[c-nsp] sup2T software & release notes have hit

[Nick Hilliard]

On 13/07/2011 09:45, Phil Mayers wrote:
> The explanation "back in the day" was that Cisco had a lot of customers
> wanting to run 10gig over old multimode fibre, and thus needed the LX4
> transceiver which required a physically bigger housing to fit all the bits
> into. I wonder if that's still their reasoning for X2?

Being a XENPAK, X2 uses XAUI instead of XFI, which means that XAUI client
side transceivers (e.g. lx4, cx4, etc) need a serdes if you want to run
them on XFP.  Obviously, a serdes takes up space, which an XFP doesn't
have, but I guess if it's a CX4 interface you'll need to build external
housing anyway, which could hold the serdes.  So you end up with ugly
beasts like this:

http://www.equip-u.com/shop/images/products_computers/stc_XFP-CX4.jpg

Maybe some cisco designers just like X2?  Maybe Cisco have lots of
experience with X2 and the architectural move to XFI interfaces would mean
board redesigns?   Difficult to tell really.  I have to say that as a
customer, I view X2 as a serious barrier to buying certain types of cisco
kit, and am frankly astounded that they are still pushing out new board
designs which use this format.  Bizarre.

Nick,
working in an X2-free environment