Cavium Networks NITROX Lite Security Macro Processors Slash Cost for SOHO and SME Security...

Business Editors/High-Tech Writers

SANTA CLARA, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Nov. 4, 2002

Cavium Networks, the cost and performance leader in security processing today announced that it is shipping the NITROX Lite family of processors and the NITROX XL line of PCI and PCI-X acceleration

boards. NITROX Lite is a family of single chip security processing solutions that include packet processing, symmetric and asymmetric encryption at performance from 100Mbps up to 1Gbps with 1K to 7K RSA operations per second of IPsec or SSL protocol processing. The NITROX XL line of PCI and PCI-X cards support performance ranges from 100Mbps to 2Gbps of IPsec or SSL processing with 1K to 50K RSA operations per second. The NITROX Security Processor family and NITROX XL acceleration boards are both being used by OEM vendors in a wide range of networking equipment to accelerate security applications like IPsec VPNs, SSL VPNs, web-servers, load balancers, content switches, application firewalls, wireless gateways and routers.

All of Cavium's NITROX products support the full range of bulk encryption and hashing algorithms (DES, 3DES, AES, ARC4, SHA1, MD5), public key processing algorithms (RSA and Diffie-Hellman), and complete IPsec Packet or SSL record processing. The NITROX Lite processors are 100% software compatible with Cavium's flagship NITROX processor family and are pin compatible with its 256BGA package ensuring seamless upgrade capability. Cavium's NITROX Lite also comes with complete application software, middleware, low-level driver software code and extensive solution level support. Cavium also offers plug and play software support for the world's most popular web servers, Linux Apache and MicroSoft's IIS and popular IPsec stacks such as SSH and Linux FreeS/WAN.

"With the addition of the new NITROX Lite processors, Cavium's software-compatible NITROX family now spans all of the popular performance points, with scalability to ultra-high performance as needed," said Linley Gwennap, principal analyst of The Linley Group. "The breadth and strong price/performance of these products will enable greater deployment of security-enabled networking equipment. Cavium's powerful products, established customer base, and ongoing roadmap position the company as a key player in the security processor market."

The NITROX Lite Family of Security Macro Processors

The NITROX Lite family of Security Macro Processors has three members that target difference price and performance points. The NITROX Lite CN1001, CN1005 and CN1010 processors target applications requiring 100Mbps up to 1Gbps of secure bandwidth with 1K up to 7K RSA OPS. All NITROX Lite parts support a 32bit / 64MHz PCI bus or 64bit / 66MHz PCI bus. The NITROX Lite processors are available in a choice of 156PBGA or 256PBGA package options. The power consumption for the processors is typically in the 1.0W range.

"The NITROX Lite family of processors and NITROX XL family of boards introduce the rich features of enterprise class security processors to the SOHO and SME market while significantly reducing the cost of deployment", said Jeff Twombly, Vice President Marketing and Sales of Cavium Networks. "The introduction of NITROX Lite and NITROX XL makes Cavium Networks a one-stop shop for low to very high-end network security acceleration."

The NITROX XL Acceleration Boards

The NITROX XL line of acceleration boards target a range of price and performance points. The full size PCI 2.2 and PCI-X 1.0 compliant (64-bit / 66Mhz / 133Mhz) boards targets systems with performance requirements from 500Mbps up to 2Gbps of secure bandwidth with 1K up to 50K RSA OPS. The half height PCI 2.2 compliant boards (32bit / 66MHz or 64bit / 66MHz) target systems with performance requirements from 100Mbps up to 1Gbps of secure bandwidth with 1K up to 14K RSA OPS.

Pricing and Availability

All members of the NITROX Lite family are currently shipping in the 256PBGA package. The NITROX Lite processors are priced from $35 to $85 in 1K quantities. The NITROX Lite Evaluation Kit is available at $3995, which includes middleware, drivers and an evaluation board with a PCI card form factor. The NITROX acceleration boards are available in production quantities now. The NITROX acceleration boards are priced from $295 to $995 in volume depending on processor / performance option.

About Cavium Networks

Cavium Networks is a semiconductor company focused on developing and manufacturing high performance security processing solutions that will enable the new Internet security infrastructure. Cavium's highly integrated, feature rich NITROX families of Security Macro Processors deliver unprecedented performance in SSL based secure e-Business and IPsec based network security applications while significantly reducing the cost and complexity of deployment. Cavium Networks is headquartered in the heart of Silicon Valley in Santa Clara, CA with an IC design center in Marlboro, MA. For more information, please visit: http://www.cavium.com

Product photos, datasheets and application notes are available upon request. NITROX(TM)is a trademark of Cavium Networks, Inc. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. All rights reserved.

    Term                            Definition

AES               Advanced Encryption Standard (AES).  A cryptographic
                  algorithm to succeed DES

ARC4              A cryptographic algorithm

DES / 3DES        Data Encryption Standard cryptographic algorithms

Diffie-Hellman    A key agreement algorithm published by Whitfield
                  Diffie and Martin Hellman

IPsec             IP security protocol. An Internet protocol for VPNs

OPS               Operations per second

RSA               Rivest-Shamir-Adleman (RSA). An algorithm for
                  asymmetric cryptography

SSL security      Secure Socket Layer. An Internet protocol for web

SHA1
 authentication   Hashing algorithm used for cryptographic

MD5
 authentication   Hashing algorithm used for cryptographic

VPN               Virtual Private Network