Multicore Security Processors Show Continued High Growth According to New Linley Group Report

34% Market Growth in 2011

MOUNTAIN VIEW, CA—January 12, 2012— The Linley Group’s newest report, “A Guide to Processors for Network Security,” estimates there was 34 percent market growth in 2011 for embedded security processors with four or more CPUs. This tenth-edition report focuses on high-performance chips for enterprise and data-center security systems. It includes chapters on seven leading vendors and provides strategic insight on the strengths and weaknesses of each company and its products. In addition, the report provides vendor roadmaps, tutorial chapters and market forecasts through 2015. Notable findings include:

Thanks to ambitious multicore designs, Cavium and NetLogic are the fastest-growing vendors of embedded security processors since 2010, but they remain behind Intel and Freescale, which continue to improve their portfolios of processors for security applications.
Network-security accelerators will remain a niche market.
OEMs stand to gain as increasing competition leads to more processor choices for new network-security designs.

What: This report focuses on embedded processors optimized for high- performance network-security applications for data centers and enterprises. These chips, referred to as security processors, integrate multi-gigabit encryption, packet-processing offloads, and acceleration for other functions including content inspection, cryptography, and compression/decompression. The report also covers Intel’s newest embedded Xeon processors.

Who: Report authors are Tom R. Halfhill and Joseph Byrne, senior analysts at The Linley Group.

Availability: “A Guide to Processors for Network Security, Tenth Edition” is currently available directly from The Linley Group. For further details, including pricing and a list of included tables, visit the web site at http://www.linleygroup.com/report_detail.php?num=25

The Linley Group is the industry's leading source for independent technology analysis of semiconductors for networking, communications, mobile, and wireless applications. The company provides strategic consulting services, in-depth analytical reports, and Linley Tech events focused on advanced technology topics. The Linley Group is also the publisher of Microprocessor Report, the leading technical publication for unbiased analysis of high-performance processor technology.