[c-nsp] Some advice on switches....

[Pete Templin]

Chris Knipe wrote:

> What I am wondering, is how close to EOL is the 6500 series?  Those switches
> has been around for quite a while, and I see that certain models are already
> at EOL.  What could I possibly look at?  We don't require a massively fast
> backplane, nor long distance capabilities at this stage - frankly, the
> network would perform very well with the 2960s and 3560s as mentioned above
> - I am looking at a modular switch at this stage, purely from a pricing
> perspective.

Cisco and CDW did a series of lunch-n-learn sessions.  It's rather 
convenient working across the hall from Cisco!  At a LAN switching L&L 
nearly a year ago, the Cisco SE mentioned that the 6500 series is 
road-mapped through 2015.  I found some other "External Update" document 
that shows a lifecycle that touches 2020 (that could be EOL in 2015 plus 
the standard five years of support beyond EOL).  That "chronology" shows 
2010 being a "Big Bang" with a Sup-2T, a PFC4 (Earl 8), and 40G 
interfaces.  Mid-2011 shows EARL9 and some other acronyms.  Somewhere 
between 2012 and 2020 it mentions 40G/100G interfaces.

So, I think there's more to come...

pt