11/17/2020 – CASwell, a leading manufacturer of innovative and high-performance SD-WAN (uCPE/vCPE) and network security systems, is delighted to announce that the new, highly versatile and flexible MEC-6300 edge computing system will be available for customers soon.
The CASwell MEC-6300 is based on the Intel Atom Processor C3558R (Denverton-NS Refresh) with four cores running up to 2.4 GHz at only 17 watt thermal design power (TDP). Compared to the previous generation, the Atom 3558 , the 3558R reaches higher frequencies while keeping almost the same TDP, supports faster memory like DDR4-2400 instead of DDR4-2133 and provides 20 instead of 12 PCI Express 3.0 lanes for enhanced connectivity and bandwidth.
Important for many industries is the support of Intel Quick Assist Technology (QAT) by the Intel Atom C3000 series because collecting data at the network edge and sending to the cloud requires encryption to keep the information protected from unauthorized access when operated outside corporate firewalls. Devices supporting QAT like the CASwell MEC-6300 can process encryption and decryption more than ten times faster than without QAT.
For connectivity the MEC-6300 offers a variety of different networking options: Six Ethernet ports with up to 10 Gigabit, WiFi (5 GHz and 2.4 GHz) and cellular (mobile) networking with LTE and 5G. Wireless connectivity is supported by four outside antennas for 5G (sub6) and 18 inside antennas for LTE and WiFi.
Internally the MEC-6300 offers one M.2 slot for expansion for 5G, LTE, SATA, storage, WiFi, DSL, Bluetooth and ZigBee but also for AI. Here, the system can be equipped with an Intel Movidius Myriad X Vision Processing Unit that uses artificial intelligence methods like neural networks for facial recognition in retail or for license plate examination at gas stations to accelerate the edge system with a balance of power efficiency and compute performance. The Intel Movidius Myriad X VPU features the Neural Compute Engine – a dedicated hardware accelerator for deep neural network inference – and is programmable with the Intel OpenVINO toolkit to provide the optimal solution for edge features that can benefit from AI or the underlying inference engine.
Another reason for choosing the MEC-6300 is the support of OpenNESS. This open source software toolkit is inspired by the edge computing architecture and enables easy orchestration, network functions and access technologies. OpenNESS leverages major industry edge orchestration frameworks, such as Kubernetes and OpenStack, and provides an architecture that operates with 5G, LTE, WiFi, and wired networks – perfect for a multi-access, multi-wireless edge system like the CASwell MEC-6300.
The CASwell MEC-6300 is the optimal edge networking system for many use cases found throughout different industries due to its versatility and flexibility, numerous different connectivity options and its effective and efficient processing power in a rather compact form factor. Conceivable scenarios could be found in health care, retail, transportation, manufacturing or even smart city and at home.
The CASwell MEC-6300 will be offered in two versions – one for using indoors and one for outdoor deployment and wider temperature range. Please contact your local CASwell representative or sales for any questions.
More information about the CASwell MEC-6300 can be found here:
cas-well.com/products/edge-fog-computing/sd-wan-ucpe-vcpe/mec6300.html
Please find out more about the Intel Atom processors and the Intel Movidius VPU here:
intel.com/content/www/us/en/products/processors/atom/c-series.html
intel.com/content/www/us/en/products/processors/movidius-vpu.html
