3Com to Sell Firewall-in-a-NIC

Broue Master writes "According to a UK ZDNet article, 3Com is commercializing a firewall into a NIC aimed at desktop and servers." Interesting idea, although it'll be interesting to see if the idea catches on.

Comments

Hmmm. Interesting reutilization.

[irregular_hero]

The article indicates that the NIC in question is the 3CR990, which, up until this point, has been the "encryption offload" high-performance NIC. The firewall simply replaces the onboard encryption "soft"-ware with something that handles packets a little differently. I find it fascinating that the NIC is simply "reloaded" with appropriate software that can directly alter its core function. It would be really intruiging to figure out just how this is done on the card.

What is especially interesting is what is loaded: Secure Computing's Gauntlet firewall product (yes, it is originally derived from the old TIS stuff, but has been commercially, er... hydrogenized :) ). This would seem to indicate that the card can support applications that weren't written for it, e.g., it can use software whose platform has been retargeted in compilation (well, at least it implies that).

I wonder what other derived applications could be loaded into that space? Hmmm... the mind wanders...

You thought I was going to mention a Beowulf cluster, didn't you? Shame on you. No cookie for you.

Already happened

[aridhol]

Merilus already has a FireCard.
It isn't quite the same, but it exists.