Applied Micro Circuits Corporation (AppliedMicro (News - Alert)), a provider of energy-conscious computing solutions for telco, enterprise, data center, consumer and SMB applications, has unveiled the APM86791 PacketPro Gen2 embedded network processor for the network transport, enterprise and consumer markets.

The APM86791, according to company officials, delivers advanced but cost-effective network security measures for enhanced protection against intrusion threats, system hacking and theft of system-level intellectual property.

Built on AppliedMicro’s SLIMpro Trusted Management Module (TMM), the embedded network processor is designed to offer multi-layered encryption and authentication capabilities that manufacturers and network administrators demand while making systems impervious to the most sophisticated attacks on security keys, proprietary software code and hardware.

The Trusted Management Module resides in a secure on-chip cryptographic boundary region that replaces multi-chip solutions which are vulnerable to attack. The TMM makes keys, passwords and digital certifications invisible to hackers. It supports the industry’s highest level of SoC integrity and privacy, according to company officials.

The SLIMpro TMM is part of AppliedMicro’s PacketPro Gen 2 family. It is designed to enable system administrators to prevent unauthorized activity typically used to attack a variety of systems ranging from residential gateways to enterprise backhauls.

“With network connectivity becoming even more pervasive, mainstream, embedded systems are faced with security threats ranging from intellectual property theft and network intrusions to system hacking,” said Majid Bemanian, senior director of marketing for AppliedMicro, in a statement.

“AppliedMicro offers a customizable approach with its Trusted Management Module as a tamper-proof hardware platform that is impervious to software and hardware attacks, providing developers with the most advanced security for embedded systems,” Bemanian added.

The "Keelback" APM86791 features a single-core, 1.0-GHz PowerPC 465 network processor with floating point unit, 32KB L1 I-cache, 32KB D-cache and 256 KB L2 cache with hardware I/O coherency and DDR3 memory controller with optional ECC.

“Over the last decade, system security has risen to the top of the list of features that many embedded developers require,” said Joseph Byrne, senior analyst at the Linley Group. “AppliedMicro’s TMM has encryption and authentication features baked in to the silicon that are designed to harden embedded systems from the types of attacks that are common today. The on-chip secure zone provided by AppliedMicro’s Trusted Management Module should be appealing to many developers who place the highest priority on system integrity and protection of intellectual property.”