Editor: Linley
Gwennap In This Issue
A Guide to Security and Content Processors is now available for immediate delivery. Get the latest information on this vitally important market. For more information, visit our web site. 2004 in Review: Security Processors During 2004, the growth of security processors was fueled by simple economics: the increasing use of virtual private networks across the Internet for communication between business sites, in place of more expensive leased lines. The other ubiquitous security application—secure browsing—requires security acceleration in web servers but not client devices. Therefore, VPN remains the dominant application for security processors. Although secure communications processors have taken away the low end of the security-processor market, The Linley Group estimates the market for mid- and high-end security processors has grown to $65 million during 2004, almost double its 2002 level. Hifn, with an estimated 33 per cent share, continues to lead the market. Security processors, after years of rapid progress, now offer more processing throughput than the market demands. For new devices, the emphasis has shifted to cost and power reduction. Most vendors now address SSL applications with a dual-purpose part that also handles IPSec; with one exception (Britestream, formerly Layer N), vendors have discontinued their SSL-only parts. Security-processor vendors have made incremental firmware updates for the latest protocols such as Wi-Fi, but the feature set has not changed dramatically in 2004. The next big step for security processors is to address application-level security, such as intrusion prevention, virus detection, and application-level firewalling. The complexity and fluidity of these applications, coupled with the secrecy of software-vendor algorithms, makes it difficult for hardware vendors to provide acceleration. The most general way to provide application-security acceleration is by embedding general-purpose CPUs into security processors. These CPUs can run proprietary content-inspection algorithms developed by security-software vendors. We call these enhanced devices application security processors. Some vendors, such as Seaway Networks, already offer board-level application security processors; Cavium’s Octeon, which will sample during the first half of 2005, is the first integrated device of this type. Although these devices face a steep adoption curve, vendors that successfully negotiate this challenge can look forward to expanding their horizons beyond cryptography applications. —SI Complete coverage of security processors appears in our new report A Guide to Security and Content Processors.
Driven by Intel’s PC volume, PCI Express deployment started to increase in 2004. In 2005, PCI Express should become the dominant interconnect for chip-to-chip applications. Despite less volume than PCI Express, HyperTransport will continue to be a solid alternative, driven by AMD’s PC platform and applications such as game consoles and networking equipment. For backplane applications, transceivers at 2.5Gbps and 3.125Gbps have been integrated into fabric and bridging products. The design wins for standalone transceivers are shifting beyond 4Gbps, reducing the overall market opportunity. Consequently, several backplane startups, including Accelerant, BitBlitz, and Velio, were acquired or folded in 2004. The remaining standalone vendors are shifting development to 6.25Gbps and greater. With its Virtex-4 FPGA, Xilinx delivered 10Gbps transceivers before most merchant silicon vendors. If these 10Gbps transceivers live up to their specifications, Xilinx stands to increase market share from backplane applications. Although 10GbE (10GBase-T) will ultimately provide the best approach for 10Gbps over copper, the standard remains incomplete, with several technical hurdles to be navigated. Startups such as Keyeye, Analogix, and Vaativ are looking to deploy prestandard products for 10Gbps over Cat5e wiring. These products would be available earlier and dissipate significantly less power than 10GBase-T chips. In summary, PCI express is the clear winner for chip-to-chip applications, but in backplane and system interconnects, the winners are unlikely to emerge before 2006. —JB Complete coverage of high-speed interconnects appears in our upcoming report A Guide to High-Speed Interconnects.
New in this edition is coverage of chips for 10GBase-T and 10Gbps over Cat5/6e wiring. Ethernet, Sonet, and Fibre Channel applications at 10Gbps are driving interconnect technology to ever-faster speeds. Standards such as 10GBase-CX4 are being developed to simplify interconnects between systems but currently require expensive cabling. To reduce system-interconnect and cabling costs for connecting systems and networks, the industry is slogging through the development of a 10GBase-T standard but is not expected to be final until 2006. A Guide to High-Speed Interconnects examines the competing specifications and leading vendors developing these standard and pre-standard products. It provides an objective assessment of the vendors that are shipping production-qualified devices as well as projecting the future winners. We provide detailed coverage of the performance, feature sets, and architecture of each covered product, highlighting strengths and weaknesses in a consistent, easy-to-compare fashion. We examine competing specifications and vendor activity behind each technology. Order by January 21 to take advantage of a special prepublication discount. For more information on this report, visit our web site.
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