[c-nsp] Catalyst vs. Nexus

[Nick Hilliard]

On 09/09/2009 11:58, Todd, Douglas M. wrote:
> So the 6500 is EARL7 and mpls runs in the ASIC, guess I don' understand the
> difference between the EARL7 and EARL8.   Thought mpls on the 6500 was also
> hardware is this why the 7K earl 8 does not completely support mpls like the
> 6500?

It's a software thing, I understand.  The N7K is pitched as a data centre 
switch rather than a WAN system, so maybe it makes some sense from the 
point of view of a product development manager not to implement full mpls 
for the time being.

 > Besided the idea of the 7K being a 6500 killer... :)

Well, sort of.  It's TCAM limited to 128k FIB entries which is very low, 
although I understand that it supports netflow properly, which is a real 
improvement.

> Why did they not make the 7K support pvst+ if the 5K supports it?

Heh, no idea :-)

Nick