Surfing from the internet and found a history of ASIC routers.
First ASIC router, M40, delivered on 1998, almost 10 years ago.
http://www.juniper.net/company/presscenter/pr/1998/pr-980701.html
Emphasize on separate control and forwarding function. Now, this term become standard of networking devices (Router etc). Also, It emphasize on software control using modular design and unix. Fail on one process does not mean interrupt in a whole box.
What does separate control and forwarding means?
The main function of control part is perform routing protocols and updates.
The other hand, forwarding part main job is perform route lookup for packet to reach the destination, so there are groups of next-hop database in the forwarding part.
The control part will calculates routing protocols update, and then put those results to forwarding part. Basically control and forwarding part must be synchronized one another. Late synchronize between control and forwarding would make a black hole for some packets. Late of synchronization can be made by software bugs or lack of memory. The device architectures itself will prove the quality of real performance.
