NetSilicon's NET+OS 4.0 Secures Networking

By
iApplianceWeb
(01/08/02, 10:43:09 AM EDT)

NetSilicon has released NET+OS 4.0, a complete connectivity platform that offers OEMs secure remote management, monitoring, and control functionality for products connected to Ethernet networks and the Internet.

This complete platform features a 32-bit networked microprocessor, NET+ARM, combined with embedded TCP/IP, a robust RTOS (Real-Time Operating System) and networking software and utilities such as Security and Authentication functionality, SNMP v3 (Simple Network Management Protocol), XML (Extensible Markup Language), Active Directory, and LDAP (Lightweight Directory Access Protocol). This highly integrated “solution-on-chip” approach enables OEMs to quickly build intelligence and connectivity into their devices, creating competitive differentiation and value-added services for products, such as automated and secure Web browser-based device management, monitoring, and diagnostic capabilities.

NET+OS 4.0 includes:

• Security and authentication functionality, including a database for usernames and passwords, simplifying the task of building secure embedded applications
  
• A 35 percent increase in TCP/IP performance via the incorporation of the Softworks Group's protocol stack into NET+OS
  
• Compressed flash to RAM, allowing designers to store application images in just half the flash memory, and to run applications out of faster RAM memory
  
• SNMP v3 Agent, including an MIB Compiler and MIB Source Code Generator, to develop applications to automatically manage and monitor network devices
  
• Support for Active Directory, making it easier to develop applications to take advantage of this network directory service
  
• LDAP (Lightweight Directory Access Protocol) agent, simplifying access to network information services
  
• Upgraded RTOS with reduced footprint (Xpress Logic's ThreadX 4.0), reducing the need for additional memory on the board, lowering overall bill-of materials cost
  
• New XML Microparser from the Softworks Group, a small, fast parser that decodes XML documents into C language structures that are easy for designers to integrate into their applications
  
• Fast IP and Fast Socket (fast UDP) APIs
  
• Enhanced email application, which expands the ability to send email attachments, simplifying embedded application development
  
• Higher Speed Serial Driver using DMA (Direct Memory Access) to provide higher baud rates and quick data transfer, reducing the CPU computing burden
  
• Enhanced, dynamically configurable PPP (Point-to-Point Protocol), adding exceptional handling for modem connections and disconnections and increased reliability to PPP communications
  
• MULTICASTING: upgraded to support IGMP v2, providing the ability to support the most current MULTICASTING protocols
  
• Enhanced ENI Driver, enabling easy access to ENI (Embedded Network Interface) hardware, simplifying the development of shared memory applications
  
• Upgraded DMA Driver, to control external DMA channels, simplifying the development of applications using DMA
  
• Support for the new GPIO Interrupts in NetSilicon's NET+50 system-on-chip, expanding the interface capabilities of the microprocessor.

Development kits for NET+OS 4.0 will be available in January 2002. The list price for NET+OS is (US) $12,500.

NetSilicon