were betting this was it.
Our sales guy, ML had set up a meeting to present the NetVortex solution to ST Micro’s decision-making team and we needed something to grab the team’s attention. I suggested a clip from an episode of “I Love Lucy” to demonstrate the problem before launching into the full explanation of how NetVortex provided the most elegant solution: a high speed pipeline running fast enough to keep up with OC192 bandwidth—just under 10 gigabits per second; a series of packet processors along the pipeline each handling a data packet; and a control processor handling the control information to route the packet to the next stop in the network.
I called my buddy Michael Labash at designbymikee.com and asked him to digitize the clip from the “I Love Lucy” episode for me. I dropped the clip into the PowerPoint presentation we were using for the pitch. MJ and our CEO CC flew to Europe, made the pitch, and played the video. It shows Lucy and Ethel on a chocolate candy assembly line with a belt rolling past them containing equally spaced truffles. Their job is to take individual truffles and wrap them in paper and put them back on the assembly line—sounds like packet processing, yes? The belt moves slowly at first then picks up speed as comedy ensues.
The clip was received with the hardy laughter we had hoped for from the international audience attending the meeting and we got to move to the next stage of negotiations—getting upper management to sign the P.O. Unfortunately, unknown to all of us, the Dot-Com Bubble had burst on March 10th and every major corporation worldwide was dealing with the fallout. The deal we thought was done quickly became undone and no amount of humor was going to put it back together.
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