Chip vendor VIA announced the network appliance board (NAB) 7500 chipset today, aiming specifically for inclusion in industrial grade network security systems.

The NAB 7500 has five gigabit Ethernet ports, four using PCI Express connections, which support LAN bypass, a USB wireless LAN interface, four serial ATA ports, serial ports

VIA said that the chipset was aimed at network security or gateway applications, such as unified threat management (UTM) appliances having onboard firewalls, anti-virus and intrusion prevention systems. Systems featuring standalone UTM features would also benefit from the chipset, said VIA.

The main processor powering any network hardware incorporating the chipset is the 1.5GHz VIA C7 processor and can use up to 3.5GB of 533/667MHz memory.