[c-nsp] Cat6500 Sup1440

[Bill Wichers]

> I would expect there are limits to the existing "passive"(*)
> design which would require some signficant rework/rethink for
> the generation after the Sup1440 (or whatever they will be
> called) if that next-next generation takes the leap in
> performance we will all then expect (something like line
> rate 10Gb/sec on some mythical 48 port card - A Sup7800?).
>
> Gary
>
> (*) Nothing entirely passive.

It might be entirely passive, but traces on PC boards have certain
electrical characteristics that will limit signalling rate, as do the
connectors. Also, I seem to recall that the 6000 watt power supply is
about as much power as the chassis can handle, and faster blades would
probably need a beefier power supply which would need a new chassis. The
power density would probably be pretty insane for that... A lot of the
power draw would probably just be to run all the fans :-)

I don't see us needing terabit+ switches for a while, but I think as
optical networks push out closer to end users and the end user connect
speeds to the WANs increase to 10+ Mb/s we will start to see the need.

     -Bill


*****************************
Waveform Technology
Systems Engineer