2021/07/27 – CASwell, a leading manufacturer of innovative and high-performance SD-WAN (uCPE/vCPE) and network security systems, is announcing the next generation CAR-6028 network server using AMD’s latest EPYC processor with up to 64 cores and 64 Ethernet ports. Because of AMD EPYC’s secure and encrypted memory subsystem and PCI Express 4.0 slots for FPGA or artificial intelligence (AI) enhancement cards this appliance is one of the best solutions for unified threat management (UTM) in highly paralleled network environments or other network applications that require running many virtual machines on one device.
For UTM, NGFW, IDS, ADC and BNG
Besides UTM the CAR-6028 excels in applications like Next Generation Firewall (NGFW) to cater organizations that wish to customize their security policies and prefer manual reporting and management. The NGFW can be enhanced by Intrusion Detection System (IDS) to monitor company networks for possible dangerous activity and application intelligence for even more sophisticated security algorithms.
The CAR-6028 is also invaluable in common networking tasks like Application Delivery Controller (ADC) and Server Load Balancing in data centers. On the network edge the system can be deployed as Edge Gateway and Edge Storage Server for fast data analysis and providing ultra-low latency and high performance. For mobile networks the CAR-6028 can be configured as 5G Broadband Network Gateway (BNG) to efficiently establish and aggregate user sessions while also offering value-added services, reduce churn and drive new revenue.
High-performance AMD EPYC processor
The CASwell CAR-6028 is based on a third generation AMD EPYC 7003 processor (“Milan”) using the powerful and effective “Zen 3” microarchitecture. The CPU can be combined with a maximum of 256GB of DDR4-3200 main memory with ECC. Eight NiN network modules can provide up to 64 Ethernet ports with up to 100 GbE data transfer while one internal PCI Express Gen.4 x16 slot can speed up processing and networking performance with a low-profile GPU or FPGA card, e. g. for AI purposes or to enhance parallel processing.
The CAR-6028 offers a versatile system configuration for transforming markets by alternatively being equipped with storage instead of network modules. Furthermore, the system can also host standard full-length, full-height PCI Express cards for special purposes when the application doesn’t require the most comprehensive networking configuration. For internal storage, the CAR-6028 provides two M.2 slots for ultra-fast PCI Express 4.0 solid state drives and four SATA 3.0 onboard ports. There’s also a SlimSAS connector for U.2 drives. Additional storage can be installed via a hard disk drive backplane for four more SATA 3.0 drives.
Security for memory and virtualization
The AMD EPYC processor delivers not just high processing power but also fast and secure memory performance with interleaving over multiple channels and AMD’s own Secure Memory Encryption (SME). SME provides the ability for software to mark certain pages to be encrypted. Marked pages are automatically decrypted and encrypted upon software read and write. This is especially important for professional purposes like virtualization. AMD’s Secure Encrypted Virtualization (SEV) is an extension of SME that effectively enables a per-virtual machine SME. SEV allows running encrypted virtual machines in which code and data of the VM are private to the VM and may only be decrypted within the VM itself – significant for running multiple applications on one single server or a network system serving different customers.
Two redundant power supply units with up to 800 Watt secure uninterrupted operation even if one PSU fails. The Intelligent Platform Management Interface (IPMI 2.0) by AST2600 BMC monitors system health and sends out alerts if parameters do not stay within preset limits, indicating a potential failure. IPMI for the CAR-6028 also supports LOM (Lights Out Management) for device maintenance by system administrators to monitor and manage the system by remote access regardless of whether the machine is powered on, or whether it is installed or functional.
Summary and availability
The CASwell CAR-6028 is a high performing network server with enhanced security features provided by the latest AMD EPYC processor and its memory subsystem. The system offers high versatility and supports a number of different network and storage modules. It can also be equipped with PCI Express 4.0 extension cards like FPGAs or GPUs to enhance AI or network functionality and performance.
The CAR-6028 can be configured according to customer demand or requirement and samples for customer evaluation will be available in the fourth quarter of 2021.
Please contact your local CASwell representative or sales for any question!
More information about the CASwell CAR-6028 can be found here:
https://www.cas-well.com/products/network-security-management/2u-network-appliance/car-6028/
