Cavium Networks introduced a Security Accelerator Card family with PCI-Express connectivity in a standard PCI card form-factor, along with comprehensive software support. The NITROX XL NPX Family is a PCI-Express security accelerator board family for IPsec, SSL and WLAN security applications. The board uses Cavium Networks’ NITROX security processors to deliver performance of 2.5 Gbps security processing and 28,000 RSA ops. It could be used for offloading the CPU of L4+ switches, load balancers, Web switches and VPN appliances. The NITROX processors supports a broad range of symmetric encryption including DES, 3DES, AES (all modes up to 256 bit), CCMP and ARC4, as well as asymmetric encryption including RSA and Diffie Hellman. The NITROX XL NPX Family, with 2 board product options ranging in performance from 1.5Gbps to 2.5Gbps, will be available in Q1 2005. Pricing for the product family ranges from $690 to $900 in 1KU quantities.
PCI Express is a next generation version of the widely deployed PCI, PCI-X buses that provides a standards-based, high bandwidth, low pin count, chip-to-chip interface for computing and communications platforms. PCI-Express provides a new architecture that utilizes multiple “lanes” or serial communication links in each direction with 2.5 Gbps bandwidth. http://www.cavium.com/
