Cybersecurity firm Fortinet Inc. today announced FortiSP5, new application-specific integrated circuit technology that promises to accelerate the convergence of networking and security across every network edge.

Built on more than 20 years of ASIC investment and innovation from Fortinet, FortiSP5 is said to deliver secure computing power advantages over traditional central processing units and network ASICs. The new chip promises lower costs and power consumption along with the ability to enable new secure infrastructure across branches, campuses, 5G, the edge, operational technologies and more.

FortiSP5 is built with an application-specific design and embedded multi-core processors to accelerate the convergence of networking and security functions. The custom ASIC chip is claimed to deliver 17 times faster firewall performance than leading standard CPUs, 3.5 times faster next-generation firewall performance than leading standard CPUs, and 32 times quicker encryption.

The chip offers 2.5 gigabits per second of Secure Sockets Layer deep inspection to deliver the processing power needed to inspect encrypted traffic for malware without performance issues, according to the company. Secure boot with FortiSP5 allows only approved operating system software to boot up, protecting critical infrastructure against malicious tampering and volumetric distributed denial-of-service protection to thwart DDoS attacks.

VXLAN/GRE hardware-accelerated encapsulation with FortiSP5 enables secure interconnectivity for distributed networks, while hardware-accelerated quality of service enhances the user experience with dedicated QoS for sensitive applications such as videoconferencing.

In the age of increasing power costs and concern over climate change, FortiSP5 offers 88% less power consumption than the leading industry standard CPU. Fortinet also claims that the chip delivers industry-leading performance per watt and price performance.

The chip also supports more applications and can run twice as many applications concurrently as previous models. FortiSP5 will power the next generation of entry-level and midrange FortiGate firewalls being released later this year.

Image: Fortinet