CASwell unveils AI-powered fanless firewall for small businesses
CASwell has introduced the CAF-0120, a fanless desktop network system designed to deliver AI-powered firewall and VPN gateway capabilities for small- to medium-sized enterprises and remote branch offices. The system is based on Intel's latest "Amston Lake" Atom system-on-chip, offering advanced cybersecurity features in a compact and quiet form factor.
AI security applications
The CAF-0120 is designed to serve as a dedicated security appliance, supporting use cases such as next-generation firewalls (NGFW) and VPN gateways, leveraging the built-in artificial intelligence acceleration of the Intel Atom x7211RE processor. This integration of AI aims to bolster protection against cyberattacks by enhancing the system's ability to identify both known and previously unseen threats within network traffic.
The processor features Intel Deep Learning Boost and Vector Neural Network Instructions, intended to accelerate AI tasks, especially inference operations. AI applications include optimising VPN connections by selecting the most secure and fastest remote server, as well as improving threat detection in network monitoring systems.
Energy efficiency focus
The CAF-0120 operates at a power envelope of just 6 watts and supports up to 16GB of main memory via a SO-DIMM slot. Storage options include onboard eMMC and an M.2 slot for a SATA SSD. The device provides four 2.5GbE RJ45 Ethernet ports for high-speed connectivity and operates without an active cooling fan, addressing requirements for quieter office environments and reduced maintenance.
Additional features
Optional features for the CAF-0120 include DisplayPort for external monitor connections and a hardware crypto processor supporting TPM 2.0, enabling trusted authentication and enhancing security posture. The appliance also offers two USB 3.0 ports, enhancing connectivity for external devices in comparison to its earlier counterpart, the CAF-0121, which provides a single USB port and a MicroSD slot.
Sister model differentiation
Unlike the CAF-0121, which comes with 8GB of soldered memory and fixed eMMC storage, the CAF-0120 uses modular memory via a SO-DIMM slot and provides flexibility with an M.2 storage option. This approach allows businesses to tailor the device's specifications to their unique operational demands, choosing between higher memory or additional storage capacity as needed.
Platform advancements
The Amston Lake processor line underlying the CAF-0120 is built on the "Gracemont" architecture, which delivers improved performance and energy efficiency compared to previous Atom models. Enhancements include higher CPU clock speeds, increased cache sizes, and refined hardware support for AI frameworks, including Intel's OpenVINO toolkit. This enables developers to deploy artificial intelligence, machine learning, and computer vision applications with optimised performance.
