[c-nsp] Cheap 10G between 7600 and Procurve 5406zl

[Marian Ďurkovič]

On Wed, Mar 17, 2010 at 09:54:13AM +1100, Lincoln Dale wrote:
> from a switch design standpoint if you are designing a switch that could
> be used in many places in the network then reality is one probably needs
> to support multiple transceiver types if you want to address all 
> requirements.  nothing new here.

This is in fact very new and unwelcome development. By now, all tranceiver
types (be it GBICs, SFPs, XENPAKs, X2s or XFPs) were able to support whole
range of applications albeit not always from day one. And, as mentioned
before, they always had deterministic host-to-module interface which ensured
compatibility and exchangeability.

Datacentres certainly do have their specific requirements, but this hardly
justifies the recent hype and rush for SFP+ form factor. In fact, another
vendor was already bitten by this - they released SFP+ based linecards first
but based on customer feedback the same linecards appeared with XFP slots
several months later.

And as far as I heard, linecard with X2 slots is also planned for Nexus 7000
- although it's beyond my understanding why Cisco pushes this old XAUI-based
bulky form factor into the latest switch types... Or is XFP form factor
still banned on Cisco switching plaforms for business reasons ? 

   With kind regards,

        M.