It sounds like their tech was somewhere in between these two extremes. I would expect that some engineers with relevant experience in networking and programmabl

It sounds like their tech was somewhere in between these two extremes. I would expect that some engineers with relevant experience in networking and programmable logic could get it done. It's also not particularly novel- lots of networking stuff is offloaded to custom chips. My guess is that they didn't make a good business case for it, in which case I would have to dispute OP's idea that "progress was delayed".