The CAR-1040 is a low rackmount device for next-generation UTM (Unified Threat Management) or firewall applications to support mid-sized businesses and large branch offices of bigger enterprises. This 1U network appliance leverages Intel’s latest generation of Atom processors (“Elkhart Lake”) and provides up to 18 high-speed Ethernet ports. To enable that many network connections, CASwell combined the extremely energy-efficient SoC with a number of PCI Express switches by Diodes for more PCIe lanes and faster Ethernet speed.
The Intel Atom x6425E SoC (System-on-Chip) with four cores used in CASwell’s CAR-1040 is based on the “Tremont” microarchitecture that offers 70 percent more performance in single-threaded and 50 percent more speed in multithreaded workloads than the previous generation, the widely deployed Atom x5- and x7-3900 “Apollo Lake” series. The production node was also improved to 10 nanometers, so the already good energy efficiency of the Intel Atom series of processors was optimized even more.
The CAR-1040 offers two SO-DIMM slots for up to 32 GB of DDR4-3200 main memory and can be equipped with one SSD by M.2 connector and another SSD or HDD by SATA 3.0 port that also supports SATA DOM. Trusted Platform Module is supported with a TPM header onboard. Besides the eight 2.5-GbE RJ45 and two SFP Ethernet ports provided by Intel’s popular i226 and i210 network chips, the CAR-1040 also hosts one PCIe-connected NIP network module for up to eight additional network ports. Customers can choose one of seven NIP modules with regular copper, SFP(+), SFP28 or QSFP+ connectors.
For mission-critical application, CASwell furthermore offers the CAR-1040 (Dual PSU) with two open-frame redundant power supplies, so even one failing PSU won’t interrupt the system’s service.
The CAR-1040 is one of CASwell’s best energy-efficient network systems with numerous different Ethernet ports to protect medium-sized companies and larger branch offices of bigger enterprises with firewalls and UTM. As usual, this appliance can be configured according to customer demand.
