Writing high-performance code for modern network processors is difficult because of their complexity. NP-Click is a simple programming model that permits programmers to reap the benefits of a domain specific language while still allowing for target-specific optimizations. Results for the Intel IXP1200 indicate that NP-Click delivers a large productivity gain at a slight performance expense.
Citation:
Niraj Shah, William Plishker, Kaushik Ravindran, Kurt Keutzer, "NP-Click: A Productive Software Development Approach for Network Processors," IEEE Micro, vol. 24, no. 5, pp. 45-54, Sep./Oct. 2004, doi:10.1109/MM.2004.53