[c-nsp] Which Router to replace a 7206 VXR400?

[Garry]

Hi,

I'm kind of running into some problems with one of our border routers 
... 7206 VXR NPE400 w/ 256M memory ... I'm looking into selecting a 
replacement for it ...

At the moment, it's running a GE for the LAN connection, 100M uplink w/ 
full BGP4, second uplink to DECIX (currently 100M, potentially to be 
update to GE some time Q1-Q2 06). It's getting another iBGP full link 
from our second border router (12410), plus lots of OSPF routes (many 
/28-/32 routes) from several gateway routers. Throughput/processor load 
isn't much of an issue (at least according to our cricket overview - 
usually ~20% CPU load). Free memory has dropped drastically after 
installing the new IOS (12.2(25)T) in September, from 25M free to 3-5M 
(yuck!). Having the ability to add an OC3 module or two, maybe even STM4 
would be nice but not a show-stopper.

So, what's the options? The NPE takes up to 512M (which will most likely 
be the short term solution), but what other small-footprint (read: not a 
half rack monster as our 12k ;) ) router would you suggest? 3800 is nice 
but seems a bit of a dead-end (especially with it using the NM's) ...

Tnx, Garry