Aldo Lagana wrote: > First off - like AOL, IBM, etc - all use high-end probably cisco > routers which do their firewalling - one cannot get the packet per > second throughput they need without dedicated ASIC-based > router/firewalls... Correct me if I'm wrong, but aren't (at least mid-sized) CISCO firewalls based on X86's down to the PCI bus and Pentium derived processors? Even Mid-grade routers are supplying VPN accelerator chips, but I think the firewall code itself is stored in flash, executed like any other programs. I doubt IOS uses a lot of hardware acceleration beyond the CPU. Although I really don't know much since I haven't done much work on them. An example: (http://www.cisco.com/en/US/products/hw/vpndevc/ps2030/products_qanda_it em09186a0080091b17.shtml) Even the 535's only use PIII 1ghz
