The IXP2800 can do line-rate 10gbps
http://download.intel.com/design/network/ProdBrf/27905403.pdf
Here's one more link that explains the IXP series architecture
http://www.cs.uiuc.edu/homes/luddy/PROCESSORS/IXP2850.pdf
(basically, all the OP on Rededit was saying, was he's the guy that
writes the microengine code) .. the processors themselves aren't
capable of realtime brute-force decryption ... but they are the sort of
thing that can look for signatures/keywords/etc in a stream and act upon
it at wire-speed.
As for breaking encryption, this would be a task better suited for a
large farm of purpose-programmed FPGAs, since I'm not aware of any
commercially-produced ASIC that does this (although the NSA does list
jobs for "semiconductor fabrication", so I'm sure they're in that game).
IIRC the Russians had purpose-built their own ASICs to break DES when it
was en-vouge .. I'm sure our side of the pond actively does the same.
Sneakier mice, better mousetraps.
Lather, rinse, repeat.
while().
Cheers,
Michael Holstein
Cleveland State University
