REQUIREMENTS FOR A BRAIN TRANSPLANT FOR THE NEW 1B PROCESSOR

Generating the system requirements for the 1B processor, the new ''bra in'' of the 4ESS(TM) switch, was a critical step in the front-end proc ess. The set of requirements, prepared by cross-functional teams, was used both to specify hardware and software development and to guide ve rification. To shorten the overall cycle time, the production of these specifications also overlapped the hardware and software development processes. This paper describes the customer-supplier interaction mode l used, the approach chosen to facilitate productivity during requirem ents production, a high-level perspective of the requirements, the pro cess used to generate these requirements, the challenges encountered, and the teamwork solutions via process optimization that helped make t his project a success.