is the ASA a true hardware solution?

in the context of the never ending debates related to software/hardware firewalls...


i was looking inside of our newest 5580,   it appears to be a standard HP server box (DL585)  with a hardware encryption accelerator option card inserted into a pci slot.  everything else appears to be verbatim to what you would receive from HP if you ordered their high end x86 server box.

should one not have any sort of encryption needs,  would this box considered a software firewall?    I couldn't find one custom asic,  module  or other chip with a cisco brand stamp on it,  beyond the flash.


thanks!

-g



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