Cavium Networks Launches 10GbE Adapters

Cavium Networks announced its generation Intelligent Network Adapter family based on OCTEON II CN63XX processor family.

The Adapters deliver 10Gbps performance and rapid time to market to server, storage and network vendors for a wide variety of applications including Data Center security, Cloud Computing, Network and Storage data compression, Deep Packet Inspection, WAN optimization, TCP/IP Offload and iSCSI Offload.

The demand for 10Gigabit Ethernet is growing significantly in the Enterprise and in Data Centers. Enterprises are rapidly adopting cloud technologies and WAN applications driving an increased need for high performance networking, inline DPI and compression. Furthermore, traditional firewalls are not sufficient any more since many applications have evolved and now require the need for sophisticated DPI solutions for detection. In the Data Center market convergence of Network and Storage is increasing the demand for TCP optimization, iSCSI Offload, File and Block level Compression, Virus-Scanning, RAID and De-duplication solutions. Additionally, Solid State Drives (SSD) deployment is on the rise requiring superior fail-over mechanisms.

Cavium’s Intelligent Network Adapter family effectively addresses the emerging Enterprise and Data Center requirements. This family delivers high performance networking, compression, storage features, DPI functionality with dual 10 Gigabit Ethernet interfaces in a single PCI-Express Gen2 form factor. The Intelligent Network Adapters also support non volatile memory (NVRAM) for data retention and failover in SSD deployments.

"Cavium’s Intelligent Network Adapter packs market leading multi-function capability in an easily deployable form factor for appliance, storage and server vendors," said Bob Wheeler, Senior Analyst at The Linley Group. "This next-generation product provides inline processing for LZS compression, TCP, iSCSI, De-dup and DPI in a single adapter, boosting the performance of industry-standard platforms used in many Enterprise and Data Center applications."

"The OCTEON II processor family has excellent design win traction in the market place since it delivers the highest performance across a wide variety of applications," said Rajneesh Gaur, Sr. Director, Networking and Communication Division. "This next generation adapter family provides the significant benefits of OCTEON II in an easily deployable form-factor with a rapid time to market to Enterprise and Data Center customers."

CN63XX Intelligent Network Adapter Family
The CN63XX Intelligent Network Adapter family comprises of three different products; a two port 10Gigabit Ethernet adapter for inline acceleration and offload, a four port Gigabit Ethernet adapter and a coprocessor adapter for look-aside offload. All adapters have PCI-Express Gen2.0 connectivity. This portfolio of products addresses several markets; the high-performance 10 Gigabit Ethernet adapters for demanding applications, the Gigabit Ethernet adapters for ubiquitous connectivity and the coprocessor adapter for look-aside offload functionality and integrate into existing network infrastructures.

• CN63XX-NIC10E – supports two high performance 10 Gigabit Ethernet SFP+ ports with PCI-Express Gen2.0. The SFP interfaces on the adapter supports both Copper Twinax cables and Optical cables.
• CN63XX-NIC4E – The CN63XX-NIC4E supports four Gigabit Ethernet interfaces with PCI-Express Gen2.0.
• CN63XX-CPB – The coprocessor adapter supports PCI-Express Gen2.0 interface and can be deployed in look-aside mode for offloading Compression, DPI, Crypto, RAID and De-dup applications.

All of the above adapters have a DDR3 DIMM slot that can support up to 8GB of 1333 DDR3 Memory and NVRAM capability. The adapters also support an optional 1GB of DDR3 HFA memory for Deep Packet Inspection. Furthermore, the CN63XX adapters have several Application Acceleration Engines, which enables linear scaling of performance across multiple cores. Additional engines include the 3rd generation Deep Packet Inspection HFA engines, Security acceleration including AES, RSA, ECC and SNOW 3G, TCP/IP Packet processing, Compression/decompression including LZS, Data De-duplication, RAID processing, Packet Classification and Quality of Service.

CN63XX Intelligent Network Adapter Software Support
Cavium has developed several high performance and feature rich SDKs and software suites for OCTEON processors that can be used on the CN63XX Intelligent Network Adapter for speeding up product development. The CN63XX Intelligent Network Adapter can run both Simple Executive and Linux applications. Furthermore, the Adapter family also supports Cavium’s shrink-wrapped binary drivers for Crypto, Compression, TCP-Offload, iSCSI Offload and other applications.

Availability
The CN63XX Intelligent Network Adapter family will sample in Q4. The production boards will be available by Q1, 2011.