Network processor vendor Cavium Networks and its hardware and software partners will offer product demonstrations at the RSA Conference on computing security next week in San Jose. Demonstrations include MontaVista's Linux Pro 4.0 and Intoto's IGateway communications platform running on multi-way Octeon processors from Cavium.

Cavium announced its Octeon chip line in September of 2004, and MontaVista announced it would support the chips a few days later.

Cavium's Octeon chips are based on two to 16 “Cavium Networks MIPS” cores — the company is an architecture licensee, and implemented its own instruction set. The Octeon chips also integrate lots of on-chip packet and Internet service processing engines.

Octeon architcture includes packet I/O processors that offload CPU

MontaVista says it will demonstrate its Linux 2.6-based Linux Professional Edition (Pro 4.0) running on an unspecified Octeon chip. Intoto will also use an Octeon-based system to demonstrate its iGateway product, it says.

Additionally, Cavium will show off shipping systems from more than 25 customers, including vendors of firewalls, access devices, content switches, broadband routers, and wireless LAN access/aggregation points. Besides the multiway Octeon, Linux-friendly Cavium chips include the just-announced MIPS64-based CN-3000 and CN-3100, the security-oriented CN-2800, the 4- to 16-way Octeon EXP, as well as its flagship Nitrox II and Nitrox Soho product lines. Cavium has offices in Massachussetts and India, and is proud of employeeing veterans from DEC's Alpha chip engineering team.

Cavium's VP of marketing, Rajiv Khemani, stated, “Increasing L3-L7 functionality at line-rates is more important now than ever before. Cavium's scalable processors along with the comprehensive hardware and software solutions from our key ecosystem partners present OEM customers a unique and compelling opportunity.”

 
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