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Random Access XML (RAX) enables network switch, server, blade, and appliance vendors to create a variety of new applications such as gigabit message classification and routing, high transaction rate publish and subscribe systems, advanced SOAP message processing, high performance XML security firewalls and real-time telecommunications billing solutions. "Content inspection of XML formatted messages and documents at wire speed is a vital goal that must be reached to enable commercial-grade, end-to-end XML transaction processing," said Randy Smerik, president and CEO, Tarari, Inc. "DOM and SAX have each brought great advances to the XML world and now RAX builds on that to dramatically improve network security, eliminate network bottlenecks, and deliver completely new, highly efficient XML-based applications to the marketplace." Why is RAX important? The most efficient way, up until the present time, to process XML has been to use one of two programming interfaces: DOM or SAX, but these software-based approaches simply don't scale. RAX on the other hand utilizes W3C standards-based XPath queries which are fast becoming the most popular way to decode and route XML documents. Today's method of parsing using XPaths involves sequentially processing each XPath query -- but this is also way too slow and compute-intensive to be practical in large-scale solutions. The Tarari RAX Content Processor eliminates this barrier by enabling the simultaneous processing of very large groups of XPath queries at over 100 million XPaths per second thus offloads compute-intensive tasks from the main processor. RAX enables gigabit-level XPath processing -- something unattainable using software. The core technology enabling RAX is Tarari's Simultaneous XPath engine which offers remarkable performance characteristics that place it in a league of its own: -- Simultaneous XPath produces results directly from the input XML document, whereas DOM or SAX-based systems need to create an in-memory representation of the document -- Simultaneous XPath is vastly faster than any software-based XPath engines (e.g., Saxon, Xalan, libxml) -- Simultaneous XPath's performance is insensitive to the number of XPaths in an evaluation group and the complexity of the XPath expressions -- Simultaneous XPath handles XML namespaces and namespace prefixing on the fly without pre-scanning and declaration of prefixes -- Simultaneous XPath execution time increases linearly with the file size, without any performance degradation and without memory thrashing Tarari, working closely with industry leaders and influencers focused on XML solutions, is proposing that RAX be accepted as an industry-standard just as DOM and SAX have garnered many supporters within the W3C community. "Our new 2400 series products will shake up the Web services security industry and further strengthen our leadership position," said Glenn Osaka, CEO and president of Reactivity. "With the first XML firewall to incorporate Tarari's hardware accelerated RAX Content Processor; we are committed to provide our customers with the broadest range of options to help them achieve instant and sustainable XML Web services security." According to ZapThink, LLC, a Massachusetts-based research firm focused on XML and Web services, the amount of XML traffic on the Internet is already nearly equal to the amount of email traffic, and will grow to four times the amount of email traffic by 2006. To ensure the integrity and security of these applications, all their XML messages must be thoroughly inspected and analyzed without significantly impacting network and system performance. Current generation XML security products will not be able to keep up with these growing demands without incorporating new technology to break this content processing bottleneck through acceleration. Availability OEMs, ISVs and corporate developers interested in evaluating the Tarari RAX Content Processor should purchase the Tarari XML/Web Services Development Kit which is available immediately and consists of two Tarari RAX Content Processors on PCI cards, Random Access XML Agents (plus Encryption/Decryption Agents) and API documentation. For more information and pricing contact info@tarari.com. For additional technical information, visit www.tarari.com/rax.