[c-nsp] LSR platforms

[Mark Tinka]

On 12/14/20 15:28, adamv0025 at netconsultings.com wrote:

> But another view point might be,
> With merchant silicon it's all about who has the biggest buying power (bigger lobby) right?
> For example: cisco says we need the capability to implement feature X in a single pass through the new chip, while juniper and arista says we need it in two passes via recirc. to spare chip resources for feature Z. -well in this example it's tough luck for cisco.
> And similarly I imagine this applies to all levels of the stack from actual chip architecture all the way to SDKs.
> If Cisco says screw this I'm going to design my own chip and always going o prioritize my own needs then consider needs of others (to an extent obviously), then I could see how Cisco box for role A powered by Cisco's own merchant silicon chip will either perform better or have richer feature set than a Cisco box for the same role A but powered by a comparable Broadcom chip.

For Cisco, Juniper and Nokia, Broadcom is a "me too" move, so they can 
put a foot in the door (and hopefully, sell you long enough to the point 
where you buy their own silicon).

For Arista, Arrcus, e.t.c., it's their bread & butter.

Mark.