s can simply plug it into their own system (if they don't require any modifica- tions of the picocode) and it will work, thus saving themselves precious time to market. All future specification changes of network equipment designed around the NP4GS3 can be done in software offering flexibility and further preservation of the customer's software development investment. The throughput speed, which results from the wide-range of optimized hardware-assisted func- tionality in conjunction with the distributed-computing platform of the NP4GS3, is undisputed. Since scalability is a major concern for NEVs, IBM offers multiple ways of drastically and easily expand- ing the bandwidth of a system built around its NPUs while preserving software compatibility and investment. One cannot ignore the fact that the NP4GS3 is coming from a globally successful giant with highly diversified and deep technology know-how. IBM backs a product with ancillary product offerings, tremendous technical support on numerous fronts, presence around the clock worldwide, and a unique commitment to the industry. On the less positive side, this NPU performs traffic management only on the egress side; there- fore, if traffic management for some customers must be done on the ingress side, then an external traf- fic manager must be used. This will significantly complicate the overall system design. It is easier to integrate the NP4GS3 with IBM PowerPRS switch fabrics. The extra flexibility gained comes at the price of extra hardware if a non-IBM switch fabric is used. This is an extremely complex product. Programming it in picocode represents significant challenges. Developing picocode in assembler, fine-tuning the overall system, and deciding what lies in which memory bank and which of the numer- ous coprocessors needs to be invoked at what time in order for the application to achieve optimum performance is a rather complicated task. No one should underestimate it. We will conclude this chapter by saying that in order to appreciate the full impact of 