Security processors get 64 RISC cores

“Cavium Networks announced the next generation of its Nitrox
security processors, supported by a Linux software development kit
(SDK). The four new Nitrox III security processors integrate 16 to
64 security RISC cores with compression engines, virtualization
hardware, and a PCI-Express Gen 2 interface, and are said to be
scalable from 5Gbps to 40Gbps.

“As with the Nitrox II, the Nitrox III processors are designed
for enterprise, data center, and service provider equipment such as
UTM (unified threat management) gateways, application delivery
controllers, and WAN optimization appliances, says Cavium Networks.
The chips can also be used in general security-enhanced routers,
switches and servers, says the company. (See farther below for more
background on Nitrox products.)

“The need for greater performance and lower power usage in
high-end networking security equipment is being driven by rapid
adoption of data center and cloud computing initiatives, says
Cavium. The technology is also said to be motivated by the need to
implement new SP 800-57 NIST (National Institute Of Standards and
Technology) guidelines calling for doubling key size from 1024 bit
to 2048 bit for Secure Socket Layer (SSL) encryption.”

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