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Overview
Fortinet NGFWs are powered by proprietary purpose-built ASICs called Security Processing Units (SPUs) that radically increase the speed, scale, efficiency, and value of our cybersecurity solutions. FortiGate Next-Generation Firewalls yield the highest threat-protection performance available, enabling organizations to simplify their distributed edge operations and deliver superior performance for business-critical applications.
Security Compute Rating
The Fortinet family of SPUs radically increase the speed, scale, and performance of Fortinet solutions that can be characterized by measuring the Security Compute Rating. SPU leapfrogs competitors with the industry’s highest Security Compute Ratings for the following benchmarks:
- Stateful Firewall Throughput
- IPsec VPN Performance
- Concurrent Sessions
- Sessions per Second
- Threat Protection
- SSL Inspection
Security Compute Rating is a benchmark that compares the network and security performance of the Fortinet purpose-built ASIC-based NGFW with other NGFWs that fall in the same price range and are built with general-purpose CPUs.
Investing in Innovation
Fortinet continues to innovate and set industry records for performance by achieving the highest security compute ratings delivering consistent security across all enterprise edges with the Fortinet secure networking framework.
The Fortinet Family of SPUs delivers best-of-breed security, scale, and performance across hyperscale data centers to SD-WAN enabled branches and campus locations, all without sacrificing performance or user experience.
Three Families of Fortinet SPUs
Network Processor 7 (NP7)
Network Processors operate in-line to deliver unmatched performance for network functions and hyperscale for stateful firewall functions.
Content Processor 9 (CP9)
As a co-processor to the main CPU, Content Processors offload resource intensive processing and drive content inspection to accelerate security functions.
Security Processing Unit (SP5)
The Security Processing Unit consolidates network and content processing, delivering fast application identification, steering, and overlay performance.
The ASIC Advantage
2023 CyberRatings.org Enterprise Firewall Report
Fortinet Scores 99.88% Security Effectiveness in 2023 CyberRatings
CyberRatings.org conducted an independent test of the FortiGate 600F against the Enterprise Firewall Test Methodology v3.0 at their facility in Austin, Texas.
FortiGate 600F received a 99.88% security effectiveness rating, as well as AAA scores across the following categories:
- Routing & Access Control
- SSL/TLS Functionality
- Threat Prevention
- Stability & Reliability
Security Processing Unit 5 (SP5): Engineered for Efficiency
The fifth generation of the Fortinet Security Processing Unit, SP5, supports customer infrastructure edge transformation with the industry’s highest Security Compute Ratings and power efficiency. SP5 consolidates both network and content processing functions on a single chip, delivering secure computing power that will support the next generation of secure infrastructure.
SP5 is a fully integrated set of security functions, including a Layer 7 firewall, on a fast and cost-effective chip. It meets the high-performance and security requirements for the evolving infrastructure edge to accelerate network and security convergence that delivers best ROI, operational efficiencies and increased security posture.
Key Benefits
- Accelerates network and security convergence enhancing operational efficiencies
- Delivers high-performance application experience with best ROI
- Reduces the power and space requirements
Use Cases
- Support edge compute, OT, branch, campus and 5G infrastructures
- Ensure the edge infrastructure convergence is efficient and cost effective
- Deliver consistent user experience with an optimized and sustainable platform
SP5 Advantage
| Specification | SP5 | Security Compute Rating |
| Firewall | 34 Gbps | 8x |
| IPsec VPN | 30 Gbps | 4x |
| Threat protection | 4.3 Gbps | 9x |
| SSL inspection | 3.3 Gbps | 6x |
Based on the composite average of the FortiGate 90G and FortiGate 200G versus similar competitive products
Networking Processing Unit 7 (NP7): Engineered for Hyperscale
NP7 runs at the network layer to speed functions that typically slow CPUs, such as IPv4, IPv6, unicast, and multicast. In addition, NP7 accelerates IPsec decryption, VXLAN termination, and address translation, while providing hardware logging and policy enforcement.
Key Benefits
- Single-session flow with 100 Gbps throughput needed for high-bandwidth internet2 sites.
- Millions of connections per second in hardware as required by high-demand e-commerce.
- Single-digit microsecond latency as called for by a financial exchange.
Use Cases
- Receive market data with the lowest required latency to avoid revenue loss
- Keep up with microbursts of traffic with high-speed packet forwarding
- Accelerate tens of millions of connections per second
NP7 Advantage
| Specification | NP7 ASIC | Security Compute Rating |
| Firewall | 198 Gbps | 9x |
| IPsec VPN | 55 Gbps | 7x |
| Threat Protection | 15 Gbps | 2x |
| SSL Inspection | 17 Gbps | 4x |
| Concurrent Sessions | 12M | 4x |
| Sessions per second | 750k | 4x |
Based on the FortiGate 1800F series versus similar competitive products
Content Processing Unit 9 (CP9): Engineered for Protection
The ninth generation of Fortinet Content Processor, CP9, is designed for protection. CP9 works as a CPU co-processor, taking on resource-intensive security functions such as Application Identification, IPS (pre-scan, signature correlation, etc.), and antivirus, so the CPU can perform other important tasks.
CP9 also performs pattern matching acceleration, fast inspection of real-time traffic for application identification, all without compromising user experience.
Key Benefits
- Manages internal and external risks while reducing complexity
- Protects applications while optimizing user experience
- Removes blind spots while minimizing performance degradation
Use Cases
- Gain full visibility into clear-text and encrypted traffic flows to implement granular web policies
- Automatically detect and remediate malware
- Implement safety compliance measures such as the Children’s Internet Protection Act (CIPA)
CP9 Advantage
| Specification | CP9 ASIC | Security Compute Rating |
| IPsec VPN | 37 Gbps | 12x |
| SSL Inspection | 7 Gbps | 4x |
Based on the composite average of the mid-range FortiGate portfolio versus similar competitive products
| Specification | CP9 ASIC | Security Compute Rating |
| IPsec VPN | 223 Gbps | 6x |
| SSL Inspection | 71 Gbps | 2x |
Based on the composite average of the FortiGate data center firewall portfolio versus similar competitive products
