The Cisco PIX Security Appliance 500 series scales to meet a range
of requirements and network sizes. It currently consists of the following five
models: 
- The PIX 501 Security Appliance has an integrated 10/100BASE-T port
(100BASE-T option available in release 6.3) and an integrated four-port 10/100
switch.
- The PIX 506E Security Appliance has dual integrated 10/100BASE-T ports
(100BASE-T option available in release 6.3 for 506E only).
- The PIX 515E Security Appliance supports single-port or four-port 10/100
Ethernet cards.
- The PIX 525 Security Appliance supports single-port or four-port 10/100
Fast Ethernet and Gigabit Ethernet.
- The PIX 535 Security Appliance supports Fast Ethernet and Gigabit Ethernet.
The PIX 515E, 525, and 535 Security Appliance models come with an integrated
virtual private network (VPN) Accelerator (VAC) card.
A network administrator will choose a model depending on the network
requirements. Larger models offer more features, as shown in Figure
, but
they are more expensive.
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NOTE:
At the introduction of PIX Operating System version 7.0, the PIX 501,
PIX 506, and PIX 506E models do not support the new software.
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