[c-nsp] Cisco N540-ACC-SYS ipv4 routes

[James Bensley]

On Mon, 13 Jul 2020 at 09:01, Mark Tinka <mark.tinka at seacom.com> wrote:
>
>
>
> On 13/Jul/20 09:20, Saku Ytti wrote:
>
> > But if that is a strict definition, then we don't really have ASICs
> > outside really cheap switches, as there is some programmability in all
> > new stuff being released. So I'm not sure what the correct definition
> > is.
>
...
> Since that time, we've asked routers to do more things beyond simple IP
> packet forwarding, which has required those chips to evolve more into
> NPU's than ASIC's. I'd say from around the ASR1000, MX and later, is
> when we saw this shift.
>
> So I agree with you that outside of classic Ethernet switches today, if
> we have to be pedantic about what an ASIC is, we don't see them in
> today's kit anymore.

Back in the 7600s it was NPU based, and what we call NPUs today are
sometimes a collection of ASICs that form a "complex of ASICs". That
is what powered the 7600, the NP3C NPU. 7600s used a group of ASICs
working together to perform forwarding lookups, buffering, backplane
sending/receiving etc.

That's what we have in Juniper Trio / Cisco ASR9K  / Nokia FPs too, a
bunch of devices, often ASICs working together. So I don't think that
we have no ASICs like in the classic Ethernet switch you mention, but
we have groups of them now with other components too, forming
something more complex.

Cheers,
James.