Bare-Metal Edge Network Appliance — Marvell OCTEON 10 CN102 Platform

Because the hardware and software are fully decoupled

the ET2508 runs major Linux distributions including Ubuntu, Debian, CentOS, OpenWRT, and SONiC, with access to a complete ARM64 toolchain (GCC, GDB, Buildroot) and open-source ecosystems such as DPDK, VPP, Nginx, iptables, UFW, Docker, and Kubernetes. This makes the ET2508 an ideal foundation for teams that want to build their own router, firewall, VPN gateway, SD-WAN edge, or edge server on open silicon. For customers who prefer a turnkey routing solution, Asterfusion's AsterNOS-VPP software is available separately — or pre-installed on the RT2508 router variant of this platform.

Flexible I/O combines

4× 10GE SFP+, 4× 2.5GE, and 8× 1GE ports, with optional PoE++ (2.5GE) / PoE+ (1GE) on a 150 W budget. An optional AI accelerator module adds up to 160 TOPS of INT8 compute and 24 GB of memory, enabling on-device inference with frameworks such as PyTorch, Ollama, and vLLM and quantized LLMs up to the 30B-parameter class. With expandable DDR5 memory up to 48 GB, NVMe SSD up to 4 TB, and optional 5G/LTE, WiFi 6E/7, and 20 ns PTP/SyncE modules, the ET2508 consolidates networking, security, edge compute, and optional AI into one low-power, fully programmable appliance.

Feature Highlights

• Open bare-metal platform — no locked-in NOS; install any Linux distribution (Ubuntu, Debian, CentOS, OpenWRT, SONiC) and build your own router, firewall, VPN, or edge server with a full ARM64 toolchain.

• Marvell OCTEON 10 performance — 8-core ARM64 Neoverse N2 @ 2.5 GHz delivering up to 58 Gbps hardware-accelerated networking throughput in a compact half-width 1U form factor.

• True inline crypto engine — up to 50 Gbps line-rate IPsec and SSL/TLS encryption/decryption with no separate offload card.

• Flexible high-density I/O — 4× 10GE SFP+, 4× 2.5GE, and 8× 1GE, with optional PoE++ (2.5GE) and PoE+ (1GE) on a 150 W budget.

• Optional AI acceleration — add-in module with 160 TOPS INT8 compute and 24 GB LPDDR5, ready for PyTorch, Ollama, vLLM, and on-device LLM inference up to the 30B-parameter class.

• Software your way — pair it with open-source VPP/DPDK/Nginx, run Docker and Kubernetes, or add Asterfusion AsterNOS-VPP separately for a turnkey router stack.

• Energy-efficient, expandable edge design — under 60 W at full load (excl. PoE), 100–240 VAC, DDR5 up to 48 GB, NVMe SSD up to 4 TB, plus optional 5G/LTE, WiFi 6E/7, and 20 ns PTP/SyncE.

Hardware-based VPP accelerator

Marvell cites up to 5× higher packet-processing rates, the foundation for the platform’s up to 58 Gbps forwarding and AsterNOS-VPP’s 50 Gbps routing.

True inline crypto

IPsec/SSL encryption and decryption handled in-line at up to 50 Gbps, with no separate offload card.

Highly programmable packet processors

with an integrated switch and packet parser, enabling flexible forwarding pipelines.

Secure Boot with eHSM/TrustZone

and PCIe DMA acceleration for a hardened, high-throughput data path.

CN102XX at a glance (the member powering ET2508 / RT2508)

Software & ecosystem

OCTEON 10 ships with a feature-rich SDK and standard toolchain (GCC, GDB, BinUtils) and supports KVM, Docker/CNI, OVS, and Kubernetes, plus standard DPDK, VPP, and SPDK. That open-software alignment is exactly why the ET2508 can be a bare-metal canvas for your own stack, while the RT2508 uses the same hardware-accelerated VPP path to run AsterNOS-VPP at line rate.