SECURITY is always an issue. But while encryption technology is a must to ensure security, ideally it should not come at the expense of PC performance. To address this need, 3Com Corp. has come up with a new network interface card (NIC) that frees up a PC's central processing unit's (CPU) resources from the end-to-end encryption process to maximize utilization.

As the name makes clear, a NIC is an expansion card that allows your PC to connect to a local area network to share files and other resources. 3Com's new product is the 3CR990-TX-95 EtherLink 10/100 Peripheral Component Interconnect NIC. The thing about this NIC is that it has a built-in cryptography chip or ASIC (application-specific integrated circuit). As part of their alliance, 3Com and Microsoft Corp. have worked together to use the NIC in tandem with the much-hyped Windows 2000 business operating system to reduce reliance on the CPU to facilitate some key network tasks, such as encryption.

Windows 2000 offers strong encryption capabilities--in fact it has integrated the IP Security Standard or IPsec to the OS. While this allows you to use Windows 2000 for a total end-to-end encryption of your LAN, for example, you have to sacrifice a bit of your CPU's performance.

"If you're running encryption, there will be degradation in the PC's performance. It's not a very big degradation. But if you want to improve the CPU's performance, with this card you can get 30 to 35 percent better performance, which is significant," said Kenneth Palacios, channel manager at 3Com Philippines.

In a data network like a LAN, information is broken down into and transmitted as packets. From the Random Access Memory (RAM), the data is sent to a user's PC, which then tries to break it down into packets. This, however, ties up some of your CPU's computing power that might otherwise be used for executing algorithms for mission-critical applications such as StarCraft.

With 3Com's NIC, the packetization process bypasses the CPU and is done by the NIC itself.

"The Ethernet packetization is offloaded and goes directly to the NIC," Palacios explained.

Think of it in terms of task delegation. For instance, in a newspaper, you could imagine an editor doing his own encoding, covering press conferences, writing articles, taking photos, lay-outing, proofreading and so on, in addition to, of course, editing. That's possible, and if the publication is small or just starting out that might actually be the case. But it makes more sense to delegate tasks to other people so that his "processing power" wouldn't be eaten up and he could focus on the bigger picture.

End-to-end encryption means processing the packets that are being transmitted through the network, meaning that the CPU must apply the algorithms to encrypt and decrypt. The NIC supports the 56-bit Data Encryption Standard. It actually supports 3DES or 168-bit, but this level of encryption is not allowed for export by the United States government for national security reasons. With the new NIC, Palacios said that desktop users can now have their cake and eat it too by enjoying security without degradation.

The NIC also includes 3Com's DynamicAccess technology to make these NICs "intelligent."

One obvious target industry is the financial sector, including banks and government financial institutions such as the Social Security System.

Palacios also cited the health care industry, pointing out, for instance, that the identity of people with AIDS should be protected from unauthorized use.

He, however, admitted that companies must also be willing to put a premium on security, as the new NIC is more expensive than existing ones. He said that if the suggested retail price for existing NICs is at around P2,500, then 3Com's product would retail at P4,000.