2023/4/18 – CASwell, a leading manufacturer of innovative and high-performance SD-WAN (uCPE/vCPE) and network security systems, introduces the new CAF-0102, a fanless networking appliance for small to medium-sized organizations and enterprise branch offices. If used as a security solution like UTM or NGFW, the CAF-0102 can protect company networks from cyberattacks, while also serving as a secure SD-WAN solution in a compact form factor to provide fast and reliable networking for remote branch locations due to its high-speed Ethernet ports and redundant power supplies.
With eight 2.5-Gigabit Ethernet ports and one GbE SFP port, the CAF-0102 not only provides a lot of networking connections for such a small form factor, but it also offers more flexibility for filter policy definition when used as part of a larger enterprise network. The device furthermore stands for high availability because two redundant power supplies make sure that business continues as one failed PSU won’t interrupt the system’s service. Additionally, the CAF-0102 can serve as UTM (unified threat management) and NGFW (next-generation firewall) as traditional cybersecurity solution to protect organizations from outside threats.
The CAF-0102 Is based on the latest Intel Atom x6425E processor (“Elkhart Lake”) with four cores, that can reach 3 GHz while still being energy-efficient at just 12 watts TDP, thanks to its improved production node at 10 nanometers. This Atom series of processors using the “Tremont” microarchitecture offers 70 percent more performance in single-threaded and 50 percent more speed in multithreaded workloads than the previous generation, the widely used Atom x5- and x7-3900 “Apollo Lake” series.
The new processor of the CAF-0102 supports Intel’s OpenVINO toolkit, with pre-optimized libraries for artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML), and computer vision acceleration. Intel’s new Edge Software Hub is also supported, so customers can acquire pre-optimized, deployment-ready software packages optimized for Industrial, Retail and Vision, all of which additionally offer customizability.
The CAF-0102 can be equipped with up to 32 GB of DDR4 SO-DIMM main memory, optional with in-band error-correcting code (IBECC), and uses one eMMC flash module for storage capacities of up to 256 GB. For additional storage, the system offers one microSD card slot. Trusted Platform Module is supported with a TPM header onboard.
Even though the processor only offers eight PCI Express 3.0 lanes by itself, clever engineering by CASwell made it possible to connect each of the nine network ports by its own PCIe lane to the System-on-chip via Intel’s specific Ethernet controllers to ensure high networking speeds. This also facilitates software integration with FreeBSD, a popular operating system for network security solutions.
Availability
The CASwell CAF-0102 is a compact, quiet and energy-efficient system for cybersecurity and SD-WAN solutions made for small to mid-sized businesses or remote branch offices of larger cooperations that want to protect their network from bad actors and establish a secure and flexible software-defined network. This appliance can be configured according to customer demand, and samples for customer evaluation are available now.
Please contact your local CASwell representative or sales for any questions.
Find out more information about the CASwell CAF-0102 here:
cas-well.com/products/network-security-management/fanless-desktop-appliance/caf-0102/
