The CASwell CAD-026J desktop appliance uses Intel’s well-established and proven Atom Processor C-Series with four or eight cores. This compact and performant system is best used for multi-networking solutions as it provides not just Ethernet ports but can also be configured for Wi-Fi and cellular connectivity for 4G/LTE or 5G networks.
The CAD-026J comes with two 10-GbE SFP+ ports, four 2.5-GbE RJ45 connectors and two additional RJ45 ports for GbE with optional PoE+ to provide power over Ethernet. Besides wired connections, the CAF-026D also supports wireless networking via mPCIe and M.2 cards for Wi-Fi and 4G/LTE or 5G support respectively. The device features two Wi-Fi antennas and four cellular antennas for comprehensive wireless connectivity.
At the heart of the CAD-026J beats a processor of Intel’s Atom Processor C-Series with four or eight cores, depending on customer configuration. Important for many industries is the support of Intel Quick Assist Technology (QAT) by those SoCs because collecting data at the network edge and sending to the cloud requires encryption to keep the information protected from unauthorized access when operated outside corporate firewalls. Devices supporting QAT like the CAD-026J can process encryption and decryption more than ten times faster than without QAT.
The CAD-026J allows customers to pair the SoC with up to 256 GB of DDR4 main memory. A SATA 3.0 connector for OS and software storage is provided onboard, while a Trusted Platform Module (TPM 2.0) for encryption, authentication and digital rights management is also available. The compact desktop case of the CAD-026J provides LED status information regarding power, storage, Wi-Fi, Ethernet activity and speed and also has two USB 3.0 ports for additional enhancements or monitoring. To ensure continuous operation even in case of power supply failure, the system can optionally use two redundant external power adapters.
The primary target market of the CASwell CAD-026J is SD-WAN, the software-defined approach to managing wide area networks. Key advantages of SD-WAN are to reduce costs with transport independence across MPLS, 4G/LTE or 5G, and other connection types, to improve application performance and increasing agility, and to optimize user experience and efficiency for software-as-a-service (SaaS) and public-cloud applications. This concept also simplifies operations with automation and cloud-based management, and furthermore provides high availability due to not relying on just one type of network connection.
Summary
The CASwell CAD-026J with multiple wireless connectivity is one of the best performant desktop systems for advanced SD-WAN applications, but also highly recommended for vCPE and security solutions that require a compact form factor with high performance and multi-networking.