Frequency, cache and memory bus frequency are the most important things for speed. You need to get the packets to the CPU, and back out quickly.
On 2012 Jun 28 (Thu) at 10:50:28 -0700 (-0700), Joe S wrote: :I'm looking to build a new mini-itx firewall based on OpenBSD and :would like to get some advice on CPU selection. I've seen multiple :statements on this list that indicate CPU cache and CPU speed are the :most important factors. Sorry if this is a silly question, but which :cache is most useful for what I'm trying to do? L1, L2, or L3? What's :more important from a CPU point of view? I don't have a specific :amount of throughput that I'm targeting. I'm very curious as to what :kind of differences I'm likely to see. : :By the way, the two CPU's I'm looking at are: : :Intel Atom D2500 (on Intel D2500CC motherboard) :Frequency (MHz): 1867 :L1 cache: 32 KB (code) / 24 KB (data) :L2 cache: 1024 KB :L3 cache: none : :Intel G620 (on Intel S1200KP motherboard) :Frequency (MHz): 2600 :L1 cache: 64 KB (code) / 64 KB (data) :L2 cache: 512 KB :L3 cache: 3072 KB : :The cache numbers are very different on these CPUs. :(both boards are mini-itx and have dual intel gigabit nics) : -- There are very few personal problems that cannot be solved through a suitable application of high explosives.
