Intel reveals its ambitions for the software defined networking (SDN) and network functions virtualisation (NFV) with Highland Forest-- a networking platform combining the Xeon E5-2600 v2 CPU with the next generation Coleto Creek communications chipset.
According to the company the Highland Forest platform carries up to 20 2.4GHz Ivy Bridge CPU cores. It should reach performances of up to 255 million packets per second, up from 140m p/s from the previous generation Crystal Forest. It also pushes 10Gb/s of IPsec and 200Gb/s SSL security for encrypted traffic.
For deep package inspection Intel adds Hyperscan technology, a technology from October 2013 acquisition Sensory Networks.
Meanwhile Coleto Creek (aka the series 89xx communications chipset) improves on the previous generation Cave Creek with RSA decryption at up to 40000 operations/sec and 24Gbps data compression.
Already on offer is the Intel Data Plane Development Kit (DPDK)-- a set of network packet processing libraries and drivers allowing system vendors to built network appliances for x86-based platforms.