During the dot-com/internet bubble of the late 1990s and early 2000, the proliferation of many dot-com start-up companies created a secondary bubble in the telecommunications/computer networking infrastructure and telecommunications service provider markets. Venture capital and high tech companies rushed to build next generation infrastructure equipment for the expected explosion of internet traffic. As part of that investment fever, network processors were seen as a method of dealing with the desire for more network services and the ever-increasing data-rates of communication networks.