Intel's new Crystal Forest chipset includes an undisclosed embedded CPU, an 89XX-series chipset and their Data Plane Development Kit which is the SDK they've created for designing fast path network processing.  This is not a competitor to AMD's Freedom Fabric which is designed for communication within a large series of processing nodes, instead you will see Crystal Forest powering high end routers and web appliances.  Intel has designed this new chipset to increase the performance of cryptography and compression on network packets and claims it will increase speed as well as security, along with the benefits of support coming directly from Intel.  The Inquirer reports a long list of vendors who have signed on, including Dell, Wind River Systems and Emerson Network Power.

"CHIPMAKER Intel has launched its Crystal Forest chipset for network infrastructure.

Intel might be best known for its X86 desktop, laptop and server chips but the firm does a pretty good trade in embedded chips and has announced that a number of large vendors have pledged their support for its new Crystal Forest chipset. The firm said its Crystal Forest chipset will enable networking equipment vendors to shift and control more data using its chips."

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