SANTA CLARA, Calif. -- Cavium Networks, the cost and performance leader in content and security processing today introduced OCTEON, the industry's first single-chip Network Services Processor (NSP) family for secure, Layer 3 to Layer 7 networking applications. Today's implementations of higher layer application processing require a myriad of chips including control plane processors, data-plane processors and coprocessors for Internet services and security. OCTEON NSPs introduce a revolutionary new system-on-chip (SoC) architecture that integrates functionality of these multiple types of processors to deliver up to 5x benefit in price, performance and power over existing solutions for Internet Services, Content and Security processing in networking applications.

OCTEON processors include 2 to 16 cnMIPS cores, Cavium Networks' implementation of MIPS64®, with Release2 enhancements and additional built-in hardware acceleration for content and security processing, along with on-chip coprocessor blocks for Internet Services acceleration and multiple Gigabit Ethernet, SPI-4.2 and PCI-X interfaces. OCTEON NSPs provides full compatibility with the large base of developed application software and development tools available for the industry standard MIPS instruction set architecture (ISA) licensed from MIPS Technologies (NASDAQ: MIPS). The products are targeted for use in a wide variety of OEM networking equipment including routers, switches, network-edge appliances with Firewall, VPN, IDS, Anti-Virus and Anti-Spam functionality, secure intelligent switches with SSL and content switching, XML switches, intelligent NICs, storage and wireless network applications.

"As networking equipment has progressed from delivering raw bandwidth to intelligent services, there is a need for highly integrated devices that can deliver rich functionality at high packet throughputs with a standard C-based programming model," said Linley Gwennap, Principal Analyst at The Linley Group. "Using its world-class processor design team, which delivered GHz-plus Alpha processors at DEC, Cavium Networks has developed an innovative, integrated, MIPS64-based processor that fills this need."

Cavium Networks Inc.